Mark 11:7-11 Hosanna!
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 18, 2018, Mark 11:7-11
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.
They brought the colt to Jesus and threw their coats upon it, and he sat on it. Many people spread their coats on the road, while others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. Those who went ahead and those who followed him were shouting, “Hosanna! How blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! How blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” Then Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the Temple and looked around at everything. Since it was already late, he went out with the Twelve to Bethany.
(Understanding the Text) Many people had been following Jesus since before Jericho. They sensed that something was about to happen. They hoped that Jesus was going to Jerusalem to be crowned king and overthrow the Roman rulers and make Jerusalem the center of an earthly kingdom again. Then, someone overheard Jesus’ instructions about the donkey, and they just knew that their expectations were about to come to fruition. Word rapidly spread around the crowd, and people began to think about what part that they would play in crowning Jesus King of the Jews. Some remembered that they needed to wave branches, so they went out into the fields where the palm dates were growing and cut branches off. A king needs a royal path so when they saw Jesus getting on the colt, they put anything they could think of to make a royal path. Some put their robes on the path while others put the leafy branches there so that it was not just a dirty trail. At first, the robe thing seemed to me like a waste, but I imagine that after the colt walked on it, the owner believed that he would pick it up and ever after be able to point to it and brag that the King of the Jews’ colt walked over it on the day that He was crowned.
They did not have a saddle for the colt and they did not want soon-to-be King Jesus’ robes (or bare legs) to be soiled, so the disciples took their own robes off and put them on the back of the colt for Jesus to ride on. As the disciples performed this action, their hearts were probably full of excitement. They forgot all about the gloomy predictions of death that Jesus had told them. They thought that Jesus had just been overly pessimistic and was doubting himself. They did not realize that Jesus was not prophesying suffering because of self-doubt. As they saw the crowd that supported them and watched a prophesy of the triumphant Messiah-King being fulfilled, their excitement rose to new heights. I’m sure that they were looking at each other and grinning from ear to ear as they began walking beside Jesus and the colt through the crowd and up the path to Jerusalem. In their ears rang the words, “Hosanna” and “How blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord” and most of all, “How blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!” With so many in the crowd supporting them, they just knew that more would join them in the city itself. They were on their way to a fight with Rome that would end in victory because they had the miracle-performing king on their side. They envisioned the past miracles where angels smote the enemies of Judah being re-enacted again.
Jesus went all the way through Jerusalem and into the temple . . . and did nothing else. He had not made arrangements for a crowning ceremony. He did not fight a battle. He did not confront the Jewish leaders. (Where were they? We know that some Pharisees in the crowd told Jesus to stop the procession. “Some of the Pharisees in the crowd told Jesus, ‘Teacher, tell your disciples to be quiet.’ He replied, ‘I tell you, if they were quiet, the stones would cry out!'” (Luke 19:39-40). But the Jewish leaders are suspiciously absent. They may have worried that the crowd would try to force them to crown Jesus as king and so stayed hidden in their houses and rooms rather than force a confrontation when the crowd was backing Jesus.)
Jesus was a disappointment to the disciples that day. Luke says that Jesus was crying as the others were shouting with joy. “And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it” (Luke 19:41). Then, when He rode into the city to the temple, rather than forcing some kind of confrontation, Jesus simply went into the temple, looked around at everything, and left Jerusalem. I imagine the noisy crowd quieting as they approach the temple. They had been taught to reverence the place since they were children. Jesus got off the colt and walked toward the temple. Either one of the disciples was left holding the colt or someone from the crowd was given the job. Some of the crowd would have entered the temple but others would have had to wait outside. They all watched in silence as Jesus went from place to place in the temple looking around at the worshippers and the money lenders and animals and treasury. He walked around looking at it all as the disciples waited to see what Jesus would do next to establish His kingdom. As the crowd waited, their excitement ebbed. They started to feel sweaty and tired and hot and hungry. They realized that it was getting late and they needed to find some place to stay for the night. Maybe, they began to get impatient and start mumbling and asking when Jesus was going to do something, but they stayed on in hope. Then, Jesus simply exited the temple and began walking with His disciples trailing behind in confusion toward the city gate leaving Jerusalem behind and heading for the suburb of Bethany. As the people realized that Jesus was simply leaving the city without doing anything, they stopped following Him and began grumbling about their disappointment. They began to question whether they had got it right and Jesus was really the Messiah. They spread throughout the city looking for food and lodging, or if they lived in a surrounding city like Jericho, they may have started back home. Wherever they went, they discussed the events of the day. Some or many of them must have concluded that they had been fooled and started turning on the false messiah they had followed. Did their disappointment cause them to be part of the mob who yelled crucify Him in just a few days?
(Application) Many times we have false expectations of God and when our expectations meet disappointment, we blame God rather than re-examining our own wrongheadedness. Some people have turned on God because He did not act according to their false beliefs when trials came their way. Darwin is an example of this. For this reason, it is important for me to read the scriptures and try understand what they really say about God rather than look at the Bible through my own worldly understanding. I should always question if my ideas come from the Bible or from the world. I have found so many cherished ideas that are not according to scripture in the last three years. In the past, I would have just shrugged my shoulders and tried to keep both ideas, but now, I have been getting rid of the worldly ideas as I see them. That does not mean that those ideas do not creep back into my thinking or that I have gotten rid of all my false assumptions, but it means that now I am committed to seeing God as clearly as I can and following His ways. When disappointment comes, I am thinking about it rather than simply suffering through it with stretched faith. I want to examine the wrong ideas that I had that brought my disappointment and see what the correct ideas should have been. I also know that there will be reasons that God has that I may never know until heaven. Sometimes, I will have to accept disappointment simply because I know I don’t know enough, but other times I have to change my wrong assumptions of God and the kingdom of heaven and who I should be.
(Application / Revelation of God) I should never believe that I can predict how God will act. I should not expect an answer to prayer in a specific way only. I know that God brings about answers in unexpected ways. Right now, I feel a little discouraged about reaching the people of my city with the message of the gospel, but I do not know what is happening behind the scenes. I want baptisms or more people in church. Those expectations may not be what God wants, so I need to just keep following as best I know how from reading the scriptures and praying and following the Spirit’s leading.
(Prayer) Help me to see You more and more clearly and to trust You even when I feel disappointed. Show me my misconceptions about You and lead me into the paths where You want me to go.