This sermon was given at Canon Court Evangelical Church, Fetcham.
Our culture makes a much bigger deal of Christmas than it does of Easter. You can feel Christmas building for months, the mood changes in society as Christmas spirit takes hold and preparations are made for big celebrations and get-togethers. We have Christmas parties, Christmas bonuses, Christmas presents, Christmas cards. In contrast, Easter has none of those things. We might notice Easter eggs in the shops a few weeks in advance, but there is hardly the same euphoria. Indeed, there is more likely to be confusion as people continually ask, ‘When is Easter again this year?’ We don’t even know that Easter is coming, and if we do, it is largely seen as a pit-stop on the way to summer. This is in complete contrast to how Mark prepares us for the first Easter in his gospel. He completely ignores the Christmas story and gives us ten chapters of build up to the beginning of Easter, as Jesus finally arrives in Jerusalem in Mark 11:1-10.
Throughout the gospel, we hear of people coming to John the Baptist and Jesus from Jerusalem (1:5; 3:8; 3:22; 7:1). However, unlike the other gospel writers, Mark never tells us of Jesus going to Jerusalem. Instead, Mark depicts his gospel as one large journey of Jesus, a journey to Jerusalem. At the beginning of Mark 11, we get the long-expected arrival of Jesus at his destination, for ‘they drew near to Jerusalem’. This is not the end. This is Palm Sunday, not Easter Sunday. There is a whole week left in Mark’s gospel. However, that week is centred on what takes place in Jerusalem. Jesus’ arrival in our passage today very much marks the beginning of the end.
This is undoubtedly a significant milestone in the story of Jesus. At this turning point, Mark highlights two points for us to consider. Firstly, he tells us of a Mount for a Prophet – Jesus not only foretells, he is foretold. Secondly, he tells us of a March for a King – Jesus is the King who brings us salvation.
1. A MOUNT FOR A PROPHET – JESUS NOT ONLY FORETELLS, HE IS FORETOLD (MARK 11:1-7)
Despite popular belief, we cannot be sure that a donkey appeared in the Christmas story. Nowhere are we told that the heavily pregnant Mary was transported to Bethlehem on a little donkey. Although it provides us with a comical part for the children to play in the school nativity, the role of a donkey at Christmas is less fact and more fiction. However, this is not the case with Easter. At Easter, on Palm Sunday, we see that a donkey has a very important role to play. Not carrying Baby Jesus into Bethlehem, but the grown Jesus into Jerusalem. However, before we consider the significance of Jesus riding this donkey, Mark confronts us with the story of Jesus acquiring it. For it is not just the riding, but the acquiring that is important.
I’m sure all of you been sent on an errand to get something at the supermarket at some point. Perhaps a family member is cooking or baking and suddenly realises that they are missing a key ingredient. As a result, you are dispatched to obtain what they need. If it is an obscure or odd item, perhaps they will tell you where you can find it: Aisle 17, the fourth product from the right on the bottom shelf. It is impressive, but hardly miraculous. They have clearly been to the supermarket so many times; they know exactly where to find it. What would be miraculous is if you were on holiday, and they sent you to a store they hadn’t been to and they were still able to tell you not just that the product in is Aisle 17, fourth from the left on the bottom shelf, but that there will only be two of them left and when you pick it up not to bother paying for it, but to just walk on out of the store with it and when asked why you are taking a product to explain that your family member needs it. That would be more than impressive, that would be prophetic. Foretelling in advance exactly what would happen, exactly what you would find and how others would react.
Jesus’ instructions to his two disciples was more than impressive, it was prophetic. He foretold where they would go, the village in front of them, what they would find, a colt, what state it was in, being tied, what its history was, having had nobody ride it before, the reaction of onlookers when they took it, when they ask what the disciples are doing, and the correct response to give in order to get away without being condemned as thieves. As we read this story, we can understand why people in Jesus’ day said what they did about him. In that moment in Mark 8, at Caesarea Philippi, right at the heart of Mark’s gospel, Jesus ask his disciples who people said that he was, and they reply ‘John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.’ (Mark 8:28) Jesus Christ, able to foretell the future, predict and prophesy, surely he is one of the prophets. A man sent from God to speak to humanity, like Moses, Elijah, John the Baptist. Such a conclusion seem to be supported by the evidence. Matthew seems to confirm this when he records the event of Palm Sunday, when Jesus rides into Jerusalem and the locals ask who this is, ‘the crowds said, "This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee."’ (Matthew 21:11)
This is what many in the world today think. Maybe this is what you think. Jesus is a prophet, a teacher sent from God, somebody who came to communicate a message, call us back to lives of love and obedience to our creator. That is why he can heal the sick, cure the blind, cast out daemons, teach with such authority and predict the location of donkeys villages away. He is a prophet, able to foretell the future and perform powerful miracles.
Verses 1-6 point us in that direction. However, verse 7 takes us even further than that. When we read it, its significance doesn’t immediately hit us like it did the crowds on that first Palm Sunday. ‘And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it.’ (Mark 11:7) Jesus sat on the donkey, not particularly striking in and of itself. However, for the crowds on that first Palm Sunday, perhaps there were gasps of realisation, of amazement, when Jesus started riding the donkey. For Israel, the Jewish people, had been waiting for 500 years for someone to come to them riding a donkey. Ever since the prophet Zechariah foretold the very events that he read together today, that Jesus fulfilled on the first Palm Sunday. Again, Matthew helps us to understand to significance of this mount for this prophet when he explains in his record, ‘This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, "Say to the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’"’ (Matthew 21:4–5) Indeed, not only is this a fulfilment of the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9, but it is also a fulfilment of a much older and long await prophecy, for at the end of the book of Genesis, as Jacob his blessing his sons, he turns to Judah (the tribe which Jesus was from) and declared, ‘The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. Binding his foal to the vine and his donkey's colt to the choice vine, he has washed his garments in wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes.’ (Genesis 49:10–11)
Jesus not only foretells, he is foretold. He is not just a prophet, he is the very person that the prophets prophesied about. He is who Peter proclaimed him to be in Mark 8. Others said he was one of the prophets, but when Peter is asked ‘But who do you say I am?’, he replies ‘You are the Christ.’ (Mark 8:28-29) Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah, the king coming to save his people.
If you are happy to call Jesus a prophet, are you happy to call him Christ? Do you believe that he is not only a teacher, a miracle worker, a leader, but also the Messiah? The one sent by God not just to speak to us, but to save us? That is exactly who Mark portrays him to be. Indeed, he starts his whole Gospel with that very statement, ‘The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.’ (Mark 1:1) Jesus not only foretells, he is foretold. What are we told in advance about this Jesus? What is this prophecy that he fulfilled that first Palm Sunday?
2. A MARCH FOR A KING – JESUS IS THE KING WHO BRINGS US SALVATION (MARK 11:8-10)
We have seen an unprecedented rise in the number of marches and demonstrations in central London as a result of the impasse over Brexit. Even if there were as many previously, I think the recent press coverage has made us think that they are bigger and more frequent that ever. Outside the Houses of Parliament, there is a never ending vigil being held by different groups all trying to promote their viewpoint and have their message heard. How are we able to tell these different groups apart? By listening to their messages. One group chants ‘Brexit Betrayal’. Another group is crying out ‘Put it to the People’. What they are shouting helps us to identify what they believe.
The same is true on the first Palm Sunday. As the crowd marched towards Jerusalem, what is it that they were crying out? Mark tells us ‘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!"’ (Mark 11:9–10) This helps us see that the crowd fully understood the significance of what was taking place.
In Zechariah 9:9, the events of Palm Sunday were predicted by these words, which Matthew quotes partly, ‘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.’ (Zechariah 9:9) 500 years before Jesus takes his place on the colt, the prophet proclaims him to be a King coming to his people. This crowd, understanding this were indeed shouting aloud and rejoicing greatly, crying out ‘Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!’ They realised that they were marching with a King. And not only a King, but a King bringing salvation. That is what Zechariah 9:9 promises, that this coming king would have salvation. He would be the one who would accomplish the salvation of his people. This too the people understood, for they cried out ‘"Hosanna!…Hosanna in the highest!", with Hosanna literally meaning ‘save us’ or ‘save now’. They understood that Jesus was the King who would bring salvation. No wonder the crowds were rejoicing, laying palm branches and cloaks on the road, signs of honour and respect. They gave their coming king the first century red carpet treatment.
The crowd got so much right, and yet they fell short of the full meaning of what was taking place. Yes, they understood that Jesus was the King who would bring salvation. However, they misunderstood what that salvation would look like and how it would be achieved. Contrary to popular belief, these marchers were not citizens of Jerusalem, recent converts to the Jesus movement. These were disciples that had been following him for some time, Mark makes clear that many had walked the 18 miles from Jericho with him (Mark 10:46,51;11:1) and John implies that included in these followers were those who had witnessed Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead (John 12:17-18). These followers had real hopes and expectations for what Jesus, their King, would do, hopes and expectations that in 5 days’ time would be ruined as their King was crucified on the cross. Tragedy, not triumph, lay ahead for them and their King.
What kind of salvation was this King to bring? The crowd assumed that it was a real restoration of the kingdom of David, salvation of Israel from the Roman oppressors. However, if they had listened to their King, they would have had a far greater understanding. But a few verses above, just before Jesus entered Jericho in Mark 10, Mark sets out for us the royal mission of this King. In response to James and John requesting to sit at the right and left hands of their King, Jesus Christ explains that his kingship was radically different to what they understood. Why was it this King had come? What did this King come to achieve? What was this salvation that he would bring? Jesus explained, ‘the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.’ (Mark 10:45) This was a king, like no king who had come before. At Christmas we are reminded that he did not come to live in the prosperity of a palace like the Kings of this world, but the humility of a stable. At Easter we are reminded that Christ as King did not come to achieve victory through the sacrifice of others on a battlefield, but the sacrifice of himself on a cross. On Palm Sunday, the crowds exclaimed ‘Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!’ However, later that week Jesus himself explained, ‘My kingdom is not of this world.’ (John 18:36)
Three times, Jesus has told his followers what would happen to him when he arrived in Jerusalem. Three times he foretold the fate that awaited him there. In Mark 8:31 ‘he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed…’. In Mark 9:31 he said to them ‘The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him.’ In Mark 10:33 he told them ‘See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him.’ Just as he foretold the details of the donkey perfectly, he foretold the details of his death perfectly. For later that week, he was betrayed, delivered over by one of his own disciples, into the hands of the elders, chief priests and scribes, condemned to death and handed to the Gentile Romans. They mocked him, spat on him, flogged him and killed him. The coming King was crucified on a cross.
And yet, even as they rejected and tortured him, he was proclaimed a king. Adorned with a crown of thorns and purple robe. Declared to be the King of the Jews by Pilate at his trial and the sign above his head. Even in his sufferings he was a King. How clearly the thief at his side must have seen to be a King when he begged his bleeding companion on the cross ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ (Luke 23:42) Jesus is the King who brings us salvation. As we consider this story that in many ways is the start of his coronation, we a reminded of how Henry Milman described this march for a king back in a hymn that was written in 1827 and has been sung ever since.
Ride on, ride on in majesty! Hark! all the tribes hosanna cry; O Saviour meek, pursue your road with palms and scattered garments strowed.
Ride on, ride on in majesty! In lowly pomp ride on to die: O Christ, your triumphs now begin o'er captive death and conquered sin.
Ride on, ride on in majesty! In lowly pomp ride on to die; bow your meek head to mortal pain, then take, O God, your pow'r and reign.
He may not have been the King that the crowd were expecting, but he was a King nonetheless, a King who brings us salvation. Not salvation from political opponents or oppression, but from sin, death and hell. For on the cross, our King suffered the punishment of God for our sins, bringing us salvation. Raised from the dead and now seated at the right hand of the Majesty of high, our King has taken up his throne in heaven waiting to return and begin his reign and rule over all the earth. Jesus is the King who brings us salvation.
A Mount for a Prophet – Jesus not only foretells, he is foretold. Do you understand that Jesus is not only a prophet, but he is the Messiah? A March for a King – Jesus is the King who brings us salvation. If we know this salvation, let us do as Zechariah calls us to do ‘Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king’. If you do not know this salvation brought by this King, they why don’t turn to following him today? If we, like the crowd, cry out ‘Hosanna’, ‘save us’ or ‘save now’, if we ask this King for the salvation that he brings, God promises in his word that he will deliver ‘us from the domain of darkness and [transfer] us to the kingdom of his beloved Son’. (Colossians 1:13)
ALEXANDER ARRELL