Mark 11:1-10 

¹As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, ² saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³ If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say,

‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’”

⁴ They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, ⁵ some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” ⁶ They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. ⁷ When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. ⁸ Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. ⁹ Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,

“Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

¹⁰ “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!”

“Hosanna in the highest heaven!” 

The King Enters

My guess is most of you readers know this story in detail. As a child I loved Palm Sunday. The singing, the crafting of palm branches and celebrating Jesus as King. When I got older, I started wondering more about why the entry into Jerusalem had to be such a celebration. It seems to me that Jesus spent the preceding three years of his ministry as low-profile as possible; he instructed the healed not to share what had happened (Mark 1:43-44), he avoided crowds, especially after a miracle had been performed (Mark 6:45), he told his disciples not to announce he is the Messiah (Mark 8:29-30). So why the big deal now, especially when Jesus knows the Jewish religious leaders in Jerusalem are already out to get him? I find the best answer to this in the correlating account of Luke 19:37-40 where Jesus upon entering Jerusalem says that even if they (the crowd) “keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” To me this shows that all of Jesus’ work has led up to this moment, all of nature knows, it is time for Jesus to establish his kingdom on earth.

The problem, however, is that the crowd was expecting a different kind of king. They were expecting a powerful king in worldly terms. A king that would crush the Roman Empire and reestablish Jerusalem to its former glory. They recognize the lowly man riding into Jerusalem on the foal (Zechariah 9:9) as their victorious King, yet they ignored that a price still had to be paid for all the wrong and sin in the world.

How many times do we slip into certain expectations of how God and Christ should reign in our lives and the situations around us? Are we willing to let the Lord take hold of our lives, even when it may result in something unexpected, something beyond our control?

Prayer: Heavenly Father, may our shouts of hosanna, our praise and adoration to you, be sincere. May we praise and trust you no matter the circumstances, as you continue to establish your kingdom here on earth and in our lives.  Amen.