Mark 11:9 Commentary and Bible Study

They proclaim in the words of Psalm 118:25-26, ‘Save now, I beseech thee, O LORD: O LORD, I beseech thee, send now prosperity. ²⁶ Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the LORD.’ Hosanna means ‘Save now’, as in verse 25 of that Psalm. Why did Christ allow all that? Why did he allow himself to ride in on a colt into Jerusalem in triumph with everyone acclaiming him? The children went on doing it. They took this cry, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’, into the temple, and infuriated the chief priests, and the scribes and Pharisees. They wouldn’t be quiet. John's Gospel tells us that there were those there who were enthusing in the crowd and speaking of how he had raised Lazarus. Luke tells us that the crowd largely praised him because of his miracles (Luke 19:37) – many who had been healed by him, many others also. But as he neared the city an extraordinary thing happened. We read about it in Luke 19:41, ‘And when he was come near’ – this is just before the triumphal entry – ‘he beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side.’ He makes this prediction about the destruction of Jerusalem that will take place in A.D. 70 when Rome will destroy the city and demolish the temple. He looks over that city and weeps. What is happening? They come down the Mount of Olives; they see Jerusalem spread out before them. There is tremendous enthusiasm and he weeps over the city because he knows that this wild enthusiasm – his being received and conducted into the city as a king – is based on a total misunderstanding. He allows it to happen, but he knows it is completely phoney. Most of the people think that he is the Messiah, but they think that he is a Messiah in a political way; he will get rid of the Roman occupying troops, that he will release Jerusalem to be a great conquering, prosperous nation once again. That is what they expect but that is not what he has come for. He has come to be a spiritual Messiah, a spiritual Saviour, who is heading now to arrest and execution in apparent weakness. He will be nailed to a cross and there he will be offered up to God, and God the Father will put upon him all the guilt of those who will be forgiven, and punish him instead of them, so that he can save them and bless them in their lives and make them his children and take them to eternal glory. That is what he has come to do and they do not understand it. They are thinking in purely earthly terms – our deliverer, our earthly Messiah. So he weeps over the city because they are going to reject him. As soon as they realise he isn't going to be an earthly, material Messiah, they will shout for his execution and they will reject him utterly. There is therefore that sorrow even in the course of his triumphant entry into Jerusalem.