Mark 11-14 (NIV)
Greetings. My name is Nathaniel. I’m one of the two unnamed disciples who untied the donkey and took it to Jesus. It seemed rather strange that someone would let us just walk off with their donkey, but maybe someone had arranged for that earlier.
Anyway, the men nearby asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?”
We told them what Jesus said to say, “The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.” That was all it took.
We led the young donkey to Jesus. It jumped around when we threw my cloak on it, like it had never been ridden. Jesus didn’t worry. He just mounted, sitting on the cloak, and the donkey calmed down.
Some of the rest of the disciples took off their cloaks and spread them out on the road. Others went out into the field and cut leafy branches and laid them out.
The donkey didn’t even object as some of us waved our branches in front of it and others followed behind. We cried out, “Hosanna! Save us!”
We had spent the night at the Mount of Olives. I didn’t think about it then, but with Jesus riding the donkey and us shouting “Save us,” I remembered Zechariah predicting that the Lord would come from the Mount of Olives1 to rescue Jerusalem from the nations2. The city certainly needed deliverance, from the Romans this time.
“Hosanna! Save us!” That was from the psalm3 about the stone which the builders rejected becoming the chief cornerstone. We had learned the next part too, “Lord, save us! Lord, grant us success!Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”
Heading toward Jerusalem with Jesus on the triumphant donkey, we added, “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
The coming kingdom of our father David! Jesus was coming into Jerusalem to rescue us and the city from the Romans and to set up his kingdom, God’s kingdom. Oh, what a glorious thought! Hosanna! Save us now!
Jesus went on into the temple, but we waited outside. What would he do now? Then he came back out and we all went to Bethany. That was it! Jesus didn’t do anything.
Well, the next morning, when we were walking back to Jerusalem from Bethany, we hadn’t had anything to eat. We passed a fig tree in leaf. Jesus went over to it, but there was nothing but leaves. Understandably, because it wasn’t the season for figs. But Jesus glared at it. “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.”
We went on to the temple. That’s when Jesus did do something. He drove out the buyers and the sellers. He turned over the tables of the money changers and those who sold doves. If someone was carrying merchandise through the temple courts, Jesus stopped them.
“Is it not written,” he asked, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’4? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’5”
I heard a commotion off to the side. The chief priests and the scribes were waving their arms and … well, not shouting, but I could tell what they were saying to each other was not happy. Fortunately, Jesus always had a crowd around him, so the leaders didn’t do anything then. I wondered when they would.
Not that day, because as the sun dropped in the sky, we left the city.
The next morning, as we passed the fig tree, the leaves were all brown and falling off. Peter pointed, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered.”
Jesus nodded and smiled. “Have faith in God. Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
But then he hesitated, looking at each one of us. “And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”
It seems like there’s always a catch to Jesus’ teachings.
The week went by too quickly. Jesus did a lot of teaching. Teaching was good, but that was not going to liberate us from the Romans.
Looking back on it, I think he was trying to prepare us for what was going to happen. One of his parables was about killing the son of the landowner. He answered a question about the resurrection. (I didn’t think anything about it then.) He gave us his summary of the Ten Commandments: “The most important one is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”
We watched a widow put a couple of tiny coins in the temple treasury. Jesus praised her. “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”
When we were walking away, he told us the temple was going to be destroyed! “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
We didn’t like that. This was God’s temple! Where God lived. Surely God would protect it.
He warned us not to believe just anyone who claims to be the Messiah. “Nation will rise against nation,and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.”
He talked about some horrible things that would happen to let us know that we should keep awake, keep alert.
A couple days before the Passover, we were dining at the house of Simon the leper. A woman came in and broke a jar of costly ointment and poured it over his head. Now that seemed like a waste of money that could have helped the poor, but Jesus said she had perfumed his body before his burial. His burial? Was Jesus going to die? He had talked about it, but we didn’t believe him. This was not going the direction we thought back when Jesus rode the donkey into the city. When was he going to save us from the Romans?
The night of the first day of the Passover, when we ate the Passover meal, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, one of you will betray me—one who is eating with me.” Of course, we all denied it. This was becoming strange, not what we hoped for.
Followed by something else strange: Jesus took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and handed the pieces to us. “Take it; this is my body.” We took the bread, then looked at each other and back at Jesus. By then, he had given thanks for the wine and was passing it around. “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many. Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”
Nobody said anything until Jesus started singing the Passover song. We sang it together, and he led us out to the Mount of Olives where we had started our journey into Jerusalem earlier that week.
He kept saying things that made no sense, that we would all desert him, especially Peter, who would deny him three times.
We went down to the Garden of Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount. He took Peter, James, and John and went off a ways, leaving the rest of us.
A while later, we heard a crowd coming. We recognized them as servants of the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders. Judas was with them. After he came up and kissed Jesus, the crowd – no, by then it was a mob – grabbed Jesus to arrest him. What happened next came so fast, I don’t know who did it, but one of us drew a sword and cut off the ear of the slave of the high priest.
When they were arresting him, Jesus growled, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day I was with you, teaching in the temple courts, and you did not arrest me. But the Scriptures must be fulfilled.”
The one with the bloody ear clapped a cloth over it and headed back to the temple. Somebody went with him.
To be honest, I don’t know what happened after that, because, like the others, I ran away. We all deserted him and fled, just like he said we would. The mob outnumbered us, and they had swords and clubs. Someone among us had a sword, but none of the rest of us did.
I wasn’t there for what the leaders called a trial, but we found out later that Peter did deny knowing Jesus. Three times, he claimed not to know him.
The chief priests, elders, scribes, and the whole council took Jesus to Pilate. Again, I wasn’t there, but Pilate condemned him to be crucified.
When the women found out what was happening, they went to Golgotha, where they were crucifying Jesus. They told us about it later.
The Romans put up three crosses, with Jesus in the middle and a bandit on either side. Jesus’ cross had a sign on it that read, “The King of the Jews.”
Some of the onlookers mocked him, telling him to come down from the cross, saying that he saved others, but he cannot save himself.
At noon, the sun disappeared. Not just behind clouds, because it was dark like night until about the middle of the afternoon. The women were at a distance, but about three o’clock, they heard him cry out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Some nearby thought he was calling for Elijah. Someone else dipped a sponge in sour wine and raised it up on a stick for him. They seemed to be waiting to see if Elijah would come take him down.
Jesus gave a loud cry and … The woman who was telling us this couldn’t say the word, but she told us that the centurion said, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”
Excuse me a minute. Let me collect my thoughts. … I …
Sometime after that, … in the evening, … Joseph of Arimathea showed up. …
Sorry. I think I’m fine now.
Joseph had permission from Pilate to take the body of Jesus. He wrapped it in a linen cloth and laid it in a nearby tomb, hewn out of the rock. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses watched him roll the stone against the door of the tomb. Then, because it was almost the Sabbath, they went back to where they were staying.
And that was the end of …
I don’t know. With Jesus gone, what do we do next? How does life go on? What did the last three years mean if he’s no longer with us? Why did I …
Now, … if you will excuse me, … this has been difficult remembering and telling you … about the last few days. I need to go off alone and pull myself back together.
Thank you for listening.
For consideration:
General Questions
1) How does this story follow its Scripture?
2) How does this story expand its Scripture for you?
3) What is the message of this story?
4) How does the message apply to us today?
Specific Questions
- What was the significance of being God’s chosen people?
- How would the Kingdom of God be different from the Kingdom of David?
- How would you have felt when Jesus talked about his burial?
- When would the disciples make sense of the strange things Jesus was telling them?
1Zechariah 14:4
2the nations: The Israelites were God’s chosen people. “The nations” were the rest of the world, the unchosen, usually their enemies.
3Psalm 118:21-26
4Isaiah 56:7
5Jeremiah 7:11
