Step 34

Mark 11:1-11 Triumphal Entry

About Mark: Jesus has now reached Jerusalem, where Mark himself lived. Mark's purpose is served by selecting events along the road of a single journey from Galilee to the national capital. The time covered is not stated. In fact it is masked by Mark's sense of immediacy seen in his frequent use of "immediately", occurring 27 times, including 10:52, 11:2, 11:3.

Mark has shown how Jesus began in the provincial regions of Galilee and progressively moved to the hub of Judaism at Jerusalem. Because of earlier settlement by transported migrants, Galilee was known as Galilee of the Nations (or Gentiles, Isaiah 9:1), so Mark is deliberate in showing the Gospel of Jesus applies equally to distant peoples as to heartland Jews.

From John's Gospel with its three or four references to annual Passover festivals, we know that the public ministry of Jesus likely spanned three years with various visits to Jerusalem.

Now Mark allocates six chapters (11-16) to this last climactic week in Jerusalem. At a later stage, Mark will report the Twelve shifting into a base in the city in Mark's own house; also using a pre-arranged signal (14:12-13) similar to the sign with the colt (11:7). In the meantime, as on previous visits Jesus and the Twelve are staying with Mary and Martha in Bethany (11) a good walk to the north-east beyond the Mount of Olives.

Bible: Mark 11:1-11, Jesus' Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem
1 When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples 2 and said to them, "Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. 3 If anyone says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' just say this, 'The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.'" 4 They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it, 5 some of the bystanders said to them, "What are you doing, untying the colt?" 6 They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it. 7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. 8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. 9 Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, "Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!" 11 Then 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.

Comment: TRIUMPHAL ENTRY
This popular title for the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem tends to give the wrong impression. Triumph is predicted, but this visit is for suffering. 

The palm leaves, the clothes laid on the ground for a king, the shouted quotation of Zechariah 9:9 all have overtones of triumph: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter
Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he..." But the final phrase "... humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey ..." sends an altogether different signal. 

Jesus has repeatedly spoken of his suffering in Jerusalem. In the kingdom of God triumph is the outcome of suffering; so although suffering is a portent of triumph, this visit shall be much more about suffering than triumph. 

After getting the arrangements for the colt so perfectly synchronised (11:2-6), verse 11 gives the impression that the procession got to the temple late; and everyone had to go home without the expected celebration. "Then 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." But like the colt, not yet grown to maturity, the mission of the Messiah was not yet at maturity. Triumph only follows suffering.

Militancy has marred the church's history throughout the ages. The 12th Century crusades to deliver Jerusalem from the Moors conflict dramatically with the nature of Jesus' entry to Jerusalem demonstrated here. And modern Christian crusaders can be equally offensive and opposed to the spirit of Jesus. We have seen the proneness of James and John to ambition, admirably zealous for Jesus but raw and confused. And Luke reports another incident where the brothers propose to call down thunderbolts on Samaritans unready to receive Jesus (Luke 9:51-56). Jesus rebuked them, and some texts include the words, "You do not know what spirit you are of, for the Son of Man has not come to destroy the lives of human beings but to save them." That illustrates why Jesus named them, "Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder" (Mark 3:17).

But the incidents of this final week are transforming. John becomes later known as the "Apostle of Love," illustrated by his Gospel of John, and Epistles - 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John, with love as their theme. And John’s brother James (not to be confused with a later significant James, the brother of Jesus) was a prominent early Apostle who suffered and died for Christ, reported in Acts 12:2.

Discipleship today: Mark's final week should be just as transforming for you too, beginning with this example of Christian meekness. Meekness requires strength far beyond the weakness of a king's lust for oppressive power and pompous triumph.