This morning begins a long section of the Gospel of Mark which ends with the death and resurrection of Jesus. I’m titling this sub-series, “The End is Near”. There is a double meaning in that title, which you’ll see as we work through this section. At the end of this Gospel we see the end of many things. Certainly, we see the end of Jesus’s life – though not for long. But, his death is also the ending of many other things. It is the end of the sacrificial system. It is the end of the Old Covenant. It is the beginning of the end of every rule and authority besides his own. All of those ends are presaged in the end of this Gospel. This end begins with Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. To see that, let’s read Mark 11:1-11. From this text, see three points: The Procession of the King, the Proclamation of the King, and the Pronouncement of the King.
First, from verses 1-6, see the Procession of the King. As Jesus nears Jerusalem, he comes to the Mount of Olives. He will set up his base of operations for his final week of ministry here for good reason, which we will get to later. After setting up camp there, he sends two of his disciples into town to find a very specific thing – a donkey colt on which no one has ever ridden. This command is strange for a number of reasons. For one, he requests this colt, which would have been all but useless. A colt that had never been ridden would not be broken for riding. It would also be small and unable to bear much of a burden. And, if this was Jesus’s grand entry into Jerusalem as the Messiah, this wouldn’t be all that impressive. The command was also strange because Jesus effectively directs them to just take the donkey. And, in case they meet with any resistance in taking it, he gives them instructions on what to say: tell them “The Lord has need of it.” Stranger yet is the fact that the disciples go to the town and find everything just as Jesus had said. There is the donkey colt, tied up waiting. When they take it, the owners come out and ask why. They answer, “The Lord has need of it,” and the owners are like, “OK, cool!”
What is going on here? Jesus is very intentionally setting the stage to announce to all the world that he is the promised Messiah. To us, all of seems strange and unfamiliar, but to the Jews, this would have been as clear as day. First, it was clear to his disciples that he was in full control of the coming events. He knew the exact place where the colt would be. He knew that it had never been ridden. He knew that the owners were believers that would offer it gladly. Jesus, as the sovereign Son of God had so orchestrated this moment that it all fit together just as he commanded. Second, the colt itself signaled that he was the promised Messiah. The ancient kings of Israel entered Jerusalem on donkeys to signify their peaceful reign. In 1 Kings 1:33, Solomon rides into Jerusalem on his father’s mule. This colt also fulfilled prophecy, as we read earlier, from Zech. 9:9, that the Messiah would enter Jerusalem on a donkey colt. Third, this colt was a symbol of ritual purity. In the OT, animals that had never been used for ordinary work were designated for sacred purposes. This signifies that the work Jesus has come to do is sacred.
Next, from verses 7-9, see the Proclamation of the King. Jesus gets on the colt and begins to ride it into Jerusalem, and as he comes through the gates of the city, his disciples and the crowds begin cutting branches and waving them, laying them in his path along with their cloaks. This was a common practice with ancient peoples when a king returned from a victory, or when a conquering king was greeted by those he delivered. It was also a practice of the Jews during the Feast of Tabernacles, symbolizing their hope for the coming Messiah. So, the people now do this for Jesus to celebrate what they assume will be his coming victory over the Romans and his inauguration as the Messiah.
They don’t just announce his rule with their symbolism, though. They outright proclaim it. They cry out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” This proclamation is a direct quote from Psalm 118:24-25, which was a Messianic psalm that called on the Messiah for deliverance. Hosanna means “Save us, now.” As Psalm 118 says, “Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” They also proclaim, “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David.” This is a callback to the promise that God made to David in 2 Sam. 7:12-16. There, God promised that David would always have a descendant on the throne of Israel, and one of his descendants would rule over the whole earth. Now, the crowds recognize that Jesus is that promised descendant and welcome his coming kingdom.
There is great expectation and hope with all of this symbolism and exclamation. Jesus is very clearly announcing himself as the Messiah, and the people are clearly receiving him as such. But something is a bit off, and we get a hint of that in verse 11. This leads me to my final point, “The Pronouncement of the King.” In verse 11 we are told that Jesus entered the temple, looked around at everything, and then left back to Bethany. Why is this detail here. Well, as we work through this sub-series, locations will become very important. You will find that there is a constant back and forth between the Mount of Olives, in Bethany, and the temple, in Jerusalem. Jesus will constantly leave one to go to the other. In the temple, he will meet fraud, opposition, and ultimately judgment. At the mount of Olives he will have rest, discipleship, and prayer. These two places stand in stark contrast for a reason. In the OT, there is this great drama that unfolds of the glorious presence of the Lord dwelling with his people in the tabernacle and the temple. This glory of the Lord was visible to the people, descending on these sacred places in smoke and thunder. The Israelites knew that the Lord was with them because his presence was seen. But, Israel lived in sin. They did not keep God’s law, and they chased after other gods. So, the Lord finally judged them. The last time we read of the glory of God filling the temple is in Ezekial. In Ezekial 11, Ezekial tells of a vision he had of the glory of God leaving the temple. Verses 22-23 say, “The glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain that is on the east side of the city [that is, the Mount of Olives]”. The glory of God would not return for the rest of the OT. But, in Ezekial 43, there is a promise that, one day, the glory would return. It says, “Then he led me to the gate facing east. And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the east… as the glory of the Lord entered the temple by the gate facing east… and behold, the glory of the Lord filled the temple.” Ezekial foresaw a day when the glory of the Lord would come from the east, the direction of Bethany and the Mount of Olives, through the gates of Jerusalem and fill the temple again. And we read in Mark 11 that Jesus, the very Word of God, God with us, rides into the east gate of the city, and were does he go? He goes to the temple. The glory of God had returned to the temple.
But there is sadness in his return. He walks into the temple, looks around at everything going on there, and then he leaves. Just as soon as the glory of God returned, it left again. As we work through this series, we will gradually understand more of why that is. For now, understand this: Jesus Christ has come to bring victory, but not in the way that we’d expect. We think that victory comes by defeating our enemies and lording over them. But Jesus came to serve and die for our sins. We think that victory is in having perfect health and never facing difficulty in life. Jesus came with the promise of tribulation, but also the hope of eternal life through his resurrection. Victory in Jesus means and end to our old life and finding a new way in him. It means dying to self and finding our meaning in him.
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