Mark 11:1-14
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The Triumphal Entry
The Triumphal Entry
What we see unfolding in Jerusalem is the people of Israel clamoring for a Messiah.
They are excited that Jesus is there.
They’ve been waiting for someone to come.
the crowds surrounded Jesus. Some went ahead of him, some behind (v. 9). All shouted, “Hosanna.” Cranfield says:
Perhaps the foliage that was being strewn to make a path of honour for Jesus reminded someone of the lûlabim (bundles of palm, myrtle and willow) which were carried at the Feast of Tabernacles and shaken at the occurrence in the liturgy of the word hosiahnna in Ps 118:25 … and so called to his mind and lips the passage of the psalm, which once repeated would quite naturally be taken up by the crowd of pilgrims. (Gospel of Mark, p. 351)
“Hosanna” literally means “save now,” but it had become simply an exclamation of praise. “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” is an accurate quotation of Psalm 118:26, one of the Hallel Psalms (Pss 113–18), which were used liturgically at the feasts of Tabernacles and Passover. This quotation was a customary religious greeting or blessing pronounced on pilgrims who had come to Jerusalem for the feast, but as Lane (p. 397) suggests, that did not exhaust its meaning, since “the formulation is ambiguous and Mark may well have intended his readers to detect a deeper, messianic significance in the phrase ‘he who comes in the name of the Lord’ (cf. Gen 49:10).” Mark verse 10 seems to support that interpretation. The kingdom blessed is the “kingdom of our father David,” clearly the messianic kingdom promised to David’s son. Martin (Mark, p. 138) reminds us that not even this statement gives away the secret of Jesus’ person, “since … the cry of Hosanna is related to the coming kingdom and does not directly designate Jesus as Davidic King.” The crowd proclaims the kingdom and not the king.1
Two quick observations about Jesus entrance.,
His humility, and his authority
Christ went upon the water in a borrowed boat, ate the passover in a borrowed chamber, was buried in a borrowed sepulchre, and here rode on a borrowed ass. Let not Christians scorn to be beholden one to another, and, when need is, to go a borrowing, for our Master did not
We have here the story of the public entry Christ made into Jerusalem, four or five days before his death. And he came into town thus remarkably, 1. To show that he was not afraid of the power and malice of his enemies in Jerusalem. He did not steal into the city incognito, as one that durst not show his face; no, they needed not send spies to search for him, he comes in with observation.
The Fig Incident
The Fig Incident
Jesus has a job to do in Jerusalem.
When you are on your way to work, and the hunger hits you.
That Dunkin Donuts looks good.
That’s what’s happening here.
Jesus was really hungry on His way to work.
But He is going to turn his attempted breakfast stop into a powerful picture to illustrate what He is doing in Jerusalem.
I’ve never heard someone teach the fig tree story well.
In fact, it’s oftentimes just sk
This has everything to do with the question,
“What is Israel for?”
Telos is the ancient Greek term for an end, fulfilment, completion, goal or aim
What is the Telos of Israel?
We need to go back to Israel’s inception to answer that question.
What are they for?
Or another way of asking that question is how does something work?
How does Israel work?
When they are fulfilling their purpose what does it look like?
The other day I was marveling that I remember the first I-pod touch that my Dad got.
Apps. Birding App.
Weird time in history where we’ve seen much technological advancement.
When you’re using a piece of technology that you’re unfamiliar with, how do you learn how it works?
You consult the owner’s manual.
Did you know that Israel has an owner’s manual?
It starts in Genesis 12.
This is where the telos is authoritatively announced.
God doesn’t make things and then ask them who they want to be,
God makes things and tells them exactly who they are.
1 And Yahweh said to Abram, “Go out from your land and from your relatives, and from the house of your father, to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great. And you will be a blessing. 3 And I will bless those who bless you, and those who curse you I will curse. And all families of the earth will be blessed in you.”
What is the Telos of Israel?
All nations being blessed.
Kind of like a tree that provides fruit for all who approach it.
So there is our Telos.
What about the owner’s manual?
Well the owner’s manual is the Law of God.
When we read the Law that God. the owner, gave his people Israel after he rescues them from Egyptian captivity,
what we see is detailed instructions for how to actually carry out the goal of who they were made to be,
both as human beings,
AND as God’s chosen people.
The law is beautiful,
it teaches the people justice.
it teaches them mercy,
it teaches them how to live in tune to the seasons,
it teaches them to remember their rescue and exodus from slavery,
and above all it teaches them how to worship God.
To use the analogy of the fig tree more.
Genesis 12 is like a declaration,
“THIS FIG TREE IS FOR PROVIDING FRUIT FOR ALL PEOPLE”
BLESSED TO BE A BLESSING
It’s like when you go to a plant nursery and you see a little baby sprout in a pot, and you ask yourself,
whatever could this plant be?
And tagged on the pot, is a picture of a beautiful, fully grown fig tree.
A vision of the future.
It even tells you what time of year it should provide this fruit.
So you buy that little sprout,
and you plant it in the ground,
and… continuing the analogy,
the law of God is the care instructions that come along with it.
When to water,
how much to water,
when to prune,
when to fertilize,
when to shield from the cold.
If you follow these instructions,
you should expect fruit when the tree is full grown.
Imagine your disappointment when your tree grows up,
and never provides fruit.
YAHWEH planted Israel like a seed in the heart of Abram.
YAHWEH rescued, protected and sheltered Israel from the storms when she was a young sprout.
YAHWEH blessed Israel and caused her to prosper.
And when YAHWEH arrives to inspect the tree Israel,
what does He find?
Lots of green leaves.
and no fruit.
Israel had long enjoyed the “blessed” part of the promise to Abraham,
but they had rejected the “to be a blessing” part.
The words of the people were right,
but their inner life and their attitudes were not.
Listen to what Jesus says to the tree,
14 He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And His disciples heard it.
Mark does an interesting thing here where he breaks up the story of the of the fig tree in two.
The first half, the cursing of the fig tree,
occurs before Jesus goes in to clean out the temple, (which we will tackle next week)
The second half of the story,
which highlights that the tree has in fact withered,
occurs after the cleaning of the temple.
What could this mean?
We will be diving into great detail over the next month or two as Jesus in many ways will highlight the passing away nature of the old covenant.
When Jesus dies on the cross,
in the temple that he had just cleaned out a week prior,
the curtain that separates God and man is torn from the top to the bottom, by God.
40 years later,
the temple itself will be razed along with all of Jerusalem and all those living inside it’s walls.
The temple of God will no longer be in Jerusalem only,
but will now be wherever Christians are.
Which will include both Jews AND Gentiles.
This is important for our application now.
The church is the people of God,
the church is Israel.
But before we get to application, an encouragement and a warning.
The Church (big C) is not in danger of failing the mission of God totally in history like Ancient Israel did.
18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
That is our encouragement.
But here is the warning,
the little c church IS in danger of failing the mission of God.
We see it happening already in the New Testament.
Lampstands.
We see it happening in church history
(Most notably medieval RC church)
We see it happening today.
If we don’t think that it could happen to us, we are foolish and prideful.
So what’s the remedy and protection?
Understand our telos and our owner’s manual.
What is the Telos of the church?
18 Then Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
The vision given to Abraham of the nations being enfolded into the people of God has been realized.
It is being realized.
There are Christians all over the world.
But the work isn’t done.
Our King has given us our task.
And it’s a beautiful, all encompassing, all of life orienting task.
The Great Commission isn’t a verse we point to when we’re trying to convince people to go to unreached people groups.
That’s certaintly part of it.
But the Great Comission is our orienting core.
It’s the heartbeat of the church.
It’s the heartbeat of our lives.
Everything we do from the way that we set up our living rooms, to the people we elect,
to the way we worship, to the way we raise our kids, to the way we conduct ourselves at work is all an outworking of a deep rooted understanding that all authority on heaven and earth has been given to Jesus, and He is about the business of drawing all things to himself.
What is our owner’s manual?
The owner’s manual is still the law of God,
but now it is written on our hearts.
19 And I will give them one heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone from their bodies and give them a heart of flesh,
33 “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put My teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people.
Fulfilled in the New Covenant
14 For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are sanctified. 15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. For after He says: 16 This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws on their hearts and write them on their minds,
To be indwelt with the Spirit of God is to be a person who has God’s laws written on their hearts.
What exactly does that mean?
Does it mean we become walking encyclopedias and lawyers?
No.
It means that our affections have changed.
It means that now we actually will WANT to obey God.
It means that our desires and actions have been aligned with our telos.
Our compasses have been aligned to true north, AND we’ve been given a map.
This will naturally have a two-fold affect in a church’s life.
Firstly, it will cause the people of that church to prosper.
I don’t mean financially although that could be part of it.
I mean blessed.
In the true sense of the word.
The people will be happy people.
Because their ways are in alignment with God’s ways.
1 Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of Yahweh.
The second thing this will do in the life of the church is it will cause those blessed people to look outside of themselves to bless others.
Each other.
Our children,
Our neighbors,
our enemies.
Fruit will on the tree.
The shocking nature of what is going to unfold in Jerusalem is that Jesus is not going to destroy Jerusalem that day like he destroyed the fig tree.
Even though they were deserving of wrath,
all of that wrath would be poured out ON HIM.
Jesus is the true Israel, and he will absorb every last drop of the wrath they deserved for disobeying God.
A day will come when Jesus will walk the streets of Jerusalem to great rejoicing, but there will be nothing left to curse, for the curse itself will be gone.
Jesus is coming to harvest fruit.