Message preached Sunday, September 4, 2016 from Mark 11:7-11
Theme: This passage highlights the redemptive purpose of Jesus’ Triumphant Entry from three standpoints
This morning, we return to our study of the Gospel of Mark; and to a very familiar story to many of us. It’s a story that’s told in a very short-and-to-the-point manner by the Gospel writer Mark. It’s found in Mark 11:7-11; and the best way to begin our time is just by reading it.
Mark tells us;
Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and He sat on it. And many spread their clothes on the road, and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:
“Hosanna!
‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’
Blessed is the kingdom of our father David
That comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest!”
And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve (Mark 11:7-11).
You probably recognize this story right away. It’s the story of our Lord’s ‘Triumphant Entry” from Bethany, over the Mount of Olives, across the Kidron Valley, and into Jerusalem. It was an entry He made just before Passover—when He would die on the cross a few days later as our Passover Lamb. It’s a story that Christians around the world revisit every year on Palm Sunday. It’s one that we ourselves, in this church family, have studied together many times.
But I made an interesting discovery. I think I was made more alert to this discovery because I have had the chance—a couple of times now—to visit the place where this ride occurred. The path our Lord took in this ride is one that I can now visualize; and it is much more clear to me than when I had read about it in times past. And in reading from the Old Testament not long ago, I found that this very same path that Jesus took was traveled many centuries before by someone else—someone who, in terms of the flesh, was a very important ancestor of our Savior. This discovery has opened up the importance of this ride to me in a new way; and before we look at the story of Jesus’ Triumphant Entry in more detail, I hope I may first share this discovery with you.
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I had been reading through the Old Testament book of 2 Samuel. That’s a book that tells us much of the history of the later half of the life of King David. David’s later years were—in many respects—tragic ones. He was a great man of God; but he had also committed a terrible sin—a sin of adultery that then led to a murder and a cover-up. This laps into sin brought a great deal of trouble on his life and on the life of his family as a result. David confessed his sin to God, and God forgave him and restored him to the kingdom. But one of the greatest and most tragic troubles that came upon David because of his sin was the rebellion of his son Absalom against David’s reign.
I hope I’m not making this into too hard of a ‘soap-opera’ to follow; but one of Absalom’s half-brothers had committed a terrible act of immorality against Absalom’s sister; and as a result, Absalom ended up murdering that half-brother. Things had already been falling apart in David’s family after his own sin; and now, there was even more tension between David and his son Absalom. The time finally came when Absalom put together a covert rebellion against his father that resulted in a take-over of the kingdom. Absalom succeeded in turning many of the Jewish people against David—the man that God Himself had appointed as king of His people.
2 Samuel 15:13-14 tells us;
Now a messenger came to David, saying, “The hearts of the men of Israel are with Absalom.” So David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, “Arise, and let us flee, or we shall not escape from Absalom. Make haste to depart, lest he overtake us suddenly and bring disaster upon us, and strike the city with the edge of the sword” (2 Samuel 15:13-14).
What a horrible time this must have been for David. He had to flee from his palace in haste; and he had to make some very difficult choices about who should go with him as he fled, and who should remain behind in the city of Jerusalem. It must have grieved him and his entire household deeply as many of his servants had to pass before him—with, no doubt, great weeping and sorrow. And I feel very sure that David himself couldn’t help but think of how it was his own sin that had brought all this trouble upon his household—and upon the land over which God had made him king.
As they traveled down the slope of the eastern side of the city of Jerusalem, verse 23 tells us;
And all the country wept with a loud voice, and all the people crossed over. The king himself also crossed over the Brook Kidron, and all the people crossed over toward the way of the wilderness (v. 23).
I can see that place very clearly in my mind’s eye. The Kidron Valley is a beautiful place. It’s the long valley that stretches out—north to south—along the eastern side of the city; and it stands between the city and the foothills of the Mount of Olives—bracketed by rolling hills and spotted with trees. But as beautiful as it is, this was no time to enjoy its beauty. It was a sad, somber journey that David was making along with those who were still faithful to God’s call on his life. The valley of the Brook Kidron no doubt reverberated with grievous and hurried cries, and with the sounds of weeping and mourning.
Some of the Levitical priests came with David—bearing the ark of the covenant from out of the temple. They held it until all the people crossed the Brook Kidron. But then, David told the chief priest to bring it back to the temple. He said;
“Carry the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, He will bring me back and show me both it and His dwelling place. But if He says thus: ‘I have no delight in you,’ here I am, let Him do to me as seems good to Him” (vv. 25-26).
That tells us much about David’s frame of mind at this time. The Bible tells us that “to whom much is given, from him much will be required” (Luke 12:48); and clearly, he—as the man that God had graciously called from the humble sheep fields and made king of Israel—felt the pain of the terrible consequences of his own sin. Would he ever be restored to God’s favor? Would his failure ever be redeemed? Would the people ever again see the blessedness of its God-appointed king?
It was David’s plan to make his way out in an easterly direction into the Judean wilderness, where he would hide out and wait—hoping to hear the word that it was safe to return. And so, as he traveled over the Kidron Valley and away from the city, we read;
So David went up by the Ascent of the Mount of Olives, and wept as he went up; and he had his head covered and went barefoot. And all the people who were with him covered their heads and went up, weeping as they went up (v. 30).
We’re told that when he reached the top of the Mount of Olives, he stopped and worshiped God. And after dealing with some trusted servants and making some final arrangements, he and his group began to make their descent down the mountain—toward where the little towns of Bethany and Bethphage would later be often visited by our Lord. And in 2 Samuel 16:1-2, as David made his way toward where those two towns would be, we’re told;
When David was a little past the top of the mountain, there was Ziba the servant of Mephibosheth, who met him with a couple of saddled donkeys, and on them two hundred loaves of bread, one hundred clusters of raisins, one hundred summer fruits, and a skin of wine. And the king said to Ziba, “What do you mean to do with these?” So Ziba said, “The donkeys are for the king’s household to ride on, the bread and summer fruit for the young men to eat, and the wine for those who are faint in the wilderness to drink” (2 Samuel 16:1-2).
Now; jumping further ahead in the story, it turns out that God’s favor still rested on David. The rebellion was defeated, and David was able to return and be restored to his throne. All the promises that God had made to David would still be fulfilled. But I wonder—as I reviewed this sad Old Testament story, did the path that King David followed seem familiar to you at all?
I had never noticed it before in my previous times of reading the story of King David’s life; but that path that David followed was the very same one that our Lord followed in His Triumphant Entry into the city of Jerusalem. And the contrasts between the two stories is truly remarkable. David traveled that path because he was leaving the city in tragedy; while Jesus—David’s promised offspring—was traveling that path to enter the city in triumph. The pathway for David was filled with the sound of weeping and sorrow; while for Jesus, that same pathway was filled with the sound of cheers and praises to God. At the end of that path—descending down the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives—David was given donkeys to ride into the Judean wilderness; while Jesus came from that same Judean wilderness, and sent from Bethany to Bethphage—along that same eastern slope—for the colt of a donkey to ride up over the hill and into the city. And when we compare these two stories together, I can’t help but believe that there’s a very intentional lesson for us to learn from them.
You see; we are like King David in the co-joining of those two stories. Perhaps our sins aren’t exactly like his; but nevertheless, our sins—like his sins—have made a mess of our lives. We bear the fallenness of the sin of our first father Adam; and we suffer the consequences of our own sins daily. If God were to treat us as our sins truly deserved, we—like David—would be made to flee in sorrow and shame and loss from the place of God’s blessing and favor. But the righteous Son of God—born of the promised seed of King David according to the flesh; born into same fallen humanity into which we have all been born, yet Himself without sin—picked up where David left off; and traveled that very same journey in reverse; and road along the same path into the city in order to pay the price of redemption for the very sins for which David, and you, and I, have all suffered loss.
I call this ride of our Lord “the royal ride of redemption”. It’s a ride that had been promised several centuries after King David’s life—and several centuries before our Lord’s birth—in the Old Testament prophet Zechariah. In Zechariah 9:9, it says;
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your King is coming to you;
He is just and having salvation,
Lowly and riding on a donkey,
A colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9).
And do you know what else? Our Lord’s “royal ride” is not yet finished; because even though we call His ride the ‘Triumphant Entry’, the full triumph of that ride has not yet been fully realized. In the passage before us, He rode humbly upon a donkey’s colt into the city of Jerusalem in order to die a shameful death on the cross for our sins as our Redeemer. But the full ‘triumph’ of our victorious Savior’s second coming is told to us in Revelation 19. And He wont be riding on a humble donkey’s colt then! In Revelation 19:11-16, the apostle John tells us;
Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written:
KING OF KINGS AND
LORD OF LORDS
(Revelation 19:11-16).
And by the way; when our Lord returns to this earth in power and glory, do you know where it is that the Bible says He will first touch His feet? It will be on the Mount of Olives (Zechariah 14:3)! And do you know where He will then go to commence His royal reign upon the earth? It will be into the city of Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:16-17)! And if you’re like me, you can’t help but expect that He will travel the same path that He traveled before—but this time, in unspeakable glory and true triumph!
What an amazing ride this is, then! It’s the greatest ride in human history—and in some ways, the longest in history as well—extending across the whole span of God’s plan of redemption for the ages!
It truly is “the royal ride of redemption”!
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Now; let’s look a little closer at this ride, as the Gospel writer Mark tells us about it. As we do, I believe we can better appreciate the way it shows itself to be a ride of redemption.
First notice how this is shown to us in …
1. THE ACTION OF THE DISCIPLES AS JESUS PREPARED.
In Mark 11:7, we’re told, “Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and He sat on it.” The “they” in this verse speaks specifically of the two disciples that Jesus had sent from Bethany into Bethphage to get the donkey’s colt for Him to ride (or as Matthew in his Gospel tells us, a donkey and her colt—two donkeys; just as were given to King David about 1,000 years before). But I believe that the “they” might also include the rest of the twelve disciples together.
Why did they throw their clothes on the donkey’s colt? Most Bible commentators say that it was in order to form a make-shift ‘saddle’ for our Lord to sit comfortably upon during His ride. I certainly believe that’s true. But I wonder if there wasn’t much more to it than just the concern for comfort. I wonder if, in their doing this, they weren’t also—as it were—submitting themselves to our Lord’s journey into the city. I wonder if they weren’t thus giving expression to their whole-hearted approval and support to whatever it was that the Lord was about to do—to the degree, at least, as they understood it.
I think it helps to remember that the Lord Jesus had already told them what was about to happen, and why it was that He was about to make this ride. Back in Mark 10:33-34, as they were making their way through the Judean wilderness to Jerusalem, Jesus turned to them along the road and said;
“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles; and they will mock Him, and scourge Him, and spit on Him, and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again” (Mark 10:33-34).
They didn’t understand all that was involved in this, of course. In fact, this kind of talk from our Lord made them sorrowful and confused. They didn’t fully understand that He was riding into Jerusalem at the time of the Passover Feast in order to be the Passover Lamb that would take away our sin. And yet, they had even heard Him—just a short time later—say again to them;
“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
It must be that, even though they didn’t fully understand what it was that He was about to do as He entered the city, they nevertheless had these words in their mind and submitted themselves to what He said and said “yes” to it. I believe that that’s the greater significance of their act of throwing their clothes on the donkey for the Lord to sit upon. Because of what they had heard the Lord say before, they were—to a limited degree—saying, “Yes, Lord. Though I don’t fully understand, please do whatever it is You are going to with me in mind! Let me be identified with You in this royal, Messianic ride.”
And that, by the way, is how you and I should respond to the story of Jesus’ royal ride of redemption. With the much fuller understanding that we have today, you and I should—as it were—throw our lot in with the Lord in this ride. We should say, “Yes, Lord. Let it be that You have entered the city for such a one as me. Let Your sacrifice be for my redemption!”
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And then, consider this royal ride in the light of …
2. THE ACTION OF THE CROWDS WHILE JESUS APPROACHED.
However little the disciples would have understood about all that Jesus was doing, the crowd would certainly have understood far less. They may have been thinking of what Zechariah said about their King coming—bringing salvation; riding on a colt of a donkey—and would have expected that Jesus would be a conquering Messiah. They would have expected that He would have ridden in to town to kick out the Roman Gentile oppressors, and to re-establish the glory days of King David right then and there. Indeed, the fact is that they didn’t understand much of what was happening at all! In another Gospel account, as Jesus rode along the way amidst all of the cheers and celebration, we’re told that He wept over the city because it “did not know the time” of it’s “visitation” (Luke 19:41-44).
Nevertheless, we’re told that the crowd celebrated. And though their celebration was not with clear understanding, it was amazingly appropriate. We’re told in verse eight that “many spread their clothes on the road …” This was traditionally how people would welcome and celebrate a newly-crowned king. We’re also told that “others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road.” Palm branches were always used as part of an expression of celebration and worship; and so, they were—in a sense—paving the road of Jesus’ travel to Jerusalem with praises to God.
And even more, consider what verses 9-10 tell us that the crowds said! Those who went before Him, and those who followed after Him, were quoting from Psalm 118:24-25 when they cried out:
“Hosanna!
‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’
Blessed is the kingdom of our father David
That comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest!”(Mark 11:9-10).
Do you know what “Hosanna” means? It’s an Aramaic word; and it means something like “Save now!” or “Save, we pray!” They were recognizing Jesus as the promised Son of David—the promised King; and they were acknowledging that He was coming in the name of the Lord; and they were pleading with God that salvation would come through Him! Wouldn’t you say that—even though they may have understood things wrongly—they nevertheless were praising rightly?
And I believe that—with the far more complete understanding that we possess today than the people along the way had back then—we should now praise Jesus as they did; and fully celebrate His royal ride for what it really was—a ride for our redemption. We should remember what the redeemed saints will say before the throne of God—as we’re told about it in Revelation 7. At that time, they will be from all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues—standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands. And we’re told that they will be crying out with a loud voice and saying,
“Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:9-10).
As we think about this great ride, don’t you think it would be appropriate for us to be joining those redeemed saints in their praise even now?
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Finally, notice how you can see the redemptive purpose of this ride through …
3. THE ACTION OF THE LORD AFTER HE ARRIVED.
Verse 11 tells us;
And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve (v. 11).
Given all the celebration that accompanied it, Jesus’ actions almost seem anticlimactic; don’t they? He spent some time walking around in the temple and looking around. (I do like what one preacher pointed out, though—that we are the temple of the Lord today; and He still walks around and looks at what goes on in His temple. May it be that He is pleased with what He sees in us today!) But after all the time He spent looking around—feeling the watchful gaze of the Roman soldiers, seeing the money changers and market booths, observing the angry looks of the Pharisees and priests—He simply looked upon the setting of the sun and saw that it was growing dark; and He then turned around and traveled the path back across the Kidron Valley, and up the slope of the Mount of Olives, and back down the other side, and went to Bethany to stay for the night.
What would all of the cheering people have thought of this? What would the disciples who went with Him have made of it all? Wasn’t there going to be a battle? Wasn’t He going to throw out the oppressors? Wasn’t He going to take up His rightful throne and bring about righteousness?
Well; as we see from Revelation 19, yes. Eventually, He would do all those things. But not right then. His coming into the city at that time was not to be a conquering Messiah, but rather to be our redeeming Savior. The ‘triumph’ of this first entry into the city was that of atoning for our sins and of giving His life “a ransom for many”. The fact that He came, and then just as quickly left, shows that He didn’t come to conquer—as the disciples expected; but rather to provide salvation for us on the cross six days later—as the Scriptures promised.
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This “royal ride of redemption” isn’t really completely over yet. The ultimate “triumph” is yet to come. And I suggest that our greatest response to it all is to embrace the salvation that He came to bring about for us back then, and to put our full trust in His sacrifice on the cross for us—looking expectantly and joyfully for the full glory of our redemption when He returns in the future.
Then, our “Hosanna!” will be complete, as we cry out, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”