Humbled to Break Death – Mark 11

A text – Mark 11:1-11

11:1 When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples
11:2 and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it.
11:3 If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.'”
11:4 They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it,
11:5 some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?”
11:6 They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it.
11:7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it.
11:8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields.
11:9 Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
11:10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
11:11 Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

A reflection:

This coming weekend we celebrate what, in my youth, was called Palm Sunday. It was the short name for Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Jesus and his followers were making a visible statement of Jesus’s identity as the long-awaited Christ or Messiah, often called the Son of David, coming into the holy city not on a war-horse as a conqueror would, but on a donkey colt, as a humble servant of the world he ruled. It was a prophesy that showed the Messiah in terms nobody wanted, since God’s chosen people lived under the cruel yoke of Rome and were eager for a strong deliverer. But Jesus, the teacher and healer, was showing, again and again, that it was his mission to indeed save Israel and Judah from cruel oppression, but not of Rome. Humanity was oppressed by death and its permanent isolation and loneliness from God. Jesus was going to break death’s permanent hold on people. Jesus was going to take away the power of death to separate us from God and one another.  Servant of all. Savior of all. Given for all. Anyone who believes this will live. Anyone who rejects it will not.

The crowds did not know this. His disciples didn’t even know this, because no matter how Jesus taught and demonstrated to them his mission, they were caught up in a different vision of the Messiah’s work.

The crowds went wild. Their salvation was at hand. They were expecting the big miracle now. Jesus had been breaking death repeatedly in his ministry, leading up to facing death himself to be raised on the third day. But the crowds wanted Rome broken, not death. They wanted comfort and fairness back in their towns. They couldn’t see what he was up to. Riding in on that young donkey was only the start of his journey toward the humble and humiliating death he had to go through. The farther he went without toppling Rome, the less they liked it.

What are we learning? What Jesus really asks of us is to be willing to get really humble and humiliated in order to break our worst foe: whatever stands in the way of our permanent relationship with God. Whatever that foe is for you, for me, that is what Jesus helps us to break through in order to be with him. God bending so low as to die in order to bring us into God’s very arms. He is the Prince of Peace.

A prayer:

Lord God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for serving human beings, for giving your very human life for us so that we can live forever with you. Help us to come to that realization again and again and swell up with gratitude for the loveliness of your gift.  Amen.