Palm Sunday is often imagined as a peaceful scene: palm branches waving, cloaks on the road, crowds cheering. But Matthew tells us something important that we might easily miss. When Jesus entered Jerusalem, “the whole city was in turmoil.”

Jesus is entering the most troubled place in the world, then and certainly today. It is a place of struggle, conflict and confrontation. In Jesus time it had a history of killing the prophets, fighting wars, and living in violence. It is a place in turmoil. And that is because very often, the human heart is a place of turmoil. Even for those of us with faith. 

Perhaps that is surprising to us, because we often think of faith as something that should make life calm and comfortable. We hope that following Jesus will smooth the road, settle the storms, and make everything tidy. 

But the truth is that when Jesus enters our lives, he does, and should bring turmoil. 

Not because he wants chaos — but because he wants renewal. A re-orientation of our faces turning towards God. In your minds eye, see the crop fields around is in winter, soil broken apart, ugly unsettled lumps of dark earth, and now see them in spring, green, rejuvenated and renewed. 

No wonder we call Jesus the gardener of our hearts - the gardener knows that unless the soil is broken apart, disturbed, ugly for a while, nothing new will grow. 

He gently exposes the habits that hold us back. He challenges the assumptions we have lived with for years. He invites us to forgive when we would rather hold on to resentment. He calls us to trust when we would rather stay safe. 

And when that happens, we can feel in turmoil, unsafe, exposed vulnerable. 

But the turmoil that Jesus brings is never pointless. It is always for the sake of realigning our hearts with God’s life and hope. 

If given a choice I suspect most of us would prefer a domesticated Jesus; one who brings peace and security, one who makes life easy and happy, and we have all heard many sermons about the gentle, loving Jesus. That is not what Jesus is all about. Jesus is the Saviour not a superhero. He has been bringing turmoil from the day he was born. 

His life, his teaching, his behaviour all caused turmoil. Palm Sunday is no exception. Today the whole city is in turmoil. 

Immediately after Jesus enters Jerusalem he goes to the temple bringing more turmoil. He drives out those who were buying and selling the way to God. He overturns the tables and chairs of those who acted as gatekeepers to God. 

The turmoil of Palm Sunday points to the deeper mystery of Jesus’ identity and leaves us asking, “Who is this?” 

He is not sweet baby Jesus of Christmas card fame. He is the man of turmoil. His turmoil is life-giving and God-revealing. The turmoil he brings calls our life into alignment with God’s gift to us of abundant life, should we choose to accept it. If we can sit with being disturbed in our hearts, if we can sit with life being ugly for a while, it we can trust him even when we are broken apart, a new life will be born in us. He truly will restore the years the locusts have eaten, to quote the prophet Joel. Jesus entry into Jerusalem ushers in a Holy Week of turmoil; calling us to a radical and un-worldly re-orientation of our face towards His. The turmoil Jesus brings is the turmoil out of which new life will be born on Easter Sunday.