A False Coronation

Mark 11:1-11

1. INTRODUCTION

2. BODY

a. The details leading to the Coronation (거짓 대관식의 세부사항) (11:1-6)

i. Verse 1, the story begins with Jesus approaching Jerusalem. It says that Jesus and His disciples were approaching Jerusalem at Bethpage and Bethany, which was near the Mount of Olives. The focus here, the point Mark is trying to make is that Jesus approached the Mount of Olives. Why is this important? Already before David’s time the Mount of Olives had been a place of worship (2 Sam 15:32). At the fall of Jerusalem in 586 b.c. Ezekiel had a vision of the glory of the Lord departing from Jerusalem and settling on the Mount of Olives (Ezekiel 11:23). According to Zechariah 14:4 the Mount of Olives would be the site of final judgment.

ii. The point here is that, Mark is trying to associate the messianic significance with Jesus’s entry to the Mount of Olives. Simply, to show that Jesus is the Messiah. At the end of verse 1, it says that when they were near the Mount of Olives, He sent two disciples.

iii. Verse 2 tracks what instructions He had given to His disciples. It is interesting that it does not note who these disciples were. Jesus tells His two disciples to go into the city and look for a donkey. But He is very specific with this donkey. He says specifically, look for a donkey that nobody yet has ever sat, untie that donkey and bring it to me. It’s interesting that Jesus says that nobody yet has ever sat on this donkey. It seems to allude to an animal given special value in the OT which was used for religious purpose (Nu. 19:2; Dt. 21:3; 1 Sa. 6:7), but also shows that just as nobody can ride a king’s donkey, because Jesus was king, nobody rode that donkey or was allowed to ride that donkey prior to Jesus.

iv. It’s interesting to note that this passage seems to give the idea that this was all planned by Jesus prior. There is no mention that all of this was planned and it could be that Jesus was revealing His sovereignty.

v. Verse 3, Jesus tells them that if anyone asks you “Why are you doing this?” You will say “The Lord has need of it.” Interesting here that if someone was to ask the disciples, they were to reply by saying the Lord has need of it. Now Lord here could be confusing with the people because they would be asking knowing who this donkey belongs to. Yet, they were to reply by saying the Lord, Lord here meaning not the owner but rather, God. God was displaying again, His messianic authority.

vi. Verse 4, so they go into the city and they look for this donkey and behold they find it. So they untie the donkey and are about to take it.

vii. Verse 5, Some of the people on the street see them and ask them “what are you doing? Why are you untying the colt? Funny that they ask exactly the question that was explained in verse 3.

viii. Verse 6, shows the simplicity of their reply. What I love about their reply is their simple trust in what Christ has said. We have to remember that the disciples at this junction didn’t have a great track record. They have not been known in trusting in God, but in this circumstance, they were able to trust in Him.

ix. It just reminded me of the idea going back to 10:40. Remember this was the section where John and James wanted to sit at Jesus’s right and left hand and Jesus responds to them in verse 40 by telling them, this is not mine to give, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared. It goes to show that if this colt has been prepared, then when the time comes, those for whom it has been prepared will also be prepared to trust in God in childlike faith. God doesn’t just simply prepare us, but when the time comes, makes sure that we can accept what has been prepared.

b. The climax of the inauguration (거짓 대관식의 클라이맥스)(11:7-10)

i. Verse 7, Now we see the drama has built up and the disciples have brought this donkey to Jesus. They bring this colt to Him and they put their coats on it and Jesus sits on the donkey. Unlike Matt 21:5 and John 12:15, Mark does not overtly identify Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem with the messianic quotation from Zech 9:9.

ii. Verse 8 tells us that people saw Christ coming and acknowledged who He was and spread their coats and leafy branches before Him. The spreading of cloaks and branches before Jesus is, of course, suggestive of the ceremonious welcome of a king.

iii. Verse 9 The shout of “Hosanna” is a transliterated Hebrew word meaning, literally, “Save, I pray.” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’ ” (Ps 118:25–26) referred not to the Messiah but to pilgrims entering the temple sanctuary, meaning that the pilgrim is blessed in God’s name. “Hosanna” is properly a prayer invoking God’s saving action (“save us”), but through liturgical use it came to be dissociated from its original meaning and could be used as a shout of acclamation (like “Hallelujah”) or as a greeting in addressing pilgrims.

iv. Why is this significant? It’s telling us that everyone who comes in the name of Jesus is blessed. Obviously, although it meant something then, it means a lot more today. It tells us that everyone who comes in the name of Christ is blessed. What a profound statement that is then and that it is now.

v. Verse 10 is just an extension, a commentary of verse 9. What does it mean for those who come in the name of the Lord? It means that we are blessed in the coming kingdom of our father David. This phrase coming kingdom of our father David is interesting because Jesus has preached about a kingdom that would come over and over. Yet, it says here that this coming kingdom is about David. The kingdom of David has an altogether more political and nationalistic ring. Jesus can have expected no less; David is not mentioned at that point in Zechariah (but see 12:7–13:1), but the king riding in triumph into Jerusalem as ‘your king’ is clearly modelled on David. But it seems that Jesus is stating that He is a king like David, but greater than he is.

vi. There are of course subtle messianic undertones in Jesus’ riding a colt into Jerusalem as the gentle and peaceable Messiah of Zechariah 9, but it is doubtful whether the crowd or authorities grasped their full significance. Like that of countless other Passover pilgrims to Jerusalem, Jesus’ entry was apparently regarded by the masses as a pilgrimage rather than as a messianic triumph.

vii. This is all followed by Hosanna in the highest. The final Hosanna (Save us, thou who dwellest in the highest) is an appeal for God to inaugurate the era of salvation. Although it has great meaning to us, there is no awareness on the part of the people that the time of fulfilment has actually arrived and that the Kingdom has actually drawn near in the person of Jesus himself.

c. The twist of the inauguration (거짓 대관식의 트위스트)(11:11)

i. Now at this point, we would expect that a great inauguration would happen. We would expect the whole city to come and honor Christ. That’s where we read verse 11.

ii. Verse 11 says Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple and immediately left. It’s strange that all of these people were celebrating Jesus prior to His entry into the city, and upon entering the city, nobody was there to celebrate His entry. Rather, He immediately heads straight for the temple, looks around and leaves.

iii. The clamoring crowds mysteriously vanish. In a complete anticlimax, Mark reports that the hour was late and that Jesus departed with the Twelve for Bethany.

iv. When you read your bible, this section of the Bible, what we read on Easter, this is the triumphant entry, yet nothing happens. Matthew 21:10 gives us the perfect understanding of this passage. They ask, “Who is this?” The whole scene comes to nothing. Like the seed in the parable of the sower that receives the word with joy but has no root and lasts but a short time (4:6, 16–17), the crowd disperses as mysteriously as it assembled.

v. What is the take away? It goes back to the point of 9:31. It goes to show that Jesus’s inauguration will be at the cross. It will not be through what man’s method, but God’s method. Jesus enters the temple alone, and having sized it up, he leaves for Bethany with the disciples. This is the first of Mark’s clues that the temple is not the habitation of God’s Son. Jesus is indeed the Messiah, but he is veiled and unrecognized.

vi. The reality of our Lord is not that of great wealth or recognition. Just as Isaiah 53:2 says, He has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon Him, Nor His appearance that we should be attracted to Him. The reality is, there will be many Christians who say they follow Jesus just like the entrance into Jerusalem. But the reality is, most will disappear at His coming. May we be found faithful to His coming, May we look to the cross and His resurrection and be found in His death and resurrection.

3. CONCLUSION