In two days, we will remember Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem as we begin our journey through Holy Week. I love how this poem locates that story within my heart. So often, I am willing to follow Jesus when it is easy or thrilling. Like the crowds who shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” I enthusiastically follow until I see “the reversal he is bringing” — what Jesus really asks of me. While especially appropriate for this season, this poem offers me words I must pray every day. “Jesus come. Break my resistance and make me your home.”
Palm Sunday
Now to the gate of my Jerusalem,
The seething holy city of my heart,
The saviour comes. But will I welcome him?
Oh crowds of easy feelings make a start;
They raise their hands, get caught up in the singing,
And think the battle won. Too soon they’ll find
The challenge, the reversal he is bringing
Changes their tune. I know what lies behind
The surface flourish that so quickly fades;
Self-interest, and fearful guardedness,
The hardness of the heart, its barricades,
And at the core, the dreadful emptiness
Of a perverted temple. Jesus come
Break my resistance and make me your home.
“From Sounding the Seasons, by Malcolm Guite, Canterbury Press 2012”