This coming Sunday is Palm Sunday. We celebrate the entrance of Christ into Jerusalem. It is remembering his triumphal entry, then entering a week of reflection as we head toward the Cross.

The expectation when Jesus entered Jerusalem was probably enormous. There was a lot of talk and a lot of hope.

But when Jesus comes, it may not be ALL “good news” as WE would define “good news.”

First, he attacks an innocent tree.

¹² The next day, after leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. ¹³ From far away, he noticed a fig tree in leaf, so he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing except leaves, since it wasn’t the season for figs. ¹⁴ So he said to it, “No one will ever again eat your fruit!” His disciples heard this. (Mark 11:12-14, CEB)

More than a lesson on “faith,” it is a visual lesson concerning what he is about to do: enter the Temple and ransack it. Israel was bankrupt. It was time to toss some tables and let religious leaders know they looked like they had fruit… but they were barren.

Sometimes when Jesus comes we just may not like it. He comes to get things straight. We may not like his version of “getting things right.”

One of my favorite preachers is Mark Rutland, president of Oral Roberts University. I heard him at a pastors retreat several years ago. He told the story of pastoring a large church in Florida in the 1980s when the big names of Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggert were embarrassing the American church. One time he was asked why he wasn’t saying much at the time. He was influential, had a large church, and certainly didn’t lack opinions.

The reason he didn’t give much of an opinion, he said, was “Jesus was coming through the garden of church pruning things with a chainsaw. I’m just this tiny twig holding on for dear life!”

It was a great perspective.

We need to take measure of what kind of life WE are living… and then conclude we may not always like it when Jesus shows up.