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Sermons

March 3, 2019

The Triumphal Entry

Jason Meyer | Mark 11:1-11

Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’” And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it. And some of those standing there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go.And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it.And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”

And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.—Mark 11:1–11

Introduction

I want to take you back to the first few verses of this Gospel by way of introduction. In verse 1, Mark, the author, opens with a testimony of faith: He confesses that Jesus is the Son of God (v. 1). The Son of God has come and now we know him by name: Jesus. He is Jesus the Christ or Messiah. The Messiah was a highly anticipated royal figure promised to the people of Israel. This King would be born in David’s line and he would rule over the nations with an everlasting kingdom. Mark also connects Jesus with the gospel. The gospel is not a mere proposition; it is about a person: Jesus. There would be no good news without Jesus. The name “Jesus” means “the Lord saves.” The good news of Jesus is the good news that Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection brings salvation to sinful humanity.

But remember that “gospel” or “Jesus” is not the first word in the Gospel. He begins with the word “beginning.” Why? Mark does not use the word in a sequential sense: “This is the first thing among many other things I am going to say.” He uses the word in the elevated sense of “origin.” The Bible opens with the beginning or the creation of the world (Genesis 1:1). This verse testifies to a new beginning or a new creation. The new creation comes with the coming of Jesus the Christ. This is an auspicious, epic beginning: the climactic moment when the divine Son of God comes into the world, takes on flesh, and dwells among his creation on earth as the promised Messiah, truly God and truly man.

And Mark does not say “take my word for it.” His words are confirmed through the prediction of the prophets in the Scriptures. He brings together the testimony of two prophets: Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3. These texts focus on the preparation that must precede the coming of Christ. Isaiah points to a singular voice crying in the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord. Malachi warns that God will send a messenger to prepare for the dreaded Day of the Lord.

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me.”—Malachi 3:1

We learn in the next few verses that this is a reference to John the Baptist. John (the promised Elijah) is preaching a baptism of repentance. The preparation reveals the problem with the people and the necessary response. The people are guilty of sin or rebellion against the Lord and must respond with repentance. It is significant that this preparatory work takes place in the wilderness. The Jordan River was the border between the Promised Land and the wilderness. It recalls the Exodus from Egypt when the people crossed over to the Promised Land. The wilderness introduces the note of a new beginning or a new Exodus. The Jews are slaves in their own land, but they are slaves to a far more powerful foe than the Romans: sin. 

What will happen when the preparation is done? John will prepare the way of the Lord. What will the Lord do when he comes? Let’s read the rest of Malachi 3:1.

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek [Jesus] will suddenly come to his temple and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?”—Malachi 3:1–2

In Mark 11, Jesus has come to Jerusalem. He is going to enter into the Temple. But the text will build to a quite unexpected surprise and shock.

  1. Preparations for the Entry (vv. 1–6)
  2. Triumphal Entry (vv. 7–10)
  3. Entry Into the Temple (v. 11)

1. Preparations for the Entry (vv. 1–6): His Colt

Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’ ” And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it. And some of those standing there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go.

We have the instructions of Jesus (vv. 2–3) and then an exact fulfillment of his words (vv. 4–6). Take note first of Jesus’ foreknowledge. First, he knows that there is a colt. He knows where it is and he even knows the history of the colt: no one has ever sat on it. Second, he tells the disciples exactly what is going to happen and what to say when it happens.

He has authority to do all of these things because he is the Lord. That is the ultimate answer: “the Lord has need of it” (v. 3). Why does he need the colt? Because the Scripture needs to be fulfilled. The Messiah is to ride into Jerusalem on a colt (Zechariah 9:9). This matches the message of Zechariah exactly.

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
     Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
     righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
     on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Furthermore, a king always had the prerogative to commandeer a beast of burden in ancient times (Edwards, Mark, p. 336). An unbroken beast of burden was regarded as sacred and especially fitting for a king (Numbers 19:2; Deuteronomy 21:3).

Now what should we make of these points? What is Mark trying to tell us about Jesus? Is he just really good at making educated guesses? For example, how did he know about the colt?

There is one important question that this text does not answer, and I believe it matters how we answer it. The question is, “How did Jesus know about the colt?” Some commentators assume that Jesus must have already been familiar with the area (perhaps he spent much more time in Jerusalem than Mark has portrayed).

With all due respect to these commentators, I believe that answer or assumption misses the point about the glory of Christ as the incomparable King in this text. Have we forgotten who Jesus is? Mark made it explicit already. He is the Son of God (Mark 1:1). He knows things that no one else can know. Remember the second chapter with the story of the paralytic? The Pharisees say, “in their hearts” that this guy is speaking blasphemy. And Jesus knows it. Jesus asks them why they were saying such things in their hearts (Mark 2:8). He shows them that he has authority to forgive sins—as if all sins are committed against him, and he can forgive them!

In the very first chapter of John’s Gospel, we learn that Jesus knows stuff in supernatural ways. Philip told Nathaniel about Jesus and said that he is the one that the Law and the Prophets have been predicting: Jesus of Nazareth. Philip is quite snarky:

Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”—John 1:46–51

He knew Nathanael was sitting under a fig tree—not because he snuck up on him and did reconnaissance on Nathaniel, but because he is God and he knows everything.

In this story, as in all of life, Jesus puts his finger on everything and says, “Mine.” Is he a king like this in your life? Can he command your obedience this way? He has every right as ruler, but are you saying “no” to your Lord? Jesus owns every person and every animal. He knows all things and owns all things and holds all things together in the world by the word of his power. There is none like him.

I was just watching a comparison between earth and the size of other planets like Jupiter. Then the video compared Jupiter with our sun. Then it compared the sun with the size of other stars. Then the video compared the size of those individual stars with the size of the galaxies and the known universe. Your head just starts spinning. Jesus holds all of that together by the word of his power. He knows the colt and his owner, and he is the Creator and Lord of the people and the animals and the temple and everything. He is the King. It looks like some people recognize this in the next part of the text.

2. Triumphal Entry (vv. 7–10): His Kingdom

And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!”

There are three kingly clues in this passage.

1. The Cloaks

Note that the people throw their outer garments on the ground. This also has kingly overtones because of 2 Kings 9:12–13.

And he said, “Thus and so he spoke to me, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord, I anoint you king over Israel.’ ” Then in haste every man of them took his garment and put it under him on the bare steps, and they blew the trumpet and proclaimed, “Jehu is king.”

2. Hosanna

The crowds quote from Psalm 118:25–26 ...

Save us, we pray, O Lord!
     O Lord, we pray, give us success!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
     We bless you from the house of the Lord. 

There are three notes of irony in verse 9. 

First, there is the meaning of the word, “Hosanna.” It means “O, Save us now!” Or as the translation is here of Psalm 118:25, “Save us, we pray, O LORD!” They were saying exactly the right thing, but they were not on the same page as Jesus (whose very name means “the Lord saves”). They certainly were not there repenting over their sins and asking the Lord to save them from their sins, but to save them from the Romans. They do not understand the salvation that the King is going to bring.

Second, one wonders if they really knew what they were saying when they exclaimed, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD.” The phrase has some ambiguity in Psalm 118. It could be a reference to people who come to the temple to worship: “Blessed is the worshipper who comes in the Lord’s name into the temple.” But Jesus is coming in the name of the Lord in a far greater sense because the reader knows from verse 3 that he is the Lord, and Yahweh has sent him.

Third, the quotation of this Psalm is highly ironic, because this same text (Psalm 118) predicts not just the coming of the Lord, but the rejection of the Lord. Jesus will use this text as an explanation for why he is rejected as a demonstration of the divine design (Mark 12:10–11).

The stone that the builders rejected
     has become the cornerstone.
This is the Lord’s doing;
    it is marvelous in our eyes.—Psalm 118:22–23

3. Blessed is the coming Kingdom of our father David’

The third royal clue is the phrase, “the coming kingdom of our father David.” This phrase does not come from Psalm 118, but it removes all doubt concerning what the crowd is saying. This is the Messiah, the King in David’s line, and he has come in the name of the Lord to re-establish the Lord’s rule and reign like God promised David. They were joining in that expectation and crying out for Jesus to save them.

But there understanding of salvation was a misunderstanding. Jesus came to a people that believed salvation meant the Messiah would come and destroy the people oppressing them. They would be saved (liberated from political oppression) and the oppressors would be destroyed. They did not view the Gentiles as those who would receive salvation—but destruction.

They expected him to judge the nations and save them. But they never would have expected that he would judge them and save the nations. That is why the next verse feels like such an anti-climax.

3. Entry Into the Temple (v. 11): His Temple

And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

Why did he go to the temple? Because that is what prophecy said he would do. We already heard the prophecy from Malachi 3:1

Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me [Elijah – i.e., John the Baptist]. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple [that is Jesus].

Why did he go? Answer: to fulfill prophecy. But what was he looking for? The previous story gives us the answer.

On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And he said to it, “May no one ever eat from you again.” And his disciples heard it.—Mark 11:12–14

He was looking for the fruits of repentance, but they were not there. John the Baptist proclaimed not just a baptism of repentance, but the need to bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Jesus did not find it. That is the point of this passage: Jesus is not looking for cheering fans, but for fruit in keeping with repentance.

The surprise of the text is the anti-climatic ending. He looks around the temple and leaves. One is left wondering, where did the crowds go? Mark puts a different emphasis on this story than Matthew and John. My favorite commentator on Mark gets it just right.

This text is traditionally called the Triumphal Entry. That is an appropriate designation for Matthew 21:1–11 and John 12:12–19, but scarcely for Mark. Matthew says, “The whole city was stirred and asked, ‘Who is this?’” (21:10). Luke reports that the city was so electrified that the stones were ready to cry out (19:40). Mark’s account is noteworthy for what did not happen. The whole scene comes to nothing. Like the seed in the parable of the sower that receives the word with joy but has no root and lasts but a short time (4:6, 16–17), the crowd disperses as mysteriously as it assembled. Mark is warning about mistaking enthusiasm for faith and popularity for discipleship. Jesus is not confessed in pomp and circumstance but only at the cross (15:39).[1] 

In other words, Mark continues his theme of the hiddenness or veiled-ness or blindness of unbelief. The blindness will not be removed until the cross and the Resurrection. 

One popular story says that G.K. Chesterton once wrote into a newspaper and answered the question, “What is wrong with the world?” in a very pointed way. He wrote: “Sir, I am.” Others are now pointing out that Chesterton gave that answer in a book, not in response to a newspaper editor, but it still gets the point across! What is missing in this story is a repentant people who do not look around them and say the problem is the Romans, but “the problem is me.” I need a Savior for my sins.

Unbelievers: Are you ready to stop approaching God like a cosmic vending machine who thinks, “If only I had more of this, or less of this, or help with this, then I would be happy”? You need eyes to see that your sin is the problem. Jesus came and bled and died to save you from your sins. If you cry out to him “Hosanna—O, please save me!” he will save you today.

One of the things that struck me in preparation for this sermon was that I was looking outside of myself and focusing there. I had come to the point where I thought, “Lord, if you would only change that person or deal with that issue.” But I came to see again that my focus needed to be on my sin. As I became most troubled about my sin, I began to rejoice in Jesus and his salvation more than ever.

Believers, how about you? What has your focus become? When Jesus comes to his church in Revelation 1–3, his message is always the same: “Repent.” Have we left our first love? Have other things become more attractive? Has our attention shifted elsewhere? May God pour out grace upon us to be a repentant people!

After communion we will sing “Is He Worthy.” We will look to the time when he will come again and there will be no hiddenness. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that he is Lord.

______

[1] James Edwards, Mark, p. 338.

Sermon Discussion Questions

Outline

  1. Preparations for the Entry (Mark 11:1–6)
  2. Triumphal Entry (Mark 11:7–10)
  3. Entry into the Temple (Mark 11:11)

Main Point: Jesus is not looking for cheering fans, but for fruit in keeping with repentance.

Discussion Questions

  • What does the Old Testament say about why Jesus needs the colt?
  • How does Jesus know about the colt?
  • What are the three clues for Jesus’ kingship in verses 7–10?
  • What are the three notes of irony in verse 9?
  • Why does Jesus go to the temple in verse 11? What was he looking for?

Application Questions

  • Jesus puts his finger on everything in the universe and says, “mine.” What parts of your life are resistant to that Lordship? Pray against that disconnect between calling Jesus “Lord” and living under him as Lord.
  • Does your life bear fruit in keeping with repentance?
  • What aspect of this sermon ministered to you most or convicted you most? What aspect of this sermon do you need to share with someone in your life? Will you share it?

Prayer Focus
Pray for a grace to bear fruit in keeping with repentance and to joyfully live under the Lordship of Christ.