Explanatory Notes: Mark 11:1-11

I did my video commentary and podcast on Mark a couple years ago, but I didn't finish writing up the notes. I thought I would try to fill in some of the gaps of Passion Week this week (here is the original video/podcast on this text), even though for my video/podcast this week I looked at the triumphal entry in Luke 19:28-48.

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Mark 11:1 And when they draw near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, to the Mount of Olives, he sends two of his followers 2. and says to them, "Depart to the village, the [one] down from you, and immediately, entering into it, you will find a colt having been bound, upon which no one yet of mortals has sat. Loose it and bring [it]. 3. And if someone to you should say, 'Why are you doing this?' Say, 'His Lord has need and immediately sends it again here.'"

Jesus has been traveling toward Jerusalem since Peter's confession of him as Messiah in 8:29. In this chapter Jesus will reach Jerusalem. Mark 11-15 give us Passion Week, the final week of Jesus' earthly mission culminating in his crucifixion. These chapters constitute about a third of the Gospel, leading to the lighthearted description of Mark as a Passion narrative with a preface.

Bethany is less than two miles from Jerusalem. John tells us that Bethany is where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus live (John 11:1). The Mount of Olives is just across the Kidron Valley from the city of Jerusalem. You went out the eastern gate into the small valley and up the other side to the Mount of Olives. [1] The Garden of Gethsemane was at the base of the hill. [2]

Somewhere between Bethany and the Mount of Olives was a village where Jesus knew a colt would be. Mark does not say whether Jesus knew it supernaturally, or whether he had prearranged it, or even had seen it earlier. Mark simply indicates that Jesus knows. The two followers are to enter the village, find the donkey colt, and retrieve it for him.

It will be a colt on which no human has ever sat. There is something symbolic about this fact. The donkey represents purity. The donkey indicates that what Jesus is doing is something new. Jesus is not a used king. He is a brand new king.

Jesus is the Lord of the donkey, the donkey's Lord. The owners no doubt think that they are the colt's master, but Jesus is Lord of all. 

[1] The sealed Eastern Gate you see today is not the eastern gate of Jesus' day. The city wall was significantly expanded centuries ago.

[2] It is not a mountain in the sense of the Rocky Mountains or the mountains of Wales or Scotland. It is really just a large hill in comparison with the sizes of many of the mountains of the world.

11:4 And they went away and found a colt having been bound to a door outside by the lane. And they loosed it. 5. And some of the ones standing there were saying to them, 'What are you doing? Why are you loosing the colt?' 6. And they said to them just as Jesus said, and they allowed them.

The two disciples find the colt exactly as Jesus said. And just as Jesus indicated might happen, some bystanders ask them what they are doing. They do not question the answer. Some have suggested Jesus had prearranged it, and Jesus gave the disciples the code words to say. Of course, the text says nothing like that. The story reads as if Jesus just knew what would happen.

11:7 And they bring the colt to Jesus, and they cast their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. 8. And many spread their cloaks on the way, and others, having cut branches from the fields.

The Gospel of Matthew will make clear what presumably everyone around Jesus already knows. Jesus is intentionally fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9. Jerusalem, your king is coming, riding on the colt of a donkey. Jesus' entry is thus a prophetic act. He is implicitly declaring that he is the Messiah, the anointed king of Israel.

The cutting of branches may deliberately echo another Scripture, Psalm 118:27. There are several verses in this psalm that the early Christians read in terms of Jesus and Psalm Sunday in particular. It is a psalm about returning to the temple after previously being rejected. The gates of righteousness open for the figure approaching the house of the Lord. Jesus may have seen what we call Palm Sunday as a fulfillment of this psalm.

11:9 And the ones going in front and those following were saying, "Hosanna! Blessed is the [one] who comes in the name of the Lord! 10. Blessed [is] the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the heights!"

The connection to Psalm 118 now becomes explicit. "Hosanna" seems to come from the Hebrew or Aramaic of Psalm 118:25. The Hebrew reads "Anna YHWH, Hoshiah na": "O Lord! Bring salvation!" The implication is that the approach of Jesus to the temple is the arrival of salvation. 

The statement, "Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord" is a direct quotation of Psalm 118:26. The point again seems clear. Jesus is salvation on its way. Jesus' arrival in Jerusalem is the arrival of salvation for the city. He is the king. He is the son of David. He is the restoration of the kingdom. 

11:11 And he entered into Jerusalem, into the temple, and having looked around at all things, the hour already being late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.   

Unlike Matthew and Luke, Jesus does not immediately throw the money changers out of the temple in Mark. He symbolically enters Jerusalem. He symbolically goes to the temple. But he does not act. He returns to Bethany with his twelve disciples for the night.