Rev. Fa Lane | March 24, 2024

Isaiah 50:4-9; Mark 11:1-11

 “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.”

Boy, Mark knows how to write a cliff-hanger doesn’t he? We’ve seen Jesus traveling the region gathering followers, preaching and teaching, doing miracles of healing and feeding thousands. 



He’s also been arguing with scribes, the Pharisees and challenging the temple priests and lawyers. Each episode gets a little more intense, a little closer to the bone.

Here Mark shows Jesus taking his message of God’s Salvation to the heart of the Temple. The showdown between him and the powerful will change the whole world for all time. He has been establishing his message and trying to prepare his followers for what will happen. 

They have no idea what’s coming; but we do. We know about Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, and Holy Saturday’s time of waiting for the Resurrection on Sunday. We know that death does not win and hope is rewarded. And, still we need to go through this week of questions and darkness in order to understand what we celebrate. 

We have several groups of people involved in this story of the triumphant entry into Jerusalem. See if you can find yourself among them somewhere.

There’s a crowd of people who meet him as he tries to go to Jerusalem. They greet him with such high hopes that the political structure will change and life will be better for them.

Today a change in the political structure might help the people trying to get approved for disability and being denied repeatedly. Think of our friends applying to rent an apartment and worrying about how their background hampers them each time. Think of the returning citizen trying to rebuild their life after serving time in prison. Jobs are hard to find for someone who’s been in jail. Education is limited. They are ineligible for public benefits, housing or student loans; and they cannot vote.

Some in the crowd reached to touch Jesus’ hands as he passed. Some bowed at his feet excited to be in the presence of a mighty warrior. The citizens of Ukraine come to mind or of Palestine or Haiti. They are looking for police or military support in those countries that are overrun with warring factions. Perhaps they are in your prayers.

Some in Jesus day were people of strong faith excited to see the day that the Lord’s Messiah would overwhelm the Roman Empire so that their religion would set the priorities. Maybe you’ve been in this kind of conversation on the spectrum of faith traditions we have today. Each believes their perspective is the one that should influence policies and lawmakers.

Others that day felt oppressed not only by the Romans, but by their own Temple leaders who created a second surrounding system that prospered their connected constituents. We know that with each high office there are hundreds of people in positions that undergird them and enable them, that write policies, pass laws and otherwise regulate daily life.

I’m sure some in the crowd wept, overcome with relief that finally someone who had compassion would see their plight and help. Some sang songs of praise. Some waved their hands with palm branches and perhaps small flags in joy that the promised Messiah, the Savior, had finally come.  

The Jerusalem Temple is where Jesus would meet his adversaries and stand up on behalf of hurting people. I think it was really the chief priests and scribes of his own religious tradition that he was trying to reach. Rome’s authority was not something Jesus worried about. The germane issue was the primacy of God’s Word, God’s Salvation. So, he went directly to the temple.

We have this tremendous pregnant pause from Mark. “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.” Did he think “uh, the traffic was so bad it took too long to get here and I missed everyone today.” Or, had he wanted to see the place where it would all happen and mentally/spiritually prepare for the next day.? Then he went to Bethany with his friends for one more night, one more meal.

I invite us all to take this week and look around before we eat the bread and drink the cup in our Maundy Thursday service. This is the final stretch in our Lenten season where we look back on our life, clear out old bad habits and the clutter that keeps us from connecting with and following Jesus.

This week especially, we ask for forgiveness where it is needed and make new commitments to be the hands and feet of Jesus. 

In chapter 14 there are more details about what happened during the Passover festival that Jesus was attending. I get the impression from the writings that Jesus had a sense of what was going to happen and even so, he followed God’s Will. Let’s read it together:

He sat at Simon the leper’s table. A woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard. “She broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head.” Curious, isn’t it, that ointment of nard, an herb which battles infection and inflammation, is brought into this house at this time, as if in preparation for what would happen to Jesus’ body. My question is: Where do we apply ointments and balms today that heal bruised and broken bodies?

  Judas Iscariot went to the chief priests in order to disclose Jesus to them. They were pleased and promised to pay him. “So, he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.” Later Jesus will tell Judas to do his business quickly. Jesus was ready for it to happen. Let us confess there have been times when we have not done what Jesus would do. We have betrayed him.

  Jesus tells two disciples to go into town and ask about where they will take the Passover Meal. They are to follow a man carrying a water jar in to a house and ask the owner where the room is that Jesus can eat the Passover meal with his disciples. “He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.” They found everything as he had told them. The room was ready for the meal yet to be prepared. The Lord is always ready for us. Are we able to approach the table? 

We are now poised on Palm Sunday knowing that next Sunday is the big celebration day. But the next six days are filled with trials for Jesus. We might get ready with Easter dinner plans and maybe the egg hunt with our little ones, but before there is an Easter resurrection we have to get through the trials of this week.

I started Lent with Henri Nouwen’s book titled “Can You Drink the Cup?” in which the author considers Jesus’ question to the sons of Zebedee and their mother. You might recall they had wanted to sit on either side of Jesus in Glory. 

Henri suggests that the cup is a review of our whole life of actions and opinions. Can we live our life, whatever joys and sorrows it will bring, and still courageously hold it with grace, lift it for affirmation and drink of it saying yes, this is who I am as a faithful child of God? 

Henri asked his L’Arche Community and through the book he asks us all, can we hold the cup that is our life. Can we confess what we do, what we have done and what we have not done.

Can we honestly see ourselves? 

Can we lift the cup, evaluate our life, share it with others, ask for forgiveness and for affirmation, and celebrate the life that we live together in the name of Jesus?

Can we drink the cup that is our blessed and messy life, in the presence of others, knowing God loves each of us, just as we are. Thanks be to God.

Drinking the cup of life is a hopeful and courageous act where we meet the risen Christ. Jesus faced this week being obedient to God’s call and so must we with whatever gifts and abilities we have. 

Before you set

your plans for Easter’s celebration, take this week to look at your cup. Prepare yourself to follow Jesus so that when he, our high priest, invites you to the table, you are ready. 

Amen.