To understand this, we have to understand what it was the disciples, and by the sounds of tonight’s passage, a large number of the crowd, thought Jesus was going to do. They believed He was the Messiah, which He was, and they thought He was planning to set up a Kingdom, which He was, but they thought that this would be an earthly Kingdom. They thought that Jesus was going to go to Jerusalem and kick out the Roman armies and set up another Kingdom of Israel, bigger and better that the one we read about in the OT. Mark 11:1-11 is a story of messianic and nationalistic fervor, rather than real faith in Jesus.
We have entered Jerusalem, and with it the last week of Jesus life. Mark takes about a third of his Gospel telling us about the last five days of Jesus life, we’ll spend about ten weeks going through it. Mark 11 happens on Monday, and it’s important for a couple of reasons that we understand the timeline of Jesus last week. On Saturday Jesus arrives at the house of Mary and Martha, this is when he raised Lazarus from the dead, which you can read about in John 12. Then On Sunday the crowds come to Bethany to see this man raised from the dead, which brings us to Monday, which we read about this evening. On Tuesday He cursed the fig tree and returned to the temple, of Wednesday He confronted the religious leaders and preached about His second coming, on Thursday He celebrated Passover, and on Friday He was arrested. Why does a timeline of events really matter? Well, on the Monday of Passover week, the 10th of Nisan, the Passover lambs were selected and brought into the city, then they were killed on Friday, the 14th of Nisan. Jesus, the ultimate Passover lamb, entered the city on the 10th and was killed on the 14th. One more cool thing. Daniel 9:23-24 promises that it will be 483 years from the rebuilding of Jerusalem to the appearance of the Messiah. Jesus arrives in Jerusalem in the 483rd year after the walls were rebuilt! That’ll be important in our Sunday morning study in Revelation as well soon.
So let’s look at Jesus, and let’s look at the crowd and then
let’s look at us, and how we react when Jesus disappoints us. Verses 1-6 tell
us about the preparation, verses 7-10 tell us about the entry, and verse 11
tells us about the surprise.
So let’s look at verses 1-6, the preparation. What do we learn about Jesus? What does Mark
want us to think about ourselves? Jesus needs a colt, a small horse or donkey
to ride into the city, so He tells two of His followers to go and get it. Jesus
knows exactly what the owners of the colt will say when they see two men taking
their animal away, and gives the men an answer, ‘the Lord has need of it.’ This
is slightly ambiguous, but it seems to work, perhaps the men who owned the colt
were believers. Mark spends so much time in his introduction to the last week
of Jesus life, and goes into so much detail about it, because he wants us to
understand that Jesus is totally in control of everything that’s happening.
Sometimes you’ll hear people saying that the cross wasn’t the plan, but God
made the best of a bad situation. Sometimes you’ll hear people say that Jesus
didn’t know what was going to happen to Him in Jerusalem, or that He was a
victim of fate. Mark wants us to kill these ideas dead. Jesus knew where His
animal was, knew what the problem would be, and knew what His followers would
have to say to get it. Jesus is in control.
Remember that when you’re disappointed, when plans don’t go
your way. Remember that Jesus is totally in control. He hasn’t dropped the
ball, and He hasn’t forgotten you. He knew about the colt…His eye is on the
sparrow, and His eye is on you.
That’s the preparation, lets look at the entry itself in
verses 7-10. There’s so much detail and fulfilled prophecy in these verses!
First of all, Jesus rides a colt into the city to fulfill Zechariah 9:9. In
that verse the coming King is described as righteous and bringing salvation,
humble and riding on a donkey. Another prophecy about Jesus, Genesis 49:11
talks about the King who all nations would obey riding a donkey. That’s Jesus!
Cloaks are thrown on the road as a symbol of obedience to the King, and wave
palms as a symbol of rejoicing in the King. You see what I mean? This would
have been a noisy, joyful parade full of singing and dancing. People who were
coming to Jerusalem for Passover would have been carried away in this joy, the
Messiah was coming. And look at what they shouted in verse 9 and 10 READ.
Hosanna literally means ‘save’ or ‘save me now.’ It’s a shout of joy and praise
to God. The crowd call Jesus the one who comes in the name of the Lord, the one
who will take David’s throne.
Why does this happen? Because Jesus is in control. He knows
that by Friday He needs to be on the cross, so He needs to stir up the Jewish
leaders to do something. They had been slow to act their plan against Jesus so
far, but now, Jesus knows it’s time. The crowd welcome Jesus to Jerusalem as
the Messiah, as God’s warrior King who would set them free and rule for them.
They were delighted in Jesus and expectant of the great works He was about to
do. You’d expect verse 11 to be the start of a war wouldn’t you, a gathering of troops, people getting ready for war. But what happens? Jesus goes to the Temple, apparently alone, looks around, and then goes back to Bethany. What an anti climax. Parades are supposed to go somewhere aren’t they? There’s supposed to be a finish to them. It seems like Jesus just slips away, wanders into the temple and then goes home. There would have been about two million people in the city at this point, so he would have been able to disappear quite easily, but why?
Because He has a different plan from the crowd. They wanted victory, He’s going to die, they wanted an Earthly Kingdom, He’s going to establish a Heavenly one, they wanted praise, He offers them shame. Mark shows us Jesus going to the temple, alone, at the end of this huge parade, because He’s preparing us for what’s next, he’s preparing us for the cross. He’s preparing us to be disappointed.
In just a few days, from Monday to Friday, the crowd that rejoiced and shouted hosanna would revile and shout crucify. Jesus would disappoint the crowd so they would turn on Him. What will you do when Jesus disappoints you? When His plans aren’t your plans, what will you do? Will you turn your back on Him and cry ‘crucify’? or will you trust Him? If you don’t get the college, or the grade, or the job, or the girl that you want, what will you do? When life seems full of nothing but problems, when it seems like Jesus plan is not working, what will you do?
We must trust that Jesus is always doing something better.
The crowd and the disciples wanted an earthly Kingdom, but Jesus was doing
something better. You want things from your life right now, Jesus wants better
things for you. Probably harder things, definitely better things. When life
isn’t turning out the way you planned, will you trust Jesus? These are the two
options everyone has. You either give your whole life to Christ, asking Him to
be the King of your life and decisions, of your plans and your dreams, or you
crucify Him.
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