Mark 11:7,9 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and He sat on it. Then those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'”
In Mark 11, Jesus is on the last leg of His earthly life and ministry. The end is near. He knows that He is about to be offered up as The Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world (John 1:29). That is what He repeatedly told the twelve as they began their journey from the quiet of Galilee to the chaos and crowds of a typical Passover festival time. By this point in time, the Jews were looking for a Messiah who would be more like a military general to overthrow the mighty Roman Empire’s grip upon the nation. Thus, having either seen or heard about the many miracles that Jesus did – most recently, Lazarus being raised from the dead – when Jesus entered the city proper on a donkey, fulfilling Zechariah 9:9, the crowd began to cry out the long-anticipated Messianic phrase from Psalm 118, verses 25 and 26: “Hosanna!… Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!”
Everything that they saw and said was right on! However, Jesus was not coming as an Army General to deliver the Jews from Roman tyranny, but as The Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. He came to provide the final sacrifice for sin by which fallen man can be restored to fellowship with God. But because of a misunderstood interpretation of Scripture that gave rise to an unfulfilled expectation, this same crowd would soon cry out to crucify Him. Following this dramatic entrance scene, we hear Jesus curse a barren fig tree, and see Him do a little temple “house cleaning” – both with prophetic significance. This scene demands attention from us this morning because we find religious leaders financially exploiting the people of God, and alleged religious people being rebuked by Jesus because of their fruitless lives even though they were going through the motions of observing a religious holiday.
Sound familiar? Jesus did not come to be added as a religious supplement to your life, but as Savior and Lord.
