The Triumphal Entry
Holy Week // Day 1
Scripture | Mark 11:1-11 NIV
As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, saying 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. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’ ” They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?”
They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, “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 heaven!” Jesus 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.
Devotional
Pop-out scripture - Mark 11:9-10 NIV
9 Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,
10 “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 heaven!”
The author of this scripture wrote it from a point of view of seeing the action from the outside. Have you ever thought about what it would have been like for the people crying out in verse 10? “God save us!” they cried. Yet less than a week later, they cried, “Crucify Him!” What happened in between? Author John Lund said, “Remember all frustration is based on unmet expectations.” They expected Jesus to save them from the Roman Empire, but He came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10), to bring peace and overcome the world (John 16:33), to become sin so that we could become the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:21), and to give us life more abundantly (John 10:10). Beware the human tendency to be disappointed when our expectations of God are unmet; His plans are far greater than our expectations. He “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine!” (Eph 3:20).