#46 The Messiah Parade
Series: Mark
Chuck Sigh
July 11, 2021
NOTE: PowerPoint presentation is available for this sermon by request at chuckcsligh@gmail.com. Please mention the title of the sermon and the Bible text to help me find the sermon in my archives
TEXT: Please turn in your Bibles to Mark 11:1
INTRODUCTION
We all love a parade, don’t we? Parades go way back in history. Military parades are as old as armies and navies have existed to intimidate opposing armies and also to celebrate victories over enemies. Major athletic events in Greek days began with a huge parade, and that has carried over to the opening parade at the start of our World Olympics today. Parades were a part of Medieval festivals and coronations of kings and queens.
Today big parades are associated with holidays, especially Thanksgiving, Christmas and Mardi Gras, but even small towns have their own parades for various events, like the homecoming football game or a local fair or festival or, in recent days, a COVID-19 graduation.
In today’s Bible text, we’re going to read about a spontaneous parade celebrating the Messiah’s entrance into Jerusalem. While most parades are the prelude to some exciting event, the Messiah Parade was a prelude to torture, humiliation and death. But it ended in the greatest triumph in all of history—the resurrection, ascension and glorification of Messiah, which resulted in the triumph of God over sin and the grave.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Let’s look at this parade, otherwise known as “The Triumphal Entry,” in Mark 11:1-11.
Chapter 11 marks the beginning of the Passion narrative which extends all the way to the end of Mark’s gospel. This means that fully one-third of the entire book of Mark records the events of the last 7 days of Jesus’ life. The disproportionate amount of space in Mark’s gospel devoted to this brief period in Jesus’ life indicates the significance of Jesus’ final week in understanding Jesus’ purpose on earth and the Godhead’s plan for humanity.
So let’s jump into our text this morning:
I. IN VERSES 1-6 WE SEE INITIATION.
In these verses, Jesus initiates the inevitable events of the Passion week. Jesus is not just standing by, waiting to see what happens. Jesus initiates the events and choreographs each step—all the way to the end.
Look with me first at verses 1-3 – “And when they came nigh to Jerusalem, unto Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount of Olives, he sendeth forth two of his disciples, 2 And saith unto them, ‘Go your way into the village over against you: and as soon as ye have entered into it, ye shall find a colt tied, whereon never a man sat; loose him, and bring him. 3 And if any man say unto you, ‘Why do ye this?’ say ye that the Lord hath need of him; and straightaway he will send him hither.’”
Although Christ’s Messiah Parade was spontaneous from the standpoint of the multitudes on their way to the Passover celebrations in Jerusalem, in fact, Jesus had made elaborate preparations for it.
• First, we know from many scriptures it was pre-ordained in eternity.
• Second, it was prophesied by Old Testament prophets of the coming Messiah.
• And in each of the gospels, we see how Jesus made actual preparation for it.
Verse 1 tells us that they travelled to nearby Jerusalem, Bethphage and Bethany until they got to the Mount of Olives. This is significant because, according to Zechariah 14:4, the Mount of Olives would be where the final judgment will take place and was long associated by rabbis with the coming of the Messiah.
Once there, Jesus sent two disciples into Bethphage, a village close to Jerusalem, with instructions to look for a colt as they entered the village, to untie it and to bring it to Jesus.
R. Kent Hughes points out how critics have often portrayed Jesus as “attempting to turn the wheel of history, only to be crushed Himself.” But the gospel writers do not portray Jesus as a hapless bystander caught up in a maelstrom of events beyond His control. No, Jesus Himself took the initiative in the entrance into Jerusalem and all the events that were to follow. It was all done according to Jesus’ precise foreknowledge and control.
In verses 4-6, the disciples followed Jesus’ instructions: “And they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door outside on the street; and they loosed him. 5 And certain of them who stood there said unto them, “What do ye, loosing the colt?” 6 And they said unto them even as Jesus had commanded: and they let them go.”
Mark records the disciples carrying out instructions Jesus had given them, and things happened EXACTLY as Jesus said it would. Well, of course they would! Jesus was Messiah and on top of that, He was God in human form. Foreknowledge would be what you would expect from the Messiah God-man.
II. IN VERSES 7-9 WE OBSERVE ACCLAMATION.
Look at verses 7-8 first: “And they brought the colt to Jesus, and cast their garments on him; and he sat upon him. 8 And many spread their garments in the way: and others cut down branches off the trees, and spread them in the way.”
They brought the colt to Jesus, so the disciples threw their cloaks on the beast to make a sort of makeshift saddle.
Jesus got on the unbroken animal and the animal meekly accepted its Master. Riding an unbroken animal without it bucking points to Jesus’ deity. Only God could cause an unbroken animal to willingly accept its rider without it instantly jumping and bucking and trying to cast off its rider. All of God’s creatures, except humans, immediately submit to God’s authority. Once on the colt, Jesus turned it towards Jerusalem and His preordained path.
Already, the people were pumped by the amazing miracles Jesus performed on His pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Though not mentioned in Mark, John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead after being in the grave three days—His greatest miracle ever—and so an entourage started following Jesus to Jerusalem. Then, just before His Messiah Parade in this chapter, Jesus had healed blind Bartimaeus, which we saw last time we were in Mark, in Mark 10. This caused more people to follow Jesus’ company, and word filtered into Jerusalem of the coming of Jesus.
John tells us in John 12:9-11 that many people were believing on Jesus. Tension was building in Jerusalem, but so also was expectation. The whole city was abuzz with discussion about it. The Passover was just days away. What would Jesus do?—What would the authorities do?
When Jesus comes to the edge of Jerusalem, the crowds suddenly explode in spontaneous rejoicing. It was finally happening!—The Messiah was arriving!—It was time! As He came into the city, they gave Jesus a royal welcome. They threw their garments on the ground as Jesus rode by. This harkens back to the welcome Jehu received when he was proclaimed king in 2 Kings 9:13, which says the people “hurried and took their garments and spread them under him on the steps, and blew with trumpets, shouting, ‘Jehu is king!’” Throwing garments into the path of a king was also practiced by Romans.
However, the multitudes didn’t see Jesus as just A king, but THE king they had waited centuries for—the Messiah, for this entire passage is suffused with messianic significance.
Riding into Jerusalem on a colt of a donkey was prophesied of Messiah. The events in our text took place during the Passover season in which pilgrims would walk from their villages and towns on foot, NOT on beasts of burden. But Jesus rode in on an animal…as was typical of kings.
Mark’s version of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem fulfilled all three aspects of Zechariah 9:9, a prophecy of the coming of the Messiah, including...
• His ENTRY, where Zechariah prophesied: “See your king comes…”
• The MESSIANIC ANIMAL, where Zechariah said Messiah would be “…riding upon an ass, even upon a colt, the foal of an ass.”
• And third, the REJOICING OF THE PEOPLE, where Zechariah says, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion.”
The spreading of green branches was commonly done at the arrival of a king in ancient times…so this again reinforced the idea that the masses of people were welcoming who they believed to be Messiah who would serve as their king.
Now look at verse 9: “And they who went before, and they who followed, cried, saying, ‘Hosanna; Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord: 10 Blessed be the kingdom of our father David, who cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest.’”
All eyes are on Jesus as He makes His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. People recognize Him as King with mounting joy and rejoicing.
They sing out in what is known as “antiphonal” singing, where a short musical sentence is sung or recited alternately by two groups. One group would shout, “Hosanna!”, which means, “Save us now!” The second group would answer: “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” Then the first group would shout back in reply, “Hosanna in the highest!”
The first phrase was a customary greeting as pilgrims marched into Jerusalem during Passover, but the second statement—“Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!”—was novel. There’s no record of pilgrims ever saying this before. This was something new. Obviously, they added this statement because they strongly believed that Messiah would restore the kingdom of David in Jerusalem, and they thought that Messiah was JESUS! Their “Hosanna!”—“God save us!”—was a plaintive cry to Messiah to save them from their Roman oppressors, not a reference to salvation from sin.
III. FINALLY, IN VERSE 11, WE SEE OBSERVATION – “And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: and when he had looked around about on everything, since it was now late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.”
After entering Jerusalem, Jesus goes straight to the Temple, where He looks around. As we’ll see next week, Jesus was not happy with what He saw. The next day Jesus would do something that needed to be done a long time before—He’d cleanse the Temple and run out the greedy moneychangers—an act that would infuriate the religious leaders and incite them to plot His death. And that would precipitate a storm of cosmic consequences.
But for the moment, it was now late in the day, so Jesus retired to Bethany with His disciples to gather His spiritual strength for the coming events. This is the proverbial “calm before the storm,” but make no mistake: the storm is coming! In fact, already the storm clouds are gathering. The Godhead’s eternal plan of salvation was about to unfold.
CONCLUSION
What can we gain by way of personal application by studying this passage of scripture?
1) First, remember that Jesus is in the driver’s seat—in His own story…and in our story.
At no time in this whole passage is Jesus portrayed as inert, powerless, the victim of circumstances. Nor was Jesus plummeting recklessly into unknown dangers. The whole atmosphere of the last days of Christ on earth is charged with the impression of forethought, deliberation, intent and control. Nothing catches Jesus by surprise; no detail escapes Him; HE is in control of every element of the Passion story from start to finish.
And you know what?—This is no less true in our own lives! When we go through a struggle or a crisis, or when things go wrong, it doesn’t catch God by surprise. There’s not an emergency meeting of the Trinity to decide what to do. God isn’t fretting about what’s going to happen or how it’ll turn out. God, in His sovereignty and wisdom, knows exactly what will happen to you, how He will minister to you in the midst of it, how you will survive it and how you will learn and grow from it. HE’S in the driver’s seat! We need to let Jesus steer us from the waters of tribulation to His safe harbor.
We often speak of incidents in our lives that we thought were bad, but which God turns into good in our lives. God even turns the evil things PEOPLE do in our lives into good for us and for others.
Illus. – Joseph was sold into slavery to some travelling Ishmaelites by his own jealous brothers, who in turn sold him to a rich landowner in Egypt. What kind of brothers would do such an evil thing?—Some pretty bad dudes, that what! The details of the story is too long to tell here, but the short version is that because of God’s presence, Joseph keeps getting promoted, but then he goes through one letdown after another, ending up in prison on false charges.
But finally, through a series of fortuitous events orchestrated by God, Joseph is called from prison to interpret a dream Pharaoh had had, and he tells Pharoah it means Egypt would go through 7 years of plenty and 7 years of drought, and what needed to be done to head off the impact of the extensive drought. Pharaoh is so impressed with him that he makes him the chief administrator of Egypt to store up food during the 7 years of plenty to be available during the 7 years of drought.
The drought in Egypt also caused a shortage of food in Canaan, so Joseph’s father, Jacob, sends his sons to buy grain in Egypt. They’re brought to Joseph who recognizes them immediately, but they do not recognize him. Joseph does some things to test his brothers to see if they had changed—and they pass the test.
He finally chooses to reveal his identity to the brothers, and when he does, they’re terror-stricken, expecting him to retaliate for selling him to the Ishmaelites, which caused all his suffering and trials. They prostrated themselves before Joseph in fear and trembling, but listen to what he said to them: “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many should be kept alive.” (Genesis 50:19-20)
Joseph lived for probably at least 10 years in slavery and in prison, and all of it was his brothers’ fault! But he recognized that God is wise and sovereign over all, and in His wisdom and sovereignty, He saw fit to allow Joseph to suffer ignominy and the debasement of slavery and prison life. God used the evil of Joseph’s brothers to save the lives of millions from starvation, and even the lives of Joseph’s family.
Listen, God may choose to allow you to go through some difficult trials in life, but never think God has lost control. He knows what’s going on, and if He allows you to suffer, He has a reason that will turn out for good in your life or in the lives of others. TRUST in Him through your struggles. He has a reason for it, and it will be for good.
Don’t put your faith in man’s wisdom or in people or institutions. Make sure Jesus is piloting your life.
Illus. – Several years ago, a national magazine assigned a photographer to take pictures of a forest fire. They told him a small plane would be waiting at the airport to fly him over the fire. The photographer arrived at the airstrip an hour before sundown. Sure enough, a small Cessna plane stood waiting. He jumped in with his equipment and shouted, “Let’s go!”
The pilot, looking tense, turned the plane into the wind, and soon they were in the air, though they were flying erratically.
“Fly over the north side of the fire,” said the photographer, “and make several low-level passes.”
“Why?” asked the nervous pilot.
“Because I’m going to take pictures!” yelled the photographer. “I’m a photographer, and photographers take pictures.”
The pilot replied, “You mean you’re not the flight instructor?”
Only Jesus will pilot you through the trials and struggles and suffering in this life.
2) My second personal application is this: Stick with Jesus.
William Barclay points out in his commentary on Mark that as clueless and vain and sometimes even comical as the Twelve were, we must commend them for this: They were still with Jesus. From their limited point of view, it must have appeared to them by now that Jesus was intent on committing suicide. True, in the last days, when everything seemed to them to fall apart, they fled Jesus, and one denied Him three times and one betrayed Him. But it says something in their favor that now, little as they understood what was happening, they still were standing by Him.
No matter how bad things look for you; no matter what’s going on in your life; no matter how your world seems to be falling apart—stick close to Jesus. That’s a great way to end this sermon: Stick with Jesus. Stick with Him through thick or thin; in good times and bad; in every situation of life; stick with Jesus.
