Jesus Grand Entry (Palm Sunday 2012) April 1, 2012 Mark 11:1-11

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1 Introduction: Jesus Grand Entry (Palm Sunday 2012) April 1, 2012 Mark 11:1-11 Have you ever had a big juicy secret that you promised not to tell to anyone? Maybe it was about a surprise birthday party or a promotion at work or a big a huge change in someone s life. Every time you saw a good friend or someone who might be interested, you would almost explode with what you knew but somehow you managed to keep your mouth shut. And then came the day when the secret was exposed the birthday party occurred, the promotion was published, the engagement of the couple was announced and finally you were able to tell everyone about your involvement. It felt like a tremendous weight had been released. This is just how the disciples must have felt on Palm Sunday. They had spent three intense years with Jesus. They had seen many miracles but Jesus had told them and the ones healed not to tell anyone what had happened. For example, turn to Mark 9:2-10. In Matthew 16 where Matthew recorded Jesus asking His disciples, Who do you say I am? And Peter answered for the disciples, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Then in verse 20, Jesus warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ. In John 6, after feeding the 5000 plus people, Jesus escaped into the hills to keep them from making Him their king. Through those years, the pressure on the disciples to spill the beans must have been almost unbearable. Then came the 3 rd Passover and Jesus allowed them to release all their pent-up emotions in Jesus grand entry into Jerusalem. II. Jesus grand entry into Jerusalem. But before He could enter, there were some preparations that had to be carried out. A. The Preparations 1. First, a colt was obtained. The disciples knew something was up when as they approached Jerusalem Jesus sent them ahead to Bethany to get a donkey and her colt. Jesus always walked sometimes even across water to get to where He was going; He never never rode an animal. But as He had done so many other times, Jesus was doing something out of the ordinary again and the disciples were baffled again. We aren t told if Jesus had made arrangements with the owner of the mare and colt ahead of time or not. Perhaps He was using His supernatural foreknowledge to predict precisely where the disciples would find an unridden colt tied up. Either way, as a recognized rabbi, He did have the 1

2 cultural right to the temporary use of property for personal reasons. Whether by arrangement or by foreknowledge, Jesus even warned the disciples that they would be challenged when they tried to take the colt and gave them the answer they were to give: The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly. 2. The colt was prepared. After getting the animals, the colt was prepared to be ridden. Probably filled with tremendous anticipation, Jesus disciples put their cloaks on the colt as Jesus got ready to ride it. Jesus rode on a colt which had never been ridden before, but He was God the Lord of Creation so neither the weight of Jesus or the flapping cloaks and waving palm leaves or the noise of the crowd was going to bother it. The disciples on the other hand couldn t contain themselves anymore. With this new side of Jesus, they felt that they were released to tell everyone who He was and what He came to do as they became part of the Grand Procession. B. The Grand Procession 1. Jesus fulfilled prophesy. As He entered Jerusalem, Jesus fulfilled prophesy. In particular, He was fulfilling the prophesy of Zechariah 9:9 which says: Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. By riding the colt of a donkey, Jesus was portraying Himself as a King of peace and not a king of war. However, He didn t come to bring peace between peoples; His peace was peace between God and mankind. He wasn t coming to slay Israel s enemies but He came to give Israel and the world the opportunity to be saved to become part of the Kingdom of Heaven. He was coming in meekness and humility. He was coming as Israel s Messiah. 2. The crowd expected deliverance. Many of those gathered there knew who Jesus was they had seen Him or heard of Him or they may have seen someone who had been healed by Him. So as He rode into Jerusalem, a large crowd spread their cloaks on the road before Him while others cut palm branches to lay in the road. The expectation that the Messiah had finally come to bring deliverance from all foreign oppression was so great that the crowd became totally caught up in a frenzy of mob hysteria. Hosanna to the Son of David (Matthew 21:9). Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! They didn t know it, but Jesus had come to bring deliverance not from Roman rule but from the rule of sin in their lives. The people wanted deliverance from Rome. Jesus came to bring deliverance from sin. 2

3 They were crying out, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! The word Hosanna means save now. They were crying out for the Messiah s deliverance, pleading, in effect, Save us now, great Messiah! Save us now! The crowd acknowledged Jesus as the Son of David which was the most common title for the Messiah. Jesus was the Coming One; the Son of David, He was the Messiah. But the crowd on that day wasn t interested in Jesus saving their souls but in His saving their nation. Now, at last, they thought, He has come to be the Conqueror to be their Liberator. What better occasion or time could there possibly be for God s Anointed, the Messiah the Christ, to make the ultimate and final deliverance of His people from the tyranny of the Romans than at Passover just like Moses had done thousands of years earlier in Egypt. C. The Anticlimactic Ending Mark raises the reader s expectations that something grand will happen, but nothing does on that day. The excitement generated by Jesus arrival ended with somewhat of an anticlimactic ending as He entered the Temple, only to look around and leave. Mark tells us that it is already late. Late for what? Did time run out on Jesus before He could do anything? I doubt it! Perhaps time was running out for the temple and all that happened there. This rather insignificant ending sets the stage for what will happen on the next day and the rest of the week. Jesus didn t come to tour the temple as a tourist, dazzled by all the glittering gold, glistening white marble, and gigantic stones. He didn t visit out of a pious reverence He didn t offer a prayer or a sacrifice. He entered His temple as prophesied by Malachi. Turn to Malachi 3:1-2. Jesus entered the temple to inspect it, and the next day s clearing out of the temple reveals that He came not to restore it but to pronounce God s judgment on it to purify it; to refine it. III. Conclusion The conclusion of this week which began with a grand procession didn t turn out to be what anyone expected. The joyful enthusiasm and colorful procession of admirers who greeted Jesus as He entered Jerusalem reflected their hopes for their Messiah. But a few days later as he gave Himself up to those who came to arrest Him, their joy turned to weeping; their elated expectations turned to cowardly panic. Jesus didn t come as a king to restore the power and glory of David s kingdom. He came as a king who would be crowned with thorns, enthroned on a cross, and hailed as the chief of fools. His entrance into Jerusalem points to a different kind of triumph than the one anticipated by the crowd, one that would be more powerful than any kingdom of David and more far-reaching than the narrow borders of Israel or even the Roman empire. 3

4 This account of Palm Sunday is a nice story about a man called Jesus, but what does His coming to Jerusalem to the earth 2000 years ago mean to you? Are you a member of the kingdom of God? Are you a disciple of Jesus Christ? Do you believe that Jesus died for your sins? Have you made Him Lord of your life? As Jesus said in Mark 12:30, do you Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength? Jesus came to die for your sins, so what have you done about His sacrifice? What is your decision? Is He your Savior or just a crazy, deranged man? If you have chosen Jesus Christ, does your faith give you the strength to stand your ground when hard times or trials come, or do you flee like the disciples did in the Garden of Gethsemane? Turn to Acts 1:7-8. Unlike the disciples, you have the Holy Spirit and His power available to you, but as Proverbs 3:5-6 says, you need to trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and then he will make your paths straight. Can you say along with Paul, I can do everything through him who gives me strength (Philippians 4:13)? What is the foundation of your faith? Unlike the expectations of those in Jerusalem who were looking for a Jewish Messiah, Jesus kingdom is made up of people from every tribe and every nation. Turn to Revelation 7:9-10. As His disciples, it is our job to go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19). Are you involved in spreading the good news that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (1 Timothy 1:15)? Are you spreading the Gospel? As we think about the last week of Jesus human life on earth which began with Palm Sunday, we are reminded of His love for His disciples; for His creation; for us; for you. What is your response to His gift of love and mercy for you? 4

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