Here comes the King!

Wednesday 3-4-15 (Home) Scripture reading:       Num 34-36           Mark 11

S.  Mark 11:8-10 Many in the crowd spread their coats on the road ahead of Jesus, and others cut leafy branches in the fields and spread them along the way.  He was in the center of the procession, and the crowds all around him were shouting, "Praise God!  Bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord!  Bless the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!  Praise God in highest heaven!"  NLT

O.  The beauty of this scene is its simplicity.  Jesus does not own a tall white horse for this regal occasion.  He has to borrow a little donkey’s colt.  Luke tells us that no one had ever ridden on this colt before.  The procession is not preplanned and orderly.  No uniformed trumpet players marched ahead.  Adults and children are running everywhere down the alleys and through the streets yelling, “Here comes the King!” 

John’s account explains that huge crowds were present for it was Passover celebration time.  People had come in from all over Israel, even Jews from distant countries.  It was their annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem.  This also was the reason that the temple area looked like a market place with hundreds of little stands of people selling lambs for sacrifices and shrewd money changers raking in big profits.

This entrance into Jerusalem was a fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophecy “Rejoice greatly, O people of Zion! Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem! Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey — even on a donkey's colt.  I will remove the battle chariots from Israel and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and I will destroy all the weapons used in battle. Your king will bring peace to the nations. His realm will stretch from sea to sea and from the Euphrates River to the ends of the earth.” Zech 9:9-10 NLT

A.  But within only a few days these cheering people would be silenced, their hopes crushed.  His promised kingdom of peace ruling from the Euphrates River to the ends of the earth did not happen.  Their King was dying, shamed and naked hanging by nails through his hands with a crown of thorns on His head.  It seemed that God had let them down.  Most are saying, like Cleo and his friend who went walking sadly home to Emmaus, “We had hoped that He was the awaited Messiah, but they killed Him.” 

These believers could not understand that Zechariah’s prophecy would find its final fulfillment later when Jesus will return to earth.

I want all God’s promises to be fulfilled… right now.  My heart says, “Lord, Your Word says… but I don’t see the answer.”  We used to sing, “Every promise in the Book is mine, every chapter, every verse, every line.  I am trusting in His love divine… for every promise in the Book is mine.”  I still believe it.  I stand upon it.  But there is a factor that I cannot calculate.  It is the “time factor”.  God will come through, but in His timing and in His special way. 

P.  Lord, please don’t let my faith waver when I do not see the immediate answer to my prayers of faith.  Help me understand that You see things from the vantage point of eternity.  I am still locked in time.  For some answers I will have to wait… and I hate to wait.  Open my eyes to see with a heart bent upon eternal values.  And may my faith remain anchored in the solid rock of Your Word knowing that You have spoken and it will happen in Your time.  Amen.

Ralph