Suffering, Then Hosanna: Daily Thoughts from Mark (Mark 11:1-11)

I was reading Psalm 116:1, which says, “I love the Lord because He has heard my voice,” and it is certainly the case that our love for God is premised on the wonderful way in which He has heard us, really listened to us, and rescued us.  And this is certainly also a reason for telling others who don’t know Him about Him and that they too may find rescue with Him.

But it is also true, as we follow Jesus, that, like him, we are also called to suffer for His name.  And though that part may seem to put people off to knowing the Lord, it is at the same time very thing our hearts were shaped for, to give ourselves wholeheartedly and sacrificially to the love of our lives, the God who made us, and count ourselves blessed.

Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it and will send it back here immediately.’” And they went away and found a colt tied at a door outside in the street, and they untied it. And some of those standing there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” And they told them what Jesus had said, and they let them go. And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “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!”

And he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple. And when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve. (Mark 11:1-11, ESV)

Jesus is coming to die and he knows that, but when he enters Jerusalem from the east coming over the Mount of Olives, down into the valley that separates it from Jerusalem, just a short distance (2 miles), he deliberately comes in the style of Israel’s next king.  He fulfills 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.

The people recognize this and get excited at what Jesus is signaling, thinking, no doubt, that Jesus is going to make a claim to the throne and a bid to be Messiah.  So they give him the kingly welcome.  But instead of him trying to ascend the throne, he enters the temple and merely looks around, then leaves.

Jesus’ kingdom is indeed coming and he is the rightful king, the Messiah, but his purpose first is to pay our debt of sin as a sacrifice to God in our place.  No one seems prepared for this reality except Jesus.

Jesus is living out, however, the clear biblical principle that suffering must precede glory.

The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:16-17, ESV)

We must live out this principle as well as Jesus did.  The world will not receive the Lord or us but will prove itself worthy of judgment.  We will experience its wrath.  But whoever humbles himself will be exalted (Matthew 23:12).  God will recognize our suffering as He did the Lord’s and we will reign with Jesus.