For NIV reading click here
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+11%3A1-11&version=NIV
This day begins the final week of Jesus' earthly life. He approaches Jerusalem with crowds shouting all around him 'hosanna' and 'blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'
Hosanna originally was a prayer or cry "Save us now!" but had become a word of praise. The Galilean crowds following Jesus had begun to see who he was, but like the two blind men in chapters 8 and 10, they didn't see clearly until Jesus changed things. The Jerusalem crowds will shout 'crucify him' because they didn't want Jesus messing up their religious life.
We cannot see Jesus clearly apart from the cross and resurrection...but that means letting Jesus mess up our religious life...and everything else to establish God's rule in us.
Thoughts, questions, applications...
At the bottom of the blog is a poll - vote which book to read together next...send me an email if you have a suggestion not listed in the poll.
ReplyDeleteHaving preached on this passage this morning, I still can't get away from the divine pattern: to lead like Jesus is to lay it down for others. God takes that kind of pattern and redeems it...raises it up and powerfully uses it for His purposes (reminds me of Philippians 2:5-11).
ReplyDeleteOur worldly thinking is so backwards from what Christ wants for us. Christ was a revolutionary in his time, but his message is still revolutionary today.
ReplyDeleteI take pity on the people of Jerusalem. They waited and prayed for the Messiah, and there He was in front of them, and they did not see Him. We are at a greater disadvantage in some respects, because we don't have Him physically in front of us. We cannot see the wounds and touch the scars.
It makes me wonder, what are we not seeing today? What does Christ see when He looks at us? What does He see when He looks at me? This question was asked this morning at worship, and I am having a difficult time with the answers...
Lyrics to Draw Me Close : " I lay it all down again , to hear You say that I'm your friend "
ReplyDeleteBeen humming that all day !
I vote Ruth for now because it's light , easy , short ( on the surface ) and there's much to learn ,I bet , about OT life and types and foreshadowing .
Can we get a little more teaching from Matt
if we study Ruth ?
I agree with all this. Yet, to lead by laying down for others is hard to accomplish, if not actually understand. I mean, somebody has to be The Leader. Wendy is a leader of her RTL organization; Matt leads a church. Not that these two have not laid down themselves for their organizations. But how do you know? If self-doubt seems like a recurring theme in my comments, it reflects the soul searching I have been going through these last few months. I don't men to dump on y'all, but I do struggle.
ReplyDeleteI hear you Dave. I struggle with that too though I believe we can be both confident in leadership, even assertive about our principles and values living them out with love, and have our whole perspective be for others in a self-sacrificial way. Having said that, I recognize I'm still a novice in these ways of Jesus. The worldly patterns have crept even into the church and set up quite a stronghold. So there is some battling yet to be done. Many would rather have "Super CEO Pastor, or at the other extreme "Walk Over Me Pastor." But Jesus seems to be something altogether different. Living in and for the Kingdom of God, confident in it, yet humble, patient, not so tied to pleasing people that he won't hold people accountable, and most of all, completely trusting in God's call. All hard to do, for me, though I shoot for it.
ReplyDeleteDoc, we can definitely go slower and simmer on some things, get a little more detailed in our reading and study if we do a shorter book like Ruth.
ReplyDeleteDave , you dump all you want . If we can help in any way , even just by listening , good .
ReplyDeleteDave,
ReplyDeleteI am posting this late, so don't know if you'll read it or not. I hear you, though. It's a tight balancing act to try to lead the way that Christ led, and not be acting out of selfish reasons. I deal with that daily. Activists are a rare breed of people. On the one hand, they can be very seemingly selfless, and on the other, it is all too easy to not see the forest for the trees and to begin pushing personal agendas.
In my org. we developed a 5 year strategic plan. It is part of my job to make sure that our initiatives and activities stay the course of that plan. Wonder how long God's strategic plan is???
Christ was perfect in every way. Worldly leaders will always fall short. The best we can do is ask for His help and guidance to stay the course.