Mark 11 Mount Up on That Colt

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.

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Mark 11
The Triumphal Entry
1As Jesus and his disciples approached Jerusalem, they came to the towns of Bethphage and Bethany, on the Mount of Olives. Jesus sent two of them on ahead. 2"Go into that village over there," he told them, "and as soon as you enter it, you will see a colt tied there that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3If anyone asks what you are doing, just say, `The Lord needs it and will return it soon.' "
4The two disciples left and found the colt standing in the street, tied outside a house. 5As they were untying it, some bystanders demanded, "What are you doing, untying that colt?" 6They said what Jesus had told them to say, and they were permitted to take it. 7Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their garments over it, and he sat on it.
8Many in the crowd spread their coats on the road ahead of Jesus, and others cut leafy branches in the fields and spread them along the way. 9He was in the center of the procession, and the crowds all around him were shouting,
"Praise God![a] Bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
10Bless the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Praise God in highest heaven!"[b] 11So Jesus came to Jerusalem and went into the Temple. He looked around carefully at everything, and then he left because it was late in the afternoon. Then he went out to Bethany with the twelve disciples.

Jesus Curses the Fig Tree
12The next morning as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus felt hungry. 13He noticed a fig tree a little way off that was in full leaf, so he went over to see if he could find any figs on it. But there were only leaves because it was too early in the season for fruit. 14Then Jesus said to the tree, "May no one ever eat your fruit again!" And the disciples heard him say it.

Jesus Clears the Temple
15When they arrived back in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the merchants and their customers. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the stalls of those selling doves, 16and he stopped everyone from bringing in merchandise. 17He taught them, "The Scriptures declare, `My Temple will be called a place of prayer for all nations,' but you have turned it into a den of thieves."[c]
18When the leading priests and teachers of religious law heard what Jesus had done, they began planning how to kill him. But they were afraid of him because the people were so enthusiastic about Jesus' teaching. 19That evening Jesus and the disciples[d] left the city.
20The next morning as they passed by the fig tree he had cursed, the disciples noticed it was withered from the roots. 21Peter remembered what Jesus had said to the tree on the previous day and exclaimed, "Look, Teacher! The fig tree you cursed has withered!"
22Then Jesus said to the disciples, "Have faith in God. 23I assure you that you can say to this mountain, `May God lift you up and throw you into the sea,' and your command will be obeyed. All that's required is that you really believe and do not doubt in your heart. 24Listen to me! You can pray for anything, and if you believe, you will have it. 25But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too.[e]"

The Authority of Jesus Challenged
27By this time they had arrived in Jerusalem again. As Jesus was walking through the Temple area, the leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the other leaders came up to him. They demanded, 28"By whose authority did you drive out the merchants from the Temple?[f] Who gave you such authority?"
29"I'll tell who gave me authority to do these things if you answer one question," Jesus replied. 30"Did John's baptism come from heaven or was it merely human? Answer me!"
31They talked it over among themselves. "If we say it was from heaven, he will ask why we didn't believe him. 32But do we dare say it was merely human?" For they were afraid that the people would start a riot, since everyone thought that John was a prophet. 33So they finally replied, "We don't know."
And Jesus responded, "Then I won't answer your question either."

Footnotes:
Mark 11:9 Greek Hosanna, an exclamation of praise that literally means "save now"; also in 11:10.
Mark 11:10 Pss 118:25-26; 148:1.
Mark 11:17 Isa 56:7; Jer 7:11.
Mark 11:19 Greek they; some manuscripts read he.
Mark 11:25 Some manuscripts add verse 26, But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your sins.
Mark 11:28 Or By whose authority do you do these things?

~ Lena’s Journalin’
To me this “colt” seems to be like the impossible things in life. The things we feel may be impossible, we’ve not been able to conquer them, or get a hold on them, and reign them up. They’ve seemed to rule us, lead us, we can’t seem to “get on top of them”. At even the consideration of “getting a hold on, or getting on top of it” others, peers, are like, “You can’t do that, no one has ever done that, especially THAT way.”
I like how the followers of Jesus said, “The Master has need of it”, and they (the peers) did not forbid them (any longer). It reminds me of binding and loosing from Mt 18:18-19. What you bind is bound, loose is loosed, forbid is forbidden, allow is allowed. They stated their cause or intent, there was opposition, but when they stood their ground, with purpose, boldly asking, and they forbade them not.
Jesus got right on top of that thing, brought the rebellious nature under submission to His will and rode on as purposed. How many times to we not ride on, because the thing that is to submit itself to us is what’s riding us? I’m speaking of things like, anger, resentment, lack, rejection etc. What we allow is allowed, what we forbid is forbidden! The people forbade them not, an enemy of our souls forbids us and we take it as “gospel”, just accepting the defeat. We need to so arise and not take that defeat any longer, arise, mount the impossibilities through Christ, and ride on into purpose!
I believe we all hunger after righteousness, hunger to see fruit, we keep approaching the same old unfruitful tree, somehow expecting to “get something” from it. It has a mask on, it is calling us there to come see if anything is there, acting like maybe there is something there to get, but there is none. We have mercy on it and give it time, but it does not produce anything, all the while we’ve spent our energies taking trips out to the same old tree, which has produced nothing, now we’re tired.
This reminds me of a saying that’s going around, but is so good. The saying is, “It is insanity to do the same thing, expecting different results!”
You want something different, do something different. Get outside of your mind, and I don’t mean go insane. Get out of the insanity you’ve been living, approaching the same tree, at the same time, the same way, expecting to find something there!
Jesus cursed it for having nothing there, when this tree was created to have something there, something should have been there. It was a very religious tree, looking good, but having no fruit. It was all dressed up, but without substance or purpose. It even did part of what it should in the timeframe it should, but the main and real produce was emptiness.
This is what led Jesus straight to the house of God, which we are…1 Cor 3:16 Do you not discern and understand that you [the whole church at Corinth] are God's temple (His sanctuary), and that God's Spirit has His permanent dwelling in you [to be at home in you, collectively as a church and also individually]?
Jesus was looking for something on each individual tree. He was hungry for the will of His Father to be done in the earth. He looked for a man, any man who would do that will, then He went to the collective house of God, looking to see if more than one man would also do the will of God His Father. This is what the assembly was for the collective hearing and doing of the will of the Father. He cursed the same old, same old where the tree was concerned, where the house and assembly are concerned. He wanted to know what prevented people (plurally) from hearing and doing the will of His Father, from finding out the will of His Father through prayer, so someone could hear it, preach it and do it. He didn’t find the will being heeded, but rather found buying and selling.
The Bible says buy the truth and do not sell it.
He went to what was supposed to be His Father’s house (remember we each are meant to be the house of the Father), expecting to find, communion, expecting to find company, and strategy engaged. He found merchandising. No truth, but buying and selling!
Think about that one. What have we sold our souls to, for? What do we spend our whole lives on? What do we work for? Truth? Or is that sold cheaply to buy more “expensive” things? The way these things are so expensive is that they cost us our life’s energy, time, effort and in eternity they mean absolutely nothing. In our end when the unhindered truth is revealed to all, we’ll have wished to God we’d saved souls from hell, and if we didn’t and we spent our lives working for accumulating and taking care of a bunch of things that will set the fires of hell, our hearts will feel a sense of loss. Dear God!
If you were Jesus, would you not be angered by that thought? Would you not make a Divine statement and overturn some tables to get someone’s attention!
This would be a great time to look at our dependencies, where our thoughts, energies and actions are spent each day.
Is it hard to read the Bible, this daily bread, make time to go be at church with other believers? Maybe we are spent elsewhere. Why? Do we really have to do what we do? Really? Think ahead to the end, in the eternal scope of things and don’t allow the enemy to speak right now, think about it, go to the end of life and ask….Then get up on that “colt” and ride!
Daily Meditation/Recital/Question
Ask myself daily: “What Page Am I On?”