Scripture: Mark 11:1-11
Jesus' entry into Jerusalem was a big deal, and even he seems to have given a fair bit of thought to it. Verses 1-6 make it pretty clear that Jesus and a few of his followers planned the event pretty carefully to make the maximum prophetic challenge to the powers of the day, and the maximum public splash. I also wonder if the crowd's response in verses 8-10 was purely spontaneous, or was sparked at least a bit by a few people prepared ahead of time to act out the prophetic acclamation of God's king. If so, they seem to have been pretty successful in pulling off the event they wanted.
But then after all it all comes off so well, we read:
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.
What?!? Sure, it was late and the end of a very big day. But they just looked around and then left?
The fact that Jesus climaxed (or anti-climaxed) his big day by just looking around, seeing it was late, and going back with his followers to a friend's house just outside the city -- and that he went back there with them every other evening in the momentous week that followed, reminds me that we often over-estimate Jesus' desire to be in charge of everything -- both then and now.
Maybe enough for him, that he make the great splash to wake us up, spend time getting us oriented in the kingdom direction, and then step back and let us do our (or God's) thing.
If that is his way -- both then and forever, I wonder if it changes anything in the way we think about, believe in, or act out our faith?
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