What do we think of when we think about conquering heroes? We think of General MacArthur saying, “I shall return!” We think of John Paul Jones telling the British, “I have not yet begun to fight.” We think of Teddy Roosevelt charging up San Juan Hill. We think of the allied tanks rolling into Berlin during the final days of World War II and blowing the swastika off the top of a building.
Whatever we think of, it often has the feeling of strength. It seems that there is always some show of force accompanying a conquering hero. They come riding in a tank. In days gone by they rode a mighty horse.
Often there is a sense of relief, if the conqueror is a liberator. If freedom from oppression is the goal there is a sense of jubilation. It was interesting this week as the Iraqi people celebrated in the streets. For nearly thirty years, they had been under the oppression of a ruthless leader. That is my entire lifetime. There is joy in Iraq, because the oppression has ended. One thing that is interesting about the United States’ allies is that many of them are eastern European countries. They have not forgotten the oppression that they were under during the forty years of the Cold War. They understand oppression, and they are seeking to stamp it out.
I say all this not for a history lesson, but rather as a means of understanding the beginning of a strange week almost 2000 years ago. That week was the most important week in human history. So much attention is given to Christmas in the church world. Look at the New Testament. The Christmas story covers a couple chapters, but the last week of Jesus’ life covers some 28 chapters in the gospels. The whole story of the gospels is building up to this all-important week.
Our job is to let the world know, not about Christmas, but about Easter. If it weren’t for Easter, and the events leading up to that point, there would mean nothing. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:23, “But we preach Christ crucified,” not “We preach Christ born in a barn.” The next seven days are the most important days to the Christian. It all started as Jesus was headed to Jerusalem for the Passover feast. This is where our passage picks up today.
Turn with me to Mark 11.
Read Mark 11:1-11.
The first question that comes to mind is “What is all the hullabaloo about?”
This occurs as thousands of people are coming to Jerusalem for the Passover feast. People are, in a sense, going home for the holidays. I remember that old Christmas song, “From Atlantic to Pacific, oh the traffic is terrific.” Traffic was the name of the game on the roads leading into Jerusalem.
When we went to Florida for Christmas, the traffic was terrific. All through South Carolina and into Georgia, it was nearly bumper-to-bumper. People were scrambling to get to family or friends for the holidays. Traffic did lighten up some when we passed the exit that took travelers to Disney World. It was almost impossible to find a parking space at gas stations and rest areas. It’s against that sort of backdrop that this happens.
Jesus tells his disciples to go into a town and get him a colt, which was a young donkey. I have always been told that this was evidence of Jesus’ supernatural understanding and foresight. It is possible that he had made arrangements beforehand, on a previous trip to the area. Jesus knew, throughout his earthly ministry, what he was going to do. Either way, Jesus knew what he was doing, and what was going to happen in the week ahead. The disciples obediently went into the town and retrieved the animal.
To this mass of people walking to Jerusalem, the sight of someone riding, would stick out. It’s kind of like when we see a limo cruising down the street. It’s an instant attention grabber. It says, “Hey, there is something unusual about this person.” Everyone is walking, and all of sudden there is a head bobbing up and down above the rest of the crowd. Attention is immediately focused on Jesus.
Jesus had developed a reputation as a great prophet and miracle worker. There was also a high level of expectancy about a conquering hero who would come and remove the Roman government from the land of Israel. People put 2 and 2 together, and they decided that Jesus was this conqueror.
They gave him a royal welcome. It was customary that when a king would arrive in a town for the people to spread their outer garments on the road as a sign of respect for the great hero. They would also lay leafy branches on the road. They knew that Jesus was their conquering hero.
When someone famous stops in towns there is expectancy. Everyone is trying to get a glimpse of the star of the day. The enthusiasm is contagious. Everyone soon wants to be in on the action. The word spreads quickly that someone famous is around. The crowd grows bigger. People drop what they are doing to see what is going on.
People were flooding in from all around the area to catch a glimpse of Jesus. They wanted to be able to tell their grandchildren that they saw the great conquering hero as he came into Jerusalem to kick out the Roman oppressors.
They just knew that Jesus would ride into Jerusalem and kick the Romans out. They just knew that would happen. They had no doubt. For hundreds of years the land of Israel had been oppressed and under the control of outside forces. From the Assyrians and Babylonians in the Old Testament to Alexander the Great and the Romans of more recent times, they had not been free. Now, once and for all that would be solved, because Jesus had arrived.
Jesus was making claims to be a conqueror, but it was a different kind of conqueror than the people expected.
The act of him riding into town on a donkey was a statement that he was the Messiah. In the prophet Zechariah we read, “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.” People understood this to refer to the Messiah, and Jesus is making a claim to be the Messiah by riding this donkey.
The problem is that the people don’t understand what is going on. Have you ever misunderstood something? I remember one time that I misunderstood something. I was in the sixth grade. I had been placed in an advanced math group, so the teacher told us to work through the book on our own. We had to read our math assignments, do the problems and turn it in. No problem, it was pretty easy. I came to this one section about multiplying and dividing by 10, 100, 1000 and so on. I read the book, and for some reason, I didn’t get it. The lesson said something like, “When you multiply by 10, you move the decimal point one place to the right, and when you divide by 10, you move the decimal point one place to the left.” And so on it went for 100, 1000 and on. I misunderstood that. I didn’t realize that was the result when you multiply by 10. I thought that you had to move the decimal point after you multiplied. To give you an example of what I did, let’s think about 2 x 10. What is that? Twenty. Well, I took the 20 and moved the decimal point to the right, so I came up with 200. I did that on all the problems for that section. Needless to say I got all of them wrong. I was so amazed that I got them wrong, until I went back and reread the section. It wasn’t telling me that you had to move the decimal point; it was saying that the result was a moved decimal point.
In a similar fashion, the people greeting Jesus as a king didn’t understand what was going on. Earlier, I mentioned Teddy Roosevelt charging up San Juan Hill. What was Teddy Roosevelt riding when he charged up San Juan Hill? He was riding a donkey. Right? Not quite, he was on a horse. We sing, “Yankee Doodle went to town riding on a donkey.” Right? No, he’s riding on a pony.
The horse is a sign of offensive power. Horses, especially before mechanized warfare, we symbols of strength and power. When a king rode into a town on a donkey, it was a symbol of peace. After all, how is he going to charge someone while he’s riding a donkey?
Perhaps the people were caught up in the excitement, and that fact was lost on them. They knew that he would save them from the oppression of Rome.
The shouted, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” They shouted these four phrases.
The first phrase is “Hosanna!” Hosanna has come to mean praise God, but that is not the meaning that the crowd had in mind. It literally means, “Save now,” with the implication that it is God who would do the saving. The people wanted to be saved from Roman authority.
They did not understand that Jesus had come to save from oppression, but it was not the oppression from Roman rule. It was the oppression from sin.
The second phrase is, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” They knew that God had sent Jesus. The understanding was that God would anoint a great man, like he had anointed the kings of Israel’s past, and that great man would throw off the oppressors and set up God’s kingdom on earth, and Israel would return to the glory days.
They did not understand that Jesus just didn’t come from God he was God. They thought of the Messiah only in human terms. They couldn’t conceive that Jesus was God in the flesh. Their expectation was that God would select a great leader, like he had selected King David in the Old Testament.
The third phrase is, “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” David was considered as the greatest king in the history of Israel. God had a special relationship with David. God had also promised that the Messiah would come through David’s descendants. They were expecting the restoration of the “good ol’ days.” The glory of Israel would return. Israel had been a respected regional power during the reign of David. They were at relative peace. There was prosperity and unity. Things were great during that period. The crowd now expected a return to that time.
They did not understand that Jesus’ kingdom would not be an earthly kingdom. It would be, and is, a spiritual kingdom. Earthly kings die, and their kingdoms are often divided among the heirs. They soon become mere shadows of the times past. Jesus’ spiritual kingdom will not pass away. It will not be divided. It will last forever.
The fourth phrase is, “Hosanna in the highest!” Here again we encounter the phrase, “Save now,” but with an addition. Basically, this means, “Save now, O Great One.” It is again an appeal to save from earthly oppressors.
They did not understand what kind of salvation Jesus was bringing.
It is easy for us 20 centuries later to accuse these people of not getting it. With the vantage point we have, looking back on the events of that day, we can say, “Wow, how did they miss that? Why couldn’t they understand what Jesus was doing?” It is easy to do that, but the thing to ask is “Would I have gotten it?” Or, perhaps we should ask, “Do I get it now?”
What kind of Savior do we expect Jesus to be? Many times we don’t get it, even with the advantage of looking back on the events. Sometimes we think of Jesus as our earthly Savior. We expect him to set up his kingdom here on Earth, so our lives will be better. We expect him to bail us out of trouble.
Some Christians work so hard, on both ends of the political spectrum, to their candidate elected to office, so we can usher in a golden age of Christian rule. Sometimes we are more concerned with the political success of our candidate that we neglect the work that Christ told us to do.
Noted columnist, Cal Thomas, once wrote, “Our salvation is not going to come on Air Force One.” He meant that we are not going to elect our Savior. Souls will not be saved because of political action. Touching the lives of people will save souls.
I am not saying that Christians should not be active in politics. If you feel that God wants you run for office, then do it. There is nothing wrong with having Christians in places of influence in the political process. The problem comes when we begin to see the political process as our means to saving souls.
We believe, sometimes, that the gospel will be spread faster through political process than any other way.
What those people misunderstood 2000 years ago is what we misunderstand today. Jesus did not come to be the king, president, prime minister, or leader of a political system. He came to be the king, president, prime minister, and leader of our lives.
Our time is better spent spreading the gospel of salvation through Jesus’ death on the Cross. We will never be able to legislate Christianity. If the government reverses its stance on abortion, little will change. Abortions will still happen. We can have much more impact on our society if we work so Jesus can change hearts and minds. If Jesus changes someone’s heart and mind regarding abortion, he can change other people’s minds about abortion. The result will be that hearts and minds will be changed. The law is not the issue in salvation, the heart is. So many times we try to appease our conscience by changing laws, when Jesus calls us to change hearts.
Jesus can be the Lord of our lives today. He can change our heart. He is not the earthly conquering hero, but he can conquer sin in our lives. He can give us relationship with God. That’s what this week is about. It’s about the opportunity for each and every one of us to have that relationship, and our responsibility to share that opportunity with others.
