Mark 11:1-6 The Lord Has Need
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: March 16, 2018, Mark 11:1-6
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
And when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, He sent out two of His disciples. And He said to them, Go into the village over across from you. And as soon as you have entered into it, you will find a colt tied, on which no one of men has ever sat. Untie it and bring it. And if anyone says to you, Why do you do this? Say that the Lord has need of him, and immediately he will send him here. And they went, and they found the colt tied by the door outside, in a place where two ways met. And they untied him. And certain of those who stood there said to them, What are you doing, untying the colt? And they said to them even as Jesus had commanded. And they let them go.
(Revelation of God) Jesus knew the prophecies about the Messiah. He had spent at least 20 years studying them. At the age of 12, He had understood where the prophecies would ultimately lead Him. He became a human baby and lost all knowledge of who He really was. He had seeded clues throughout the scriptures to bring this knowledge back to the man Jesus. He was the one who inspired the prophecies, so He was the one who knew their significance. Thus, He knew all the signs that He had to fulfil on this last journey to Jerusalem. I have wondered why the Messianic prophecies are so convoluted and mixed in with the local prophecies of the time. Could it be that this was to confuse His enemies so that Satan could not counteract the plan of salvation? I don’t know. I could be way off base.
(Revelation of God / Understanding the Text) Jesus’ life seemed to have been a three-part mission. The first 30 years were to demonstrate to the world that He would not sin either as an unknowing child or as an aware adult. In this part of the mission, He simply had to be Himself. There were no signs that He had to fulfill for people. He had to simply live a normal life in a normal sinful human town. He knew how long this part of the mission was because of the prophecies of Daniel.
The second part of His mission was spending three years revealing the character of the Father to people who were blind to the Father’s love and care. To accomplish this part of the mission, Jesus received a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Essentially, the first phase required Jesus to live as a human with no extra help. However, the second phase required that He be totally reconnected with His Father’s power in order to reveal Him. The wilderness experience had to do with communion with God, as well as temptation. The Lightbearers say that Jesus was reenacting the experience of Israel and that is why He stayed 40 days. I trust their Biblical scholarship, yet this seems sort of forced and illogical to my present understanding. I will have to think about that idea more in order to see how it all flows together. Jesus’ ministry before the final week in the Jerusalem area was full of signs and miracles. He spent this time period ministering to men and teaching them about the kingdom of heaven and most of all, who the Father really was.
Now, Jesus starts on the final part of His mission on earth. This is the week where He ties up the loose ends on earth and becomes sin for us. It seems that He gave lots of prophecies to guide Himself through this week. One of those prophecies was that He would enter into Jerusalem riding on an unbroken donkey. Why? I have heard that this was the Jewish sign of a king entering the city. Jesus had to enter the city this last time as Israel/Judea’s king. He was forcing a confrontation with the Jewish authorities, but He was also telling the people clearly who He was. At the beginning of His ministry, He kept people guessing about whether He was claiming to be the Messiah or not, but here, He was clearly stating who and what He was. Because of this act, there would be no confusion in any Jew’s mind as to whether Jesus claimed to be the Messiah or not. In fact, it is this act that will bring Him the title of King of the Jews that was written in a sign on His cross. The triumphal entry is a pageant that He has to perform in order to begin the whole series of incidents that will lead to the cross.
The countdown has started, and Jesus has to time His actions accordingly. Each action has been carefully planned out and coordinated to bring the desired result. (These details may have been what Moses and Elijah were finalizing with Him in the Mount of Transfiguration. I wonder whether He had been transfigured before when He was praying alone without His disciples. For example, when He dismissed the crowd after feeding them and sent the disciples on ahead with the boat. Did He need to be alone so that the glow from His communion with heaven would not be revealed? It’s not important for me to know, but the conference with Moses and Elijah on the mount may not have been the only time they had conferenced with Him.) Anyway, Jesus has planned out this last week carefully. He had already made arrangements for the colt, probably with Lazarus since this was near Bethany where Lazarus lived. The donkey was to be tied out where the disciples could find it on that special day. The words that He told the disciples to say may have been the code that had been given to the man in charge of the donkey to know who would receive it. In other words, I think that Lazarus searched around for the owner of a colt that was the right age and bought it from the man telling him to deliver it to a certain place at a certain time and deliver it to the men who came saying “the Lord has need of him”. Why the secret agent steps? If it was known ahead of time that the donkey was for Jesus, the Jewish leaders might have interfered with the transaction. Also, this way no retribution would be enacted against the owner or Lazarus.
(Note: When I presented this line of thinking to a couple of my friends, they totally shot the idea down. I modified my ideas based on their comments. This is an example of the importance of discussing our ideas with others who are also studying the Bible. It helps us to see other perspectives and modify our thinking when it has wandered off down wrong paths. Thus, I am not confident that I understand what happened or that Jesus made prior arrangements regardless of what the following paragraph says. However, I am still confident in my application.)
(Application) When I was younger and read of this event, it seemed miraculous and confusing. I would think, “How did Jesus know that the donkey would be there? Is He telling His disciples to steal a donkey? Why the special words?” Now, I understand that this was part of a plan and that Jesus had made arrangements in a human way. This does not make the event less. It shows me how Jesus worked as a man to fulfill the requirements for events to happen in a certain way. He did not wave a magic wand and perform miraculous feats that other humans could not do. Instead, He remained human and used the scriptures, planning, and the Holy Spirit to accomplish His mission. He is an example of the ways in which we can still accomplish His mission. Jesus is not a magic man; instead, He is the God-Man who came to be us so that He could bear our punishment, and He could lead us out of our wilderness of sin back home to the Father where we should have been all along. In the same way, He does not expect us to perform magic to accomplish His goals. He expects us to use knowledge of scriptures, planning, and to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will provide whatever miracles are necessary, but most times, those miracles will be subtle and quiet rather than big miraculous signs to astound and amaze.
(Prayer) I pray to learn Your will through the scriptures and obey You. Guide me when I am planning service to You. Help me to never ignore the voice of the Spirit speaking to me. Give me wisdom and faith to go forward with common sense and miraculous guidance to bring Your name before others and to obey Your will.