Mark 11:1-11

Introduction

The most important life ever lived was that of Jesus Christ, and the most important part of that life was the momentous week that ended it. The week began with Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. It included a second cleansing of the temple, the final teaching, the institution of the Lord’s Supper, and the arrest, trial, and crucifixion. It ended with Jesus’ resurrection from the dead on Easter Sunday. Eight momentous days in all.

This final week is so important that the Gospels give a disproportionate amount of space to it. Jesus lived thirty-three years. His active ministry occupied three years. But large portions of the Gospels are given over to the events of just the last eight days. Matthew devotes one-fourth of his Gospel to it (chaps. 21–28). Mark uses one-third of his Gospel (chaps. 11–16). Luke gives a fifth of his chapters to the events of this last week (chaps. 19:28–24:53). Most remarkable of all, John gives half of his Gospel (chaps. 12–21). Taken together, there are eighty-nine chapters in the Gospels, but twenty-nine and a half of these (exactly one-third) recount what happened between the triumphal entry and Jesus’ resurrection. Such is the case because these are the climactic events not only of Jesus’ life but of all history. They were planned from before the foundation of the world, and our salvation from sin and wrath depends on them.

Palm Sunday is the day in the church year when traditionally we mark the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem for the last week of his life. It’s an event of great insight and great misunderstanding. The great insight was that this Jesus really is “the King who comes in the name of the Lord.” He was the Messiah, the Son of David, the long-awaited Ruler of Israel, the fulfillment of all God’s promises. But the great misunderstanding was that he would enter Jerusalem and by his mighty works, take his throne and make Israel free from Rome.

Mark described four events which were preparatory to the public ministry at Jerusalem:

• the entry into Jerusalem as Messiah and the return to Bethany that evening, vv. 1-11.
• the cursing of the fig tree the next morning, vv. 12-14.
• the cleansing of the temple, vv. 15-19.
• the lesson from the withered fig tree to the disciples the following morning, vv. 20-25.
  

Bethphage: prob. closer than Bethany, comp. disappeared, on the southern slope of Olivet
Bethany: 2 miles from Jerusalem, on the the eastern slope of Olivet

I. Complete Obedience of the Two Disciples

"The execution of the command is recorded in terms identical with Jesus' instruction" (Wm. Lane, NICNT. p. 396): Instruction and Execution

A. Jesus told the two (which ones?) to "Go—they "went."

B. Jesus told them they would "find" a colt—they "found" the colt.

C. Jesus told them "untie the colt"—they "untied" the colt.

D. Jesus told them what to say—they said "because the Lord has need of it."

E. Jesus told them to bring the colt to him—they brought it to Jesus.

Questions

—How did Jesus know their was a colt tied on which no one ever sat?

• He saw the animal when he was walking in the area?
• Someone told Him about the animal?
• He made a prearrangement with the owner?
• He is God... He knows all things!

Unused animals were regarded as specially suited for sacred purposes: Numbers 19:2;

Deuteronomy 21:3; First Samuel 6:7.

—Why does the Lord have need of anything, esp. a colt.

II. Spontaneous Worship by the Multitude

"Jubilation and Excitement. . . It was a brief moment of enthusiasm outside the city walls which would have been appropriate to a royal enthronement, but was scarcely distinguishable from the exultation which characterized other groups of pilgrims when the City of David, with its magnificent Temple, came into view" (Wm. Lane, NICNT. p. 397).

A. "Hosanna"—"save [us], we pray"—an appeal for divine help to bring about deliverance

imperfect tense—repeatedly called out, over and over again

A Lesson in Greek and Hebrew

You all know that the New Testament was first written in Greek, and the Old Testament was first written in Hebrew. Wherever the word “hosanna” occurs in the New Testament, do you know what the Greek word is? Right! It’s “hosanna.” All the English translators did was use English letters (h-o-s-a-n-n-a) to make the sound of a Greek word.

But if you look in a Greek dictionary to find what it means, you know what you find? You find that it is really not originally a Greek word after all. The men who wrote the New Testament in Greek did the same thing to a Hebrew word that our English translators did to the Greek word: they just used Greek letters to make the sound of a Hebrew phrase. I know this sounds sort of complicated. But it’s really not. Our English word “hosanna” comes from a Greek word “hosanna” which comes from a Hebrew phrase hoshiya na.

And that Hebrew phrase is found one solitary place in the whole Old Testament, Psalm 118:25, where it means, “Save, please!” It is a cry to God for help. Like when somebody pushes you off the diving board before you can swim and you come up hollering: “Help, save me … Hoshiya na!”

A Shift in Meaning
But something happened to that phrase, hoshiya na. The meaning changed over the years. In the psalm it was immediately followed by the exclamation: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” The cry for help, hoshiya na, was answered almost before it came out of the psalmist’s mouth. And over the centuries the phrase hoshiya na stopped being a cry for help in the ordinary language of the Jews. Instead it became a shout of hope and exultation. It used to mean, “Save, please!” But gradually, it came to mean, “Salvation! Salvation! Salvation has come!” It used to be what you would say when you fell off the diving board. But it came to be what you would say when you see the lifeguard coming to save you! It is the bubbling over of a heart that sees hope and joy and salvation on the way and can’t keep it in.

So “Hosanna!” means, “Hooray for salvation! It’s coming! It’s here! Salvation! Salvation!”

And “Hosanna to the Son of David!” means, “The Son of David is our salvation! Hooray for the king! Salvation belongs to the king!”

And “Hosanna in the highest!” means, “Let all the angels in heaven join the song of praise. Salvation! Salvation! Let the highest heaven sing the song!”

Two Kinds of Hosannas
Picture a Super Bowl game, and (believe it or not) the Jets are three points ahead of the New York Giants (or as some call them, the New York Giants Football). The Giants are on their own 35 and have no more time outs. There are two seconds remaining on the clock. The Jets’ fans are going wild. The Giants line up, fake a pass to the receivers on the left sideline, and run a wide sweep around the right end, and Eli Manning breaks into the open and heads down the right sideline—40–45-50–45. The only hope for the Jets is Kerry Rhodes, the safety, cutting a diagonal across the field. And out of the Jets’ grandstand come two kinds of hosannas, the old kind and the new kind. One part of the crowd is yelling: “Catch him! Catch him, Kerry!” (That’s the old hosanna.) The other part of the crowd is yelling, “You got him! You got him, Kerry!” (That’s the new hosanna.) The word moved from plea to praise; from cry to confidence.

So when we say “Hosanna”, let’s make it personal. Let’s make it our confidence. The Son of David has come. He has saved us from guilt and fear and hopelessness. Salvation! Salvation belongs to our God and to the Son! Hosanna! Hosanna in the highest!

B. "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord"
a quotation from Psalm 118:26, part of the Hallel sung especially at Passover

C. "Blessed is the kingdom of our father David, that cometh in the name of the Lord"
This cry is their own acknowledgment of Jesus as the fulfiller of the prophecy this cry is a messianic tribute

D. "Hosanna in the highest"
"The final Hosanna. . . is an appeal for God to inaugurate the era of salvation. [It] expresses a popular type of messianic hope without identifying Jesus as the Messiah. Despite the enthusiasm of their homage, there is no awareness on the part of the peope that the time of fulfillment has actually arrived and that the Kingdom has actually drawn near in the person of Jesus [Christ] himself" (Wm. Lane, NICNT. p. 398).

III. Zechariah's Prophecy and What It Teaches

A. Stated in the present (Zechariah 9:9, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.)
He is "righteous, victorious, and humble"... His triumph is complete.

B. Stated in the future (Zechariah 9:10, I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.)
His triumph is universal dominion—as a result of which war will be abolished and peace will extend to the ends of the earth.

Conclusion

"Once within the city, the crowd of pilgrims... quickly dispersed. The lateness of the hour is natural enough since they had come from Jericho, nearly 18 miles away. Jesus seems to have gone to the Temple alone, maybe with the Twelve. In recording this visit to the Temple Mark has no intention of depicting Jesus as a pilgrim whom has come to Jerusalem for the first time and has a natural desire 'all things.' The point is rather that Jesus is the Lord of the Temple, who must inspect its premises to determine whether the purpose intended by God is being fulfilled... The whole of the Temple precincts are denoted in the comprehensive term used by the evangelist, but it is probable that Jesus proceeded no further than the Court of Men. His survey, which took in all that could be seen provided the ground of his action the following day. In the company of the Twelve Jesus withdrew to Bethany, as he was to do each of the successive evenings. Commentators have spoken of... the quiet ending of the (paragraph). The ending is quiet, but it is the quiet before the storm" (Wm. Lane, NICNT. p. 398)!