Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
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Mark 11:1-11
Jesus Comes to Jerusalem as King
1As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, 2saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’ ”
4They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, 5some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” 6They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. 7When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. 8Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. 9Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,
“Hosanna!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
10“Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!”
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
11Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.
Today’s reading is a familiar one – Mark’s account of the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. For the perspective of the church calendar, it’s the story we remember on Palm Sunday. And since it’s the account in the Gospel of Mark, that means that it’s an eyewitness account, since we understand Mark to be based on the remembrances of Peter, who was a member of Jesus’ ‘inner circle’ of disciples.
It’s a story we sort of like – a cheerful occasion right before the tragic story of the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus. But it’s also a story that includes a bunch of important theological details. Those details point to the meaning of the event that took place at the city gate, and they also remind us of the reason that the Jewish religious leadership found Jesus so threatening.
First of all, though, it’s probably important to remind ourselves that this ‘triumphal entry’ wasn’t the only triumphal entry in history. In the ancient world, it was fairly common practice for a king or a conquering general to enter a city in this fashion if the city had surrendered to him or if he was just making a state visit to a part of his domains. Typically, it would be a military parade with the king or general at the head of his army, either riding in a chariot or mounted on a war horse.
So that would make the Triumphal Entry of Jesus almost a parody of the typical event of its kind. Instead of a prancing war horse, Jesus was riding on a colt. According to the other gospel accounts, it was actually a young donkey, and donkeys were considered humble animals. Instead of an army in battle armor, Jesus was surrounded by a crowd of peasants and religious pilgrims. So this would have seemed like the strangest triumphal entry anyone had ever seen – it might even have seemed to the leadership of the city and the Roman authorities that Jesus was making fun of them by the way he was coming into Jerusalem.
And for the religious leadership, at least, this triumphal entry included details that would have been especially threatening. The crowd around Jesus was shouting out lines from the psalms, and some of those lines specifically referred to the Messiah whose coming had been foretold. Like, for instance, the reference to “the coming kingdom of our father David.” (And of course, the prophets had said that the Messiah would be born into the line of David.) So, although the people weren’t specifically saying, “This is the Messiah!” the things they were shouting out certainly would have pointed in that direction.
They were also calling out the Hebrew term hosanna, which meant, “Save us, please!” So to have a big mob of the faithful begging for rescue from someone you consider a dangerous heretic – that would have seemed like fingernails on a chalkboard to the Hebrew leadership. And on top of all that, people were taking off their clothes and spreading them on the road ahead of Jesus, which was a symbolic way of indicating that they acknowledged Jesus as having authority over their lives. Even the part about riding a young donkey had been foretold by the prophets.
And, as you might remember, this took place right before the celebration of the Passover, when Jews and God-fearing gentiles came from all over the known world. The Jewish historian Josephus said that some years there were two million pilgrims in and around Jerusalem at the Passover. So the authorities must have feared that the masses of worshippers could get out of control in their allegiance to Jesus.
To us, the story of the Triumphal Entry is sort of cheerful and charming. Some accounts include people scattering flowers and waving palm branches. We have Palm Sunday hymns that have lyrics about children singing happily. But to the religious and civil authorities in Jerusalem, it must have been a deeply unnerving spectacle. Thousands of people were acknowledging Jesus as a figure representing the power of God. It was out of their control, and it only hardened the authorities’ resolve to get rid of him – one way or another.
Let’s pray. Lord, it is sometimes startling how threatening it can be to the powers of this world when you move to accomplish you purposes. It’s especially startling to see those who believe they are acting in your name adopt the tools of worldly power to protect their own authority and privilege. Give us the courage to follow you with confidence, trusting in your gracious love to rescue us from all the evils of this world. Amen.
Grace and Peace,
Henry
(The other readings for today are Psalms 135 and 145: Isaiah 63:1-6; and I Timothy 1:1-17. Our readings come from the NIV Bible, as posted on Biblica.com, the website of the International Bible Society.)
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