Latest revision as of 16:18, 20 March 2024

Theological Proposition/Focus: The right way to welcome King Jesus is by forming a community dedicated to prayer built on the foundation of faith.

Homiletical Proposition/Application: We must determine to make prayer, faith, and forgiveness the stalwarts of God's community that we call Southview.

Introduction: Memory Verse: 1 Peter 5:7

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Image: An underwhelming response

Have you ever come home with what you thought was the most exciting news, funny story, or significant event only to tell the story and realize that nobody else understood the significance of the event? A couple of weeks ago Emily and I were flying and I decided to work on a particular technique that I had not trained on in almost 20 years. I flew the procedure and everything just fell into place. I was so excited but I really don't think Emily understood the significance. I told her that I nailed it and she looked at me like "it felt like every other landing." So, I got out my phone and texted my brother to tell him about my victory.

When we look at the triumphal entry we often see the grandeur and celebration but in reality, the triumphal entry is kind of a non event. Significant yes, but it seems largely lost on the rest of the people.

Preview: The Triumphal Entry did not result in the coronation that many expected because God's community was failing. We must make prayer, faith, and forgiveness central as we welcome King Jesus.

Text: Mark 11:1-25 read in sections with each main point

Setting the Stage:

As we head toward Easter today we are going to spend some time in the Gospel of Mark. Overall, the Gospel of Mark presents Jesus as the Son of God, the suffering servant, and the bringer of God's kingdom, inviting readers to respond in faith, discipleship, and allegiance to him. Mark, probably writing from the perspective of Peter emphasizes several themes in the Gospel.

The Gospel of Mark emphasizes several key themes:

• The Kingdom of God: Mark portrays Jesus as the herald of the Kingdom of God, proclaiming its imminence and demonstrating its power through his teachings, miracles, and actions. The kingdom is presented as breaking into human history through Jesus' ministry, inviting people to repentance, faith, and discipleship.
• The Messiahship of Jesus: Mark presents Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah (Christ), fulfilling Old Testament prophecies and expectations. However, Mark's portrayal of the Messiah differs from popular Jewish expectations of a conquering king; instead, Jesus is depicted as the suffering servant who came to serve and give his life as a ransom for many.
• Discipleship and Following Jesus: Throughout the Gospel, Mark emphasizes the call to discipleship and the cost of following Jesus. Discipleship involves self-denial, taking up one's cross, and following Jesus wholeheartedly, even in the face of opposition and suffering.
• The Authority of Jesus: Mark highlights Jesus' authority in his teaching, exorcisms, healing miracles, and power over nature. This authority is contrasted with the skepticism and opposition of religious leaders and others who fail to recognize Jesus' true identity.
• The Suffering and Death of Jesus: A prominent theme in Mark's Gospel is the prediction, foretelling, and eventual fulfillment of Jesus' suffering, death, and resurrection. Jesus repeatedly predicts his passion, emphasizing the necessity of his suffering and death for the redemption of humanity.
• The Messianic Secret: Mark includes instances where Jesus commands silence about his identity as the Messiah or his miraculous deeds, a phenomenon known as the "Messianic Secret." This secrecy motif serves to highlight Jesus' divine identity and the timing of his revelation as the Messiah.

The Gospel of Mark can be broken into essentially three acts. In Act II the interactions between Jesus and his disciples are largely closed door interaction away from the public eye. But Act three which picks up in Mark 11 brings Jesus into the public spotlight. Public confrontation marks Act III and culminates with the crucifixion.

Mark 11, what we know of as the Triumphal Entry is full of irony. You see, Jesus, the King of Creation, enters the capital city of his empire, riding on the Davidic symbol of authority, and in the end, nobody seems to even notice. We are reminded that those who follow Jesus are expected to recognize, follow, and receive Jesus even when nobody else notices.

Body

Pomp and Circumstance are not enough (Mark 11:1-11).

Jesus is the rightful King (1-7).

Everything about the first three verses of the passage remind us that Jesus is the rightful King of Israel.

The village of Bethany was located two miles from Jerusalem. The Mount of Olives is directly east of Jerusalem with a peak at 2,600 feet. The mount overlooks the Temple Mount and according to Zechariah 14:4 would be the location where God stood in judgement over the enemies of Israel. The movement of Jesus with a crowd of Galilean followers would have been seen as a possible fulfillment of prophecy. Together with Zechariah 9:9 the people following Jesus probably thought for sure this was the beginning of their rise to power. Let's read Zechariah 9:9, "

        Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! 
        Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! 
        See, your king comes to you, 
        righteous and victorious, 
        lowly and riding on a donkey, 
        on a colt, the foal of a donkey. [1]"

The fact that nobody has ever ridden the animal carries the idea of purity as well as fulfilling the requirements of the Mishnah (a compilation of Jewish oral traditions and teachings that were transmitted orally for centuries before being written down in the early centuries AD.) which demanded that nobody else sit on the throne or horse of the king^[2].

When questioned about taking the donkey Jesus tells his disciples to invoke royal need drawing on an ancient practice called Angora whereby a king could temporarily claim the right to use the property of another.

The first three verses of Mark 11 set the stage for us to see Jesus as the rightful king.

As Jesus entered the city some recognized their King (4-10).

Guess what, the events of verses 4-6 play out exactly as Jesus said they would. We shouldn't be surprised after all Jesus is the God and King of the universe. But what is happening is that people are also starting to recognize that Jesus is king. The stage is set

• Jesus approaches the city on a donkey this is reminiscent of the coronation of Solomon riding in on David's mule.
• When Jehu was coronated as king the people had placed their garments under him (2 Kings 9:13).
• When Simon Maccabeus entered Jerusalem palm branches were used to honor him (1 Maccabees 13:50-51).

What I want you to see is that everything done in this passage demonstrates that the people understood that Jesus was the rightful king.

Now let's look at what is said, poetically there is a ABBA structure.In the middle of the Hosanna sandwich are two blessings. The word Hosanna comes from a Hebrew word which means "save now" but became really just a general word of praise to God.

Jesus has entered the city and those following Jesus are ascribing royalty. However, we don't really know how big the crowd was.

Matthew tells us that "the whole city was stirred up and asked 'who is this?'" (Matthew 21:10) but the idea here is not that all of Jerusalem participates in the triumphal entry. Actually what I see is that a large group of followers makes a big deal of Jesus entering the city. This causes a commotion, not enough to stop what we are doing but enough to ask, what is going on, who is this guy? Really, I think the triumphal entry is pretty anticlimactic.

However, one of the most significant events in history was a non-event (11).

The next stop after having entered his capital city is for the ruler to evaluate the state of affairs. Jesus enters the temple courts, looks around, and that is it. It is getting late and Jesus leaves. The king does not establish his seat of power or anything like that. All of the emotions and excitement kinda of evaporates. I think the reality is that there is a group of people who are emotionally excited for Jesus but they do not yet have the depth of commitment to truly follow Jesus. In the moment they are ready to sign on the dotted line but in reality they are not that interested.

Image: After the Music Stops

Lecrae, a Christian artist wrote the following words and I think they are especially apt.

After the show, after the set

After the music stops, what's next?

Will there be fellowship, prayer, disciples?

Will you open your Bibles after the music stops?

After it's over, after it ends

After the music stops, what then?

Will you understand that Christ is King

Or will you just like the words we sing after the music stops?^[3]

MTR: Check your heart. Is your response to Jesus more than just an emotional response?

God has expectations for his community (Mark 11:12-19).

God expects fruit (12-14).

The day after the triumphal entry has come and Jesus, we read, was hungry. Seeing a fig tree Jesus is hopeful he will find fruit. The common fig tree produces two crops each year. One crop comes in Spring and the presence of leaves means there was potential for fruit. However, the Spring crop is from old growth of the previous season and the Spring crop was not of the same quality or quantity as the later crop.

Jesus is not vindictive but rather takes the opportunity to teach his disciples an object lesson. The lesson is simple. God desires to see his community bear fruit. We are supposed to be growing and maturing regardless of the season. You might say, well we just had a really busy season and a bumper crop. Great! So right now you might not be producing a bumper crop but that doesn't mean you should be barren either. As we go through life we go through seasons and some seasons will have bountiful crops others less bountiful but we should see growth.

Israel was spiritually barren and while all of the resources were in place for fruit (leaves) the fruit was absent, even in small quantities. The pronouncement Jesus makes is a curse. Outwardly the Jewish religion had the appearance of life but in reality no fruit was being produced.

God expects that His resources be properly used (15-17).

The cleansing of the temple is recorded in all three Synoptic Gospels. Within the land there were three common currencies, Roman, Greek, and Jewish. The required offering in the temple was the Jewish currency and so money changes set-up shop in order to provide Jewish coinage. Moreover, since animals were required for sacrifice you could also buy your animals in the temple. Finally, the outer court of the temple became a through fair for moving merchandise between parts of the city. The result, the temple had become a busy place for all sorts of things that were not part of the intentional worship of God. The response of Jesus was to throw those who were not treating the temple properly out of the temple.

I have heard this passage used for all sorts of personal convictions. People sometimes use this passage to argue against selling coffee, books, or other merchandise in a church. Here is the thing, the problem is not buying and selling. The problem is that God's resources are not being properly used. Personally, I don't want us to be distracted by a lot of buying and selling in our church but the bigger issue is distraction, other things that are keeping us from prayer and worship.

The proper response to dysfunction is repentance (18-19).

Jesus managed to make some important enemies at this point. He has challenged the status quo and it will not go un noticed. The response of the religious leaders is all wrong!

Image: A church, not an empire.

Church is not a means to an end! So many it seems seek to build empires out of churches instead of simply striving to bring glory to God.

MTR: Let's evaluate ourselves critically and ask if we are properly using God's resources and bearing fruit.

So, how do we ensure that we are consistently using the resources God has provided appropriately? I think we focus on the proper marks of God's community.

Prayer, faith, and forgiveness should mark God's community (Mark 11:20-25).

God's community should exercise faith by looking at results and recognizing God's work (20-21).

The day is presumably Tuesday and Jesus along with his disciples pass by the fig tree they had encountered the day before. Now a drastic change is evident. This tree is dying and the source of the problem is in the roots, no amount of nursing the tree back to health is going to restore this tree. Peter immediately recalls the curse of the day before. In context together with the rest of Scripture, the tree does not represent the nation of Israel (we know that many Israelites come to salvation and a remnant will be restored). The tree represents the temple and the leaders of the temple. In Mark 13:2 Jesus will go so far to say that not one stone would be left upon another. The reality is that the Jewish religious system was defunct and would be entirely done away with.

One key point we see here is that the proper response to seeing the work of God is amazement. Not because of a lack of faith, but rather amazement that God is allowing us to be part of and witness to his work. We should look for and then recognize the results of God's work.

From here Jesus goes on to an important reminder. If we truly have faith then we should be a people of prayer.

Prayer should mark God's community (22-24).

Verses 22-24 are probably some of the best known verses on prayer. The question on many peoples mind is "why have we never seen mountains move if all it takes is faith?" My answer is that I think we are asking the wrong questions. First, does anyone have that kind of faith. Second, maybe this is far more specific than we think. What has just preceded this event is the cursing of the fig tree, really the prediction of the passing away of the Jewish Religious system. I wonder if Jesus is not here talking about the mountain that is trying to reach God through acts of Jewish piety. I want to be careful here but I also think context matters. Perhaps we do regularly see mountains move as those who have nothing to offer God are in fact accepted by God. As mountains of sin are cast into the sea at the moment of salvation.

So what is the point. I don't think the point of the passage is to go praying that Mt. Kilimanjaro be leveled. I think we are instead to pray for victory in our own lives.

In fact, this connects beautifully with what follows. We are forgiven and so we should forgive.

Forgiveness should be always available within God's community (25).

The key here, the theme if you will prayer, faith, and forgiveness should mark God's community because those are so intimately tied together and are marks of those who are following Jesus.

MTR: Let's make prayer a priority.

1. ↑ The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Zec 9:9.
2. ↑ Strauss, Mark L. Mark. Zondervan Academic, 2014, 479.
3. ↑ After the Music Stops by Lecrae