Taking a Look Around - Wild Heart: Mark’s Portraits of a Radical Messiah
We’re continuing our series Wild Heart: Mark’s Portrait of a Radical Messiah this morning.
The last time we looked at how the hardness of our hearts can cause deep divisions in families and relationships. Some examples that Jesus discussed were divorce and missing out on entering the kingdom of God.
Mark 11 begins the phase in Jesus’ ministry known as the ‘Holy Week’ the last week before the crucifixion. Every phase of Jesus’ ministry was pointed toward this moment. It’s the culmination of the reason He came to the earth as a baby and took on human flesh. All four gospels record this last week in great detail. 1/3 of the gospel of Mark is devoted to this last week of His life.
Chapter 11 begins with the Triumphal Entry.
So let’s read Mark 11:1-11….
Jesus had been to Jerusalem at least 7 times that we know of from scripture. But this return is very different. This time Jesus is intentionally going to stir things up in Jerusalem. He’s forcing the hand of the religious and political leaders to do something about Him. The way He went about it was not through violent opposition or military invasion. He came as the Prince of Peace.
There always comes a point when Jesus places Himself in the way so that we have to respond to Him.
In Zechariah 9:9-10 "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He [is] just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey. 10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem; The battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion [shall be] ‘from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.’
Jesus was clearly entering Jerusalem to fulfill this prophecy and Luke’s gospel account tells us that this entry into Jerusalem caught the attention of the Pharisee’s and they wanted Jesus to rebuke the people who were praising Him. They knew the scriptures and they understood what Jesus was doing and they knew Jesus knew it too and when He refused to stop the people it was a big deal because Jesus was claiming to be the Messiah by His actions. This event set in motion everything that was going to happen in the week that followed.
This moment had to have been awe inspiring as the people rose up in spontaneous praise and offering their clothing down and spreading palm branches for the colt to walk on euphoric at the sight of their Messiah entering Jerusalem.
Something else was different about this event. In the past Jesus always left when the crowds started to gather and He avoided situations like this. Remember how often He told people not to tell anyone what He had done for them so that He wouldn’t draw an extra attention. That’s all changed now.
There is another scene in this story that caught my attention. In vs. 11 Mark tells us that in the late night hour Jesus went into the temple to look around. The temple would have been quiet and still with all of the day’s activities done for the day. He most likely would have seen the empty stalls of the merchants and money changers with some animals caged and ready to be sold to the people for use as sacrifices.
It makes me wonder what Jesus was thinking about. He had been coming to this temple every year to worship at the Passover. Can you picture Him walking those corridors and pondering the stories His mother had told Him about how the Prophet Simeon and the Prophetess Anna both recognized Him as the Messiah. I wonder if He thought about words of Simeon that a sword would pierce her soul and how that would be fulfilled by the end of the week as His mother experienced the agony of watching her son being beaten and crucified.
I wonder if He went by the place where He and amazed the teachers when He was just a boy and recalled the worried looks on Mary and Joseph’s face when they found Him there after leaving Him behind for three days.
He might have looked up at the pinnacle of the temple and thought about the last temptation when Satan tried to get Him to throw Himself down from the temple so that the angels could rescue Him. Jesus resisted and the devil left but He knew that He would face Him again. Would it be here again?
I wonder if He went to the place where He had cried out that thirsty souls who would come to Him would have rivers of living water pouring from their hearts.
In some ways this moment reminds me of another man who returned to a place full of memories and spent some time there meeting with God. Jacob had seen many hard years and He returned to Beth-El where He had met with God years before.
Could it be that Jesus was soaking in this moment knowing it would be the last time He would be in this temple in peace before His death?
In all of this there is a parallel to our lives. We all experience great joy when we find the Messiah for ourselves. We remember that day, that moment like it’s seared into our memory in vivid detail. We celebrated with joy and sharing the moment with others rejoicing because Jesus has entered our life.
But in time there comes a point when things calm down and Jesus takes a look around in the temple of our hearts.
What does Jesus find as He walks the corridors of the temple of your life? In our time with Him we can remember moments of joy and trials of pain. He looks at the things we’ve tried to hide in the corners where no one can see them. We know they’re there but if others knew about them it would be embarrassing to us.
As He considers the things in our life what will He discover that we’ve traded away for cheap substitutes instead of the fullness of His presence?
Will He recall moments of joy with you spent in the harvest fields working together?
What does He see in your life when He looks around?
Will He find a heart that’s willing to endure the cross for the joy that is set before us?
The last time we looked at how the hardness of our hearts can cause deep divisions in families and relationships. Some examples that Jesus discussed were divorce and missing out on entering the kingdom of God.
Mark 11 begins the phase in Jesus’ ministry known as the ‘Holy Week’ the last week before the crucifixion. Every phase of Jesus’ ministry was pointed toward this moment. It’s the culmination of the reason He came to the earth as a baby and took on human flesh. All four gospels record this last week in great detail. 1/3 of the gospel of Mark is devoted to this last week of His life.
Chapter 11 begins with the Triumphal Entry.
So let’s read Mark 11:1-11….
Jesus had been to Jerusalem at least 7 times that we know of from scripture. But this return is very different. This time Jesus is intentionally going to stir things up in Jerusalem. He’s forcing the hand of the religious and political leaders to do something about Him. The way He went about it was not through violent opposition or military invasion. He came as the Prince of Peace.
There always comes a point when Jesus places Himself in the way so that we have to respond to Him.
In Zechariah 9:9-10 "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He [is] just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey. 10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim And the horse from Jerusalem; The battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion [shall be] ‘from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.’
Jesus was clearly entering Jerusalem to fulfill this prophecy and Luke’s gospel account tells us that this entry into Jerusalem caught the attention of the Pharisee’s and they wanted Jesus to rebuke the people who were praising Him. They knew the scriptures and they understood what Jesus was doing and they knew Jesus knew it too and when He refused to stop the people it was a big deal because Jesus was claiming to be the Messiah by His actions. This event set in motion everything that was going to happen in the week that followed.
This moment had to have been awe inspiring as the people rose up in spontaneous praise and offering their clothing down and spreading palm branches for the colt to walk on euphoric at the sight of their Messiah entering Jerusalem.
Something else was different about this event. In the past Jesus always left when the crowds started to gather and He avoided situations like this. Remember how often He told people not to tell anyone what He had done for them so that He wouldn’t draw an extra attention. That’s all changed now.
There is another scene in this story that caught my attention. In vs. 11 Mark tells us that in the late night hour Jesus went into the temple to look around. The temple would have been quiet and still with all of the day’s activities done for the day. He most likely would have seen the empty stalls of the merchants and money changers with some animals caged and ready to be sold to the people for use as sacrifices.
It makes me wonder what Jesus was thinking about. He had been coming to this temple every year to worship at the Passover. Can you picture Him walking those corridors and pondering the stories His mother had told Him about how the Prophet Simeon and the Prophetess Anna both recognized Him as the Messiah. I wonder if He thought about words of Simeon that a sword would pierce her soul and how that would be fulfilled by the end of the week as His mother experienced the agony of watching her son being beaten and crucified.
I wonder if He went by the place where He and amazed the teachers when He was just a boy and recalled the worried looks on Mary and Joseph’s face when they found Him there after leaving Him behind for three days.
He might have looked up at the pinnacle of the temple and thought about the last temptation when Satan tried to get Him to throw Himself down from the temple so that the angels could rescue Him. Jesus resisted and the devil left but He knew that He would face Him again. Would it be here again?
I wonder if He went to the place where He had cried out that thirsty souls who would come to Him would have rivers of living water pouring from their hearts.
In some ways this moment reminds me of another man who returned to a place full of memories and spent some time there meeting with God. Jacob had seen many hard years and He returned to Beth-El where He had met with God years before.
Could it be that Jesus was soaking in this moment knowing it would be the last time He would be in this temple in peace before His death?
In all of this there is a parallel to our lives. We all experience great joy when we find the Messiah for ourselves. We remember that day, that moment like it’s seared into our memory in vivid detail. We celebrated with joy and sharing the moment with others rejoicing because Jesus has entered our life.
But in time there comes a point when things calm down and Jesus takes a look around in the temple of our hearts.
What does Jesus find as He walks the corridors of the temple of your life? In our time with Him we can remember moments of joy and trials of pain. He looks at the things we’ve tried to hide in the corners where no one can see them. We know they’re there but if others knew about them it would be embarrassing to us.
As He considers the things in our life what will He discover that we’ve traded away for cheap substitutes instead of the fullness of His presence?
Will He recall moments of joy with you spent in the harvest fields working together?
What does He see in your life when He looks around?
Will He find a heart that’s willing to endure the cross for the joy that is set before us?
Labels: hosanah, Jesus, Mark 11:1-11, temple, triumphal entry
posted by Jerry Stitzel @ 4:59 PM
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