Yesterday in my On the Road to Jerusalem post, I talked about how Jesus very clearly told His disciples that He was going to die, be buried, and be raised from the dead. Even so, in the very next verses in Mark 10:37, James and John were asking Jesus, “When you sit on your glorious throne, we want to sit in places of honor next to you, one on your right and the other on your left.”
Mark 10:38 says, “But Jesus said to them, ‘You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink from the bitter cup of suffering I am about to drink? Are you able to be baptized with the baptism of suffering I must be baptized with?'” I think I might take a moment and say, hmmm, bitter cup of suffering? But they eagerly say, “Oh yes, we are able” in verse 39. Are they? They seem to be more interested in honor than suffering.
They had no clue what they were agreeing to. I wonder what they thought He was talking about? Further proof that they were looking for an earthly kingdom.
Most churchgoers celebrated Palm Sunday yesterday. This represents the day Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the colt of a donkey to a large crowd of people spreading their garments and cutting branches from the trees to lay before Him. Why was this day significant, and why was He riding the colt of a donkey?
Scripture tells us the answer in Matthew 21:4-5, “This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying, ‘Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your King is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’” This was a fulfillment of a prophecy given long ago by the prophet Zechariah about the coming Messiah.
You can see how the disciples were probably thinking that Jesus had it all wrong. He wasn’t going there to die. Here He was riding into Jerusalem to crowds praising Him. They had to be thinking, Yes! Now we are getting somewhere. The people are ready to follow Him and get this new kingdom going. They weren’t wrong. He was the coming King, but so much more than that, and not of the kind of kingdom they were hoping for.
Thank you, Lord, for knowing what we needed even when we didn’t. Let Your Kingdom come, let Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.