A 5-day per week study.
February 11– Reading Mark 11:1-11
Read and believe in Jesus.
“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!” Mark 11:9b-10
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The Gospel according to Mark 11:1-11
Last time, we saw Jesus and His disciples moving from east of the Jordan River, through Jericho, stopping to heal blind Bartimaeus, and then going “on the way.” This means “towards Jerusalem” (and His death, which He’s been foretelling to His disciples for months). The crowds are still with Him, and many others are heading towards the Holy City too for the upcoming Passover Celebration in less than a week.
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Vss. 1-3
Bethphage and Bethany (where Mary & Martha lived) were on the east slope of the Mount of Olives, which stands just before Mt Zion, on which Jerusalem is built. Jesus tells two of his disciples to go into “the village in front of you,” (probably Bethphage). (I wonder which two He sent…)
Anyway, they would immediately find a colt tied up. (Matthew mentions that its mother was also there.) They were to untie it (them) and come back to Jesus. If anyone asked what they were doing, they were to say simply, “The Lord needs it.”
And so it happened.
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Vss 4-10.
Many of the crowds witnessed this and wondered. What was Jesus doing? Some began thinking of, and maybe quoting, the scriptures, especially when a cloak was thrown over the back of the colt, and Jesus mounted it.
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- 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!”
- Isaiah 62:11 – “Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your salvation comes; behold, His reward is with Him, and His is recompense before Him.'”
- Psalm 118:25b-25a – “Save us (Hosanna), we pray, O LORD! O LORD, we pray, give us success! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!”
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They began cutting palm and other branches, waving them and laying them down with their cloaks, on the road before Jesus: a colorful, leafy green path to the Holy City. (Jesus, with the steady hands of its creator, calmed the young colt in this chaos.)
The whispered verses from before were said aloud, then shouted with joy. He IS the king! THEY KNEW IT from when He fed the multitude in Galilee! And here He was entering the city to be crowned… to free Israel from oppression! Hallelujah! “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” Hosannah! Hosanna in the Highest!”
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(Luke 19:39-40 tells of some Pharisees coming to Jesus as he approached the city and demanding that He stop the crowds from saying these things. Jesus answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”)
(Luke 19:41-44 also mentions Jesus weeping as He nears Jerusalem. He foresees the time when the Holy City is destroyed, it and its people… “because you did not know the time of your visitation.”)
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Vs. 11.
Inside the city, Jesus dismounted and sent the donkeys back to their owner. The crowds watched or went their own way. With kingly authority, He went to the temple, “and looked around at everything.”
Jesus inspected the buildings and the grounds, missing nothing…. including the noisy moneychangers and merchants, the loud animals and birds, and their messes… in the Temple.
It was late, so He and the disciples went back to Bethany. But He would be back the next day… and they had better watch out.
Morning Meditations 