Mark 11:1-11 So That We Might Live

The Text

Mark 11:1-11 (CSB) ¹ When they approached Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples

² and told them, “Go into the village ahead of you. As soon as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it.

³ If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here right away.’”

⁴ So they went and found a colt outside in the street, tied by a door. They untied it,

⁵ and some of those standing there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?”

⁶ They answered them just as Jesus had said; so they let them go.

⁷ They brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and he sat on it.

⁸ Many people spread their clothes on the road, and others spread leafy branches cut from the fields.

⁹ Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted: Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

¹⁰ Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!

¹¹ He went into Jerusalem and into the temple. After looking around at everything, since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.

The Devotion

We are the people who will rejoice the coming of the Messiah.

Christ came to fix our real problems.

Matthew 1:21 (CSB) She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

Colossians 2:15 (CSB) He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; he triumphed over them in him.

Ephesians 2:1-2 (CSB) And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient.

Titus 3:3-5 (CSB) For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by various passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, detesting one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us—not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy—through the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

Here's the kick. Without the indwelling of God in our lives, we are not going to see sin as the problem in our lives. Heck, even with God in our lives, we have a difficult time seeing what really matters versus inconvenient circumstances.

And the people who cheer and shouted, Hosanna! Hosanna for the arrive of Christ, did not have the Triune God dwelling in them because Christ had not sent the Holy Spirit from the Father just yet.

It won't be but a short time later until these same people will be shouting, "Crucify, crucify!"

That is the sin indwelling.

We need God now more than ever.