"1 Jesus and his disciples reached Bethphage and Bethany near the Mount of Olives. When they were getting close to Jerusalem, Jesus sent two of them on ahead. 2 He told them, “Go into the next village. As soon as you enter it, you will find a young donkey that has never been ridden. Untie the donkey and bring it here. 3 If anyone asks why you are doing that, say, ‘The Lord needs it and will soon bring it back.’” 4 The disciples left and found the donkey tied near a door that faced the street. While they were untying it, 5 some of the people standing there asked, “Why are you untying the donkey?” 6 They told them what Jesus had said, and the people let them take it." ~ Mark 11:1-6
Today we transition into the Mark 11, which begins the final week of the earthly life of the Lord Jesus. The disciples were still expecting the Lord Jesus to set up His kingdom in Jerusalem, even after He had repeatedly told them that He was going to Jerusalem to die. This underscores the theme of Mark which is the Lord Jesus Christ is the Servant of the LORD. The first ten chapters of Mark present the Lord Jesus as the Servant of the LORD.
In Mark 11 the direction of Mark's gospel takes a bit of a turn where the emphasis is more on the Lord Jesus as the suffering Servant. Three-fifths of of Mark's gospel is devoted to what we're about to read, the final week of the Lord Jesus Christ on the earth. When we look closely at the eighty-five chapters in the four gospels, we notice that twenty-nine of them give us the details of the final week of the earthly life of the Lord Jesus before his death, burial, and resurrection. And, thirteen of those chapters concentrate on the final twenty-four hours of His life on earth.
In v.1-2 of today's passage we read, "1 Jesus and his disciples reached Bethphage and Bethany near the Mount of Olives. When they were getting close to Jerusalem, Jesus sent two of them on ahead. 2 He told them, 'Go into the next village. As soon as you enter it, you will find a young donkey that has never been ridden. Untie the donkey and bring it here.'"
After reaching Bethphage, which means "the house of unripened figs" and Bethany which means "the house of dates," the Lord Jesus told two disciples to go to the next village to retrieve a donkey. He does this in order to make preparations for the fulfillment of a prophecy found in Zechariah 9 which was given some five hundred years before. That passage includes a prophecy that the king would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey. In the ancient world, leaders rode into town on donkeys denoting that they came in peace.
A subtle contrast was provided in the context of today's story. Bethphage was woeful in their response to the revelation they had been given by the Lord. Thus, they were defined by their unbelief. Bethany was quite consistent in their positive response to God's revelation. The names of these two towns speak for themselves. Through this contrast we are provided a picture of what our heart response toward the Lord should be on a day to day basis. We should be like Bethany and this young donkey, obediently responsive to the point of factoring in on all that the Lord is doing in our world.
In v.3 of today's passage we read, "If anyone asks why you are doing that, say, ‘The Lord needs it and will soon bring it back."
That phrase "The Lord needs it" is surprising. God "needs" something? It reminds us of that passage in John where we are told that the Lord Jesus needed to go through Samaria. He needed to go through Samaria in order to obey God, so that the woman at the well would be given the option to respond to Him as her seventh man. And, with an eventual willing heart, she responded with great belief in the Lord.
God works on the principle of partnership. He has chosen to partner with us to accomplish His work on this earth. There is always a powerful work that will be accomplished through His community, and, we can be a part in it only if we have willing hearts. The Apostle Paul reminds us that "God has chosen the foolish things of this world to confuse the wise."
The Scriptures tells us that the Word of the Lord will be accomplished. What He has said will happen just the way He said it would. God lives in eternity and He knows the beginning from the end. We are wise to be defined to what He says is truth. Being defined by Him is not a chore, it is a blessing because what He says will come to pass. Quite frankly, it is unwise and quite foolish to not obey what God has said.
This is why the Lord borrowed that donkey that day. When God says that His Word will not return to Him void, we can bank on it. God always has specific intentions for our lives, and those intentions dove tail with His Word to us. For us, our responsibility is to be willing of heart. We must be responsive to what His word says by walking in it and obeying it. When this happens, it is then that we are being defined by Him.
In v.4-6 of today's passage we read, "4 The disciples left and found the donkey tied near a door that faced the street. While they were untying it, 5 some of the people standing there asked, “Why are you untying the donkey?” 6 They told them what Jesus had said, and the people let them take it."
All three of the Synoptic Gospels tell us no one had ever sat on this young donkey. An unbroken young donkey is not easy to handle. In fact, they are wild. It would have bucked like crazy when anyone would have climbed up on him. It would have reacted negatively and obstinately to having a blanket thrown on its back. Yet, that donkey carried the Lord Jesus through the streets of Jerusalem quite calmly.
Our problem is we exchanged the truth about God for a lie. As a result, we now worship the created, namely ourselves, rather than the Creator. We are enslaved to our sinfulness, not realizing we are enslaved to the devil himself. Our idols promise freedom, but we are so often defined by the fallen that we have gone from being image bearers of God to being image makers of ourselves.
The key is to be defined by the God of grace. And, when this increasingly happens and we learn to trust His culture more than our own, we will stand in His grace. And, in the wake of His grace which has brought about our redemption, we will learn to subdue the created and not be subdued by it. When we look at the wrath-absorbed body of the Lord Jesus on the cross and His perfect obedience to God's Word, we will be fueled to be correctly defined by Him for His kingdom to come.
