Save us! Mark 11:1-18

Illus: In sixth grade – when the house was empty of family, and I was alone – I used to crank up the album Jesus Christ Superstar and sing it at the top of my lungs in our little house in Kansas. A song called Hosanna: “Hosanna, Hey sanna, Sanna Sanna Ho, Sanna Hey Sanna Ho Sanna. Hey JC, JC, won’t you fight for me? Sanna Hey sanna Ho Superstar.”

Background of the Triumphal Entry

Jesus, here at the end of his ministry, seems to be allowing a statement to be made of who he is: the One capable of salvation, the Son of David, the King of kings, the conqueror of sin and sickness. Conquering generals at that time were given a “triumphal entry” on their return to their home city. Palm branches were often waved during times of celebration and victory (Lev 23:40; Ps 118:25-27). The procession caused the city, crowded with people for Passover, to consider Jesus’ claims. (Quest Study Bible)

1. The import of Tassels (Numbers 15:37ff)

⁷ Then they brought the donkey to Jesus and threw their robes on it, and He sat on it. ⁸ Many people spread their robes on the road…

Picture the robe like a big poncho, a rectangular cloth that hangs down the front and back and has a hole for the head to come through. It was stitched up the sides like a pillowcase. Where each side was joined at the bottom, there were two tassels. So, they had two tassels on one side and two on the other. The fringe of the garment was that person’s symbol of authority. People did business with their tassels – they might be pressed into clay like a kind of signature, as everyone would have a little different pattern for them. No two were alike. The Mari Tablets (14th BC) tells us that when you took someone to court, you pulled them into the courtroom by their tassels. Your authority was over their authority. Notice where the tassels play a role in biblical narratives –

I Sam. 24, where David shows Saul the tassels he has snipped from his robe;
Elijah passed his mantel with his four tassels on to Elisha
woman with hemorrhage reaching out to touch Jesus’ tassel;
at crucifixion, Jesus is stripped of his tassels – stripped of his authority. Romans decided to keep four tassels intact because it would have been worth much;
where the stoners throw their tassels at Saul’s feet meaning he was taking responsibility for the event.
people throwing their tassels on the donkey and in front of the donkey of Jesus on
Palm Sunday (Jim Fleming, Life of Paul Mediterranean Cruise, 1995)

2. The defining declaration: Hosanna!

⁹ Then those who went ahead and those who followed kept shouting: Hosanna! He who comes in the name of the Lord is the blessed One! 10 The coming kingdom of our Father David is blessed! Hosanna in the highest heaven!

Hosanna! Save us!…from Roman rule. Save us from THEM! Save us from the enemy! Save us! But is there a deeper way of thinking about salvation?

Our salvation, whatever it might mean, is 1) rooted in the name of the Lord, 2) is coming, coming, coming and has a historical base (David. We know God is doing something because he began doing something a long time ago…

3. A hunger for fruit!

Looking around, getting rid of fruitlessness, cleansing a fruitless ideal.

¹¹ And He went into Jerusalem and into the temple complex. After looking around at everything, since it was already late, He went out to Bethany with the Twelve. ¹² The next day when they came out from Bethany, He was hungry. ¹³ After seeing in the distance a fig tree with leaves, He went to find out if there was anything on it. When He came to it, He found nothing but leaves because it was not the season for figs. ¹⁴ He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And His disciples heard it.

6x it says that Jesus “looked around” – when he does so, he is getting ready to say, do or experience something profound. About half the time is a healing. I think Jesus looks around a Temple and sees the need for healing —but like many healings, there is a cleansing that needs to come first.

Then this crazy episode of the fig tree without figs. It was not the season for figs, but it wasn’t the season for leaves, either. Jesus is making a point — be fruitful, or die — he says it both of the Temple and of the tree. And he says it of you, and me.

4. Hosanna! – still our heart cry?

11 When they approached Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany near the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples ²and told them, “Go into the village ahead of you. As soon as you enter it, you will find a young donkey tied there, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it here. ³ If anyone says to you, Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here right away.'”

⁴ So they went and found a young donkey outside in the street, tied by a door. They untied it, ⁵ and some of those standing there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the donkey?” ⁶ They answered them just as Jesus had said, so they let them go. ⁷ Then they brought the donkey to Jesus and threw their robes on it, and He sat on it.

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One fun way to do Bible study: When you read a paragraph in Scripture with multiple characters, ask which one you are. So…could I, here, be the donkey?

Paraphrased for Matt Friedeman

Jesus sent some disciples to Great Bend, Kansas. He told them, to go over there and find a 12-year-old boy, who is real immature and has absolutely no life experience. Bring Matt to me. When people wonder about it, say, “Jesus needs Matt.” So, those disciples went and found Matt. They untied him from his pitiful, mundane, and meaningless existence, and when people asked about it, these disciples said, “The Lord needs him.” They brought Matt to Jesus, and Jesus used him.