Mark 11:1-11
LESSON
Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem (Mark 11:1-11) is a familiar story even to non–Christians. What we have come to call Palm Sunday seems to be the culmination of His earthly ministry. As believers, we rejoice to see our Lord acknowledged as the Messiah of His people. But His one moment of recognition is so painfully brief? Jesus’ identity as Saviour was veiled from the crowd at every other point of His ministry and rejected decisively by them at His death.
Yet if we see only this aspect of the Triumphal Entry, we will miss seeing it from the most important perspective of all— the Lord’s own. When Jesus set His face to go to Jerusalem, He was striding purposefully toward confrontation and death. The “hour” that He had often told His disciples had “not yet come” had now arrived. It would be a moment of conflict and crisis, of death and deliverance. Soon in death He would be both the Lamb of God and His people’s Great High Priest. To Jesus, every event that led up to that moment, including this moment of earthly acclaim, was just a stepping–stone to the true climax of His ministry, His substitutionary death.
STUDY QUESTIONS
- What is the significance of Palm Sunday?
- What has Jesus entire ministry been leading to?
- How did everything lead up to Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem?
FURTHER STUDY
- Read the Lord's Prayer and see what Christ's prayer can teach us about His triumphal entry.
PRAYER
- Thank the Lord that Christ’s entire ministry was to fulfill the will of the Father, and completing the work of salvation. Also praise God that we are part of that plan now, if we are in Christ!
