There is both an outer and an inner Christianity, both the outer, public, visible life - and the inner, the hidden, the secret life... the invisible life, that which is unseen but is the reality and the meaning of that which is seen.  We have but to recall our Lord's words, (earlier in Lent) from the Sermon on the Mount, on giving in secret, praying in secret, fasting in secret, to appreciate the importance of the secret, the hidden, the inner life.  Then there is that whole Orthodox tradition and emphasis on the hidden, unseen, secret life - the monks and hermits, for examples, unseen by the multitudes and yet at the very heart of the Church…   This week, Holy Week, I want to consider the inner that gives meaning to and is the reality of the outer.

The outer aspect of Palm Sunday is the entrance into Jerusalem.  So many who saw that outer, only understood in part the inner meaning (and some understood it not at all).  Some at least understood that this was the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed – come to deliver them.  But they thought in terms of deliverance from Rome...  How utterly inadequate is that view, how far it falls short - for both the deliverance and the Deliverer were far greater, far beyond any such hopes.  He had come to deliver more than Israel and from something far mightier than Rome.  This Deliverer had come to deliver us from death and from the devil and from sin.

Some at least, maybe many, did see the king entering His capital city Jerusalem... then would come His coronation and His enthronement.  And where is this coronation and enthronement recorded in the Bible?  It is recorded no less than four times - it is recorded in each of the Gospels.

On Good Friday they dressed the King of kings and Lord of lords in a purple robe, placed a reed (as a sceptre) in His hand, and made a crown of thorns and forced it down upon His head.  You may object that this was an act of sin and mockery.  I deny it not: it was mockery, it was sin.  But our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ did not refuse it; He did not reject it.  He accepted it.

And then following His coronation, they enthroned Him, they set Him on His throne.  "Christ is our victorious king, not in spite of the crucifixion" writes Bishop Kallistos Ware, "but because of it."  In the words of an earlier Orthodox bishop Saint John Chrysostom: "I call Him king, because I see Him crucified."

If only we had eyes to see!  To look beyond the outer, visible horror and to see the inner meaning: the King of Love (for as Saint John the Apostle teaches us "God is love"), the King of Love reigning in triumph and splendour on the most glorious throne that ever was in the whole high history of the universe.  This is why we beautify the cross – such as on our vestments, our robes, or our blessing crosses we hold in our hands, or our processional crosses we hold aloft…  It is to remind us that we may ever see the beauty and the glory of it all.  Yes, it is pain and anguish but that is the way He Who Is Love hath triumphed for us