Triumph in the Air

Mark 11:1-11

The Triumphal Entry

1 Now when they drew near Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples; 2 and He said to them, "Go into the village opposite you; and as soon as you have entered it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has sat. Loose it and bring it. 3 And if anyone says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' say, 'The Lord has need of it,' and immediately he will send it here."

4 So they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door outside on the street, and they loosed it. 5 But some of those who stood there said to them, "What are you doing, loosing the colt?"

6 And they spoke to them just as Jesus had commanded. So they let them go. 7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and He sat on it. 8 And many spread their clothes on the road, and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 Then those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:

"Hosanna!
'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!'
10 Blessed is the kingdom of our father David
That comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest!"

11 And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve.

Jesus came to Jerusalem knowing the end was near for His work to suffer and die an atoning death of pain that those whom He calls through this expiation of our sin by taking the consequences of our just punishment on Himself.  Even then the Lord knew what He was facing and set His face like a flint (Isaiah 50:7) to accomplish and finish what He came to do.  He had it all prearranged, even to the details of a colt for Him to ride into town and a willing owner who gladly lent it on the commanding word of need by the master through the disciples He sent.  This colt had never been broken in while Jesus was to be broken for our sin in contrast.  Yes, Jesus entered Jerusalem the holy city on an unbroken donkey’s colt to be broken for us.  The entry to the holy city was paved with fronds of palms and branches from the fruit-bearing trees with which the Mount of Olives was planted to make a royal carpet for the King of kings to triumphantly enter into in His glory as of the only begotten of the Father (John 1:14) which the crowd did not yet fully comprehend.  They even laid down their clothes on the road as an act of submission and acknowledgement for a royal entrance for Him.  What they cried out, however, is akin to when Peter cried out that Jesus was the Christ by the moving of God’s Spirit and not out of his own understanding.  They cried praise to the coming One, the Messiah, as foretold in Psalm 118:25-26 as the light and being of God (Psalm 118:27-29) whom He was later to be revealed (Hebrews 1:3) as divine, Immanuel God (Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:23) among us (John 1:14) in our midst.  They praised Him who came in the promise to king David as the eternal sovereign over His people and so they lauded and honored Jesus the Christ without fully understanding whom he was, just as we do until He opens the eyes of our hearts to know Him for whom He is as our Sovereign Lord and Savior!  This Jesus entered in with triumph in the air and went to the temple immediately for worship before taking the disciples out to Bethany (“house of misery“) late in the day, a village at the Mount of Olives two miles outside Jerusalem on the road to Jericho.  The suffering Servant would perhaps remind us of what lay ahead as we read this now and understand the meaning of the word Bethany.  There was misery for sin and the suffering of the Messiah-Christ to come up ahead on this journey where triumph in the air would turn to hatred and crucifixion on a tree of cursing (Deuteronomy 21:22, Galatians 3:13-14) as a blessing for us all by faith in His self sacrifice on that tree of death and life, the cross.  We are to look to Him there on that tree of our curse and live (Numbers 21:8-9, John 3:14-15), just as Israel who was cursed by the bite of the serpent’s rebellion which we all inherited from Adam.  They looked and were saved.  So are we saved in the faith that looks to the cross and trusts His promise of life from death (John 5:24) by our faith in Him as proven not only by his suffering, but also through death and resurrection to life.  This is the lingering triumph in the air!