Text: Mark 11:1-11
We are not prepared for Holy Week; neither were they.
Some of us began the forty days of Lent with the best of intentions of solemnity, purification and even fasting. We planned to pray and read the Bible every day, but then came March Madness and overtime at work. We had family get-togethers and birthday parties. First one thing and then another, and suddenly Holy Week is upon us.
We are not ready. Even though Easter is late this year, our hearts are not prepared to take in the tragedy and triumph of Holy Week. The divine saga from the Triumpal Entry to Easter is a pilgrimage for which our spirits need to be prepared. But we are not ready. It is too soon upon us.
No one was ready for that first Holy Week, the disciples least of all. They had lived with Jesus for three years, watching his every move. Slowly, ever so slowly, they had become convinced that he was the long-awaited one, the Messiah, the one like David who would return Israel to its former greatest.
They had been impatient for Jesus to make a move in the grand plan to overthrow Roman rule. They had personally witnessed countless miracles, astounding teachings, and many private moments. But Mark constantly records that they did not understand him.
They especially didn't understand him when he spoke three separate times about his coming death. After the first time in chapter 8, Mark records, "And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, 'Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.'"
The second time in chapter 9, Mark tells the story this way:
"(Jesus said), 'The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.' But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him."
The third time in chapter 10, Mark follows Jesus' prediction of his death with this story:
"James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to him and said to him, 'Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.' And he said to them, 'What is it you want me to do for you?' And they said to him, 'Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.' But Jesus said to them, 'You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?'"
If the disciples weren't prepared, neither were the crowds. It is the time of the Passover. Hundreds, even thousands of Jews have made pilgrimage to the Holy City, Jerusalem. For many it was an annual pilgrimage. For others, perhaps for the elderly and for those coming from long distances, it was the once-in-a-lifetime experience, a journey they would never make again.
They will worship in the temple, and they will celebrate how the God of their people has saved them over and over. They will remember the exodus. He spared their children, passing over their doors. He led them out of slavery in Egypt. He parted the Red Sea. He fed them in the wilderness and delivered them to the Promised Land.
And so they have come to pay homage. They include husbands, wives, and children; old and young; strong and weak; rich and poor. While on their journey to Jerusalem they have sung the psalms preparing themselves to enter the Temple, the place where God lives. There they will worship. They will give thanks. They will remember their God. And they will continue to await the coming of the Messiah.
Surely most had heard about Jesus, though they were not sure who he was. Some said he was John the Baptist, others said he was Elijah. Still others said he was one of the prophets. Some even said he was the Messiah come to save them.
Anticipation of the Messiah spread through the crowd like wildfire. They had longed for the restoration of the Kingdom of David for centuries. Could this be the one? Could this be the earthly king who would deliver them from their oppression?
As Mark picks up the story, he makes it very clear that Jesus came to Jerusalem voluntarily. He was not there because Temple authorities or Roman dignitaries had summoned him. He was not talked into this trip to the population center by the disciples who wanted to expand his ministry. It was not an impulsive move. Instead, it is clear that Jesus came to Jerusalem out of a sense of mission. It was his destiny.
Mark tells the events of this day in two parts. First is the acquisition of the colt, and the second is the reaction of the crowds. Mark tells us more about how Jesus acquired the colt (six verses) than about what happened when he got it (five verses).
First, there is the mysterious commandeering of an unbroken colt. Mark tells us, "He sent two of his disciples 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. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this, 'The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.'"
There are two ways to interpret this mysterious event. Either this was a preplanned arrangement involving code words, or this was a supernatural miracle. Jesus was either an organizer or a clairvoyant.
I suspect it was pre-arranged by Jesus himself. That would make this a carefully planned event for Jesus. It would mean that Jesus knew exactly what he was doing and made careful arrangements for it. He knew that his arrival in Jerusalem was prophetic, symbolic and controversial.
He imitated the arrival of the kings of Rome who arrived after successful battles dressed in royal attire and riding a prized stallion. The crowds were accustomed to shouting praises to Roman warriors returning from battle.
Professor David Wells of Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary says Jesus seems to lose the plot after his arrival in Jerusalem.
After three years of evading his identity, Jesus has claimed His kingship. The pilgrims were surely thinking, "This must be the one." They were finally convinced that Jesus was the long-expected Messiah. The bystanders were already spreading the word that the King was here. The crowds had gathered to greet the King, who would finally reveal himself to them. Everyone was convinced. Everyone was ready for the revolution. They were all there to see it. They were overjoyed at the prospect of this fulfillment of God's prophecy.
And for one brief moment, they believed that the time had come. The Messiah had arrived, and all of their earthly problems would soon be addressed. God would save them from the tyranny of opposing forces, and the land given to them after the exile would belong to them once more.
Jesus began by almost playing his part. He came down from the Mount of Olives, the place where prophecy said God would fight the nations and restore Jerusalem. Simon Maccabaeus had entered Jerusalem this way in the second century B.C.
But Jesus seemed not quite to know how to do it. At this key moment in the whole Gospel, when all eyes are on him and no one, it seems, can lay a hand on him, he lost the plot.
Professor Wells says, "Where is the horse, the steed that bears the triumphant general, the untamable champion loyal only to the skilled commander, so beloved of great leaders from Alexander to Napoleon? It's not here. In its place is a young colt--hardly the symbol of leadership. Jesus seems to have no understanding of rank. After all the fuss about procuring, even sequestrating, the right animal, just the kind of action worthy of a king, he gets the wrong animal. He chooses an agricultural tool, not a weapon of war; a tractor, not a tank." (http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=2059. Retrieved 4/6/2006)
Jesus chose to contrast his arrival with that of earthly kings. He arrived in humility, riding on a donkey, colt never ridden. There were no marching armies following him into Jerusalem to declare a new earthly kingdom. It was just Jesus ushering in the Kingdom of God.
Perhaps the Gospel writers emphasize that the colt had never been ridden as prophetic irony. Before the week would be over, he would be buried in a "tomb where no one had ever been laid."
Next, Mark switches the focus of the story to the actions of the crowd. Jesus goes silent after his instruction to the disciples about how to find the colt. If you have a red letter Bible, you will see no red letters after verse three. We do not know what Jesus thought he was doing or what he thought of what the crowd said and did.
The crowd turns the event into a gigantic festival of celebration. They put their cloaks and branches on the road as their way of rolling out the red carpet.
They shout, "Hosanna." Our Bibles use English letters to spell two Hebrew words meaning, "Save us, we pray." It's hard to tell is they are really hoping Jesus will save them as a militaristic Messiah or if they are merely shouting jubilation or praise much like the modern word, "Hallelujah!"
They shout, "Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord," a quote from Psalm 118:26, which was sung at the Feast of Tabernacles held in the fall.
Mark ends this section with the odd account in verse 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." What was that about?
The other Gospels have Jesus riding his donkey right up to the Temple where he proceeds to overturn the money changers and drive out the buyers and sellers. But Mark portrays Jesus coming to the Temple alone some time after all the commotion. It was late. He looked around, seemed to take stock of the situation and then left for Bethany where he would spend the night and return the next day for the fireworks in the Temple.
What an anticlimax. How can we account for it? We don't really know why Jesus entered the Temple or why he left. Mark may have told us everything he thinks we need to know in order to get the point for ourselves.
Fred Craddock says the Triumphal Entry was a parade, a protest and a funeral procession. We have all seen the nature of the event as a parade with the throngs shouting their praises as Jesus slowly rides into Jerusalem. But a protest?
Mr. Craddock suggests this event almost took on the appearance of a protest march. He says, "While still in Galilee, Jesus had engaged Pharisees and scribes in serious disagreement over the interpretation of scripture and tradition. In addition to the running debate over table fellowship, sharp differences arose over fasting and Sabbath observance. Jesus protested the subordination of human need and welfare to the rigid and unfeeling application of law. As early as chapter three, Mark reports that Jesus' positions on key issues brought threats against his life. And, of course, once Jesus was in Jerusalem, protest followed protest, beginning with Jesus' interference with temple practices."
But this was also a funeral procession. Only Jesus knew that this was the beginning of the end. (http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=2702. Retrieved 4/6/2006)
Some years ago a book was written by Gene Smith, a noted American historian. The title was "When The Cheering Stopped." It was the story of President Woodrow Wilson and the events leading up to and following WWI. When that war was over Wilson was an international hero. There was a great spirit of optimism abroad, and people actually believed that the last war had been fought and the world had been made safe for democracy.
On his first visit to Paris after the war Wilson was greeted by cheering mobs. He was actually more popular than their own heroes. The same thing was true in England and Italy. In a Vienna hospital a Red Cross worker had to tell the children that there would be no Christmas presents because of the war and the hard times. The children didn’t believe her. They said that President Wilson was coming and they knew that everything would be all right.
The cheering lasted about a year. Then it gradually began to stop. It turned out that the political leaders in Europe were more concerned with their own agendas than they were a lasting peace. At home, Woodrow Wilson ran into opposition in the United States Senate and his League of Nations was not ratified. Under the strain of it all the President’s health began to break. In the next election his party was defeated. So it was that Woodrow Wilson, a man who barely a year or two earlier had been heralded as the new world Messiah, came to the end of his days a broken and defeated man. (http://www.esermons.com/)
Palm Sunday was a funeral procession. Jesus knew the cheering would stop very soon. We have no indication of Jesus attitude or emotions as he rode that donkey into Jerusalem. We don't know if he happily waved to the crowds or if he was filled with foreboding.
On Sunday they shouted, "Hosanna," and treated him like the King of the Jews. On Friday, they hung him on a cross and put up a sign saying, "The King of the Jews."