Purposeful Excitement

Mark 11:1-11
11:1 When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples

11:2 and said to them, "Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it.

11:3 If anyone says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' just say this, 'The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.'"

11:4 They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it,

11:5 some of the bystanders said to them, "What are you doing, untying the colt?"

11:6 They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it.

11:7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it.

11:8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields.

11:9 Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, "Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!

11:10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!"

11:11 Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

Over the course of the past week, Griffin has helped me out on the farm four different days.  He has been in heaven being able to disk, feed hay, take care of baby calves, eat lunch at DnS and going to see Uncle Brad at the Co-op.  He has been doing his best to emulate what he sees and hears.  He tells his mom that he is going to the north side of the barn because this is what I told him while I was checking cows.  He told his Uncle Brad that he has been busy disking.  He is full of stories and loves talking about his work on the farm.  One morning, he told his mom that he didn’t want to eat breakfast because he was worried that he was going to be late for work.  Every time he gets to go to the farm is an absolute joy for him.  On the other hand, I do it every day.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy what I do but I often forget just how lucky I am to do what I do.  Then I see the excitement that Griffin has when he gets to go out there and I cannot help but to be thankful.  When Jesus entered Jerusalem that day he was excited, invigorated, and inspired by the way the people had greeted him.  In all honesty, I do not know if Jesus exactly knew what his fate was going over the course of the next week but yet each action was intentional.

One of the commentaries that I read said that Jesus may have been a little more prepared than we often give him credit for when it came to the day he entered Jerusalem.  Not so much in the first three gospels, but in the gospel of John, we know that Jesus made several trips to Jerusalem.  It is not out of the ordinary to think that Jesus would have made preparations ahead of time for the events of that day.  For something so important, so vital to his ministry, I just don’t think Jesus would have left so much to chance.  It’s like Griffin not wanting to eat breakfast, he was not about to chance being late for work.  Jesus knew and understood the importance of this day, even if he did not fully know how the rest of the week would turn out, and that makes it difficult for me to think that Jesus would have left the disciples to find a colt on whim.  Griffin is always wanting to know what we are doing next on the farm.  He has to have a plan.  I think Jesus had a plan of what was going to happen that week.  It was too important for Jesus not to give it some forethought.  

We know that Jesus chose a donkey for the reason he did.  A donkey was an animal of peace.  Compared to a horse which was an animal of war.  We know that the people of Jerusalem welcomed Christ with open arms.  They welcomed their king into the city.  But they did so based on a different idea of a king than Jesus had planned.  They were expecting a worldly king, and Jesus was a spiritual one.  They were expecting to be fruitful in this life and Jesus was planning for eternity.  Whether or not Jesus knew his fate exactly makes no difference to me or my faith.  What really matters to me was the intention of Christ.  The Jewish people had several heroes of faith, they have had several conquerors during their history and in their minds, Jesus was to be no different.  What Jesus had set out to conquer was not worldly.  

I took the long way to get here but the point that I am making is that Jesus was deliberate and intentional in his actions that day.  He knew that the authorities were going to be after him but instead of entering Jerusalem quietly, he did it in the loudest way possible.  The actions of Christ were deliberate and purposeful.  The lesson here is that we do not always know where the next step will take us, we may not have the luxury of having a plan for this life, but we can be deliberate, intentional and purposeful in all that we do.  Most likely, Jesus and the disciples knew that the odds were against them and yet they faced it all with courage.  All of them.  We don’t know what tomorrow will bring but let us be deliberate in our actions.  Let us be purposeful in our faith.  Let us be intentional with our thoughts.  We may not be able to plan for the future but we can prepare for it and that is exactly the kind of king Jesus was trying to get the people of Jerusalem to see that he was.  Purposeful excitement I would call it.  

In passing, verse 11 says that Jesus went into the temple courts that night and looked around at everything.  I find this odd.  I found this a sticking point for me.  As I was preparing for this week, I kept thinking about this verse in particular.  I knew that I wanted to talk about Jesus being deliberate despite not knowing exactly what would transpire but I just kept thinking about verse 11.  Why would Jesus go into the temple and look.  Why not wait til morning.  Why was this significant enough to add to the gospel?  The gospels are short, they sum up 3 years of ministry into a few short pages and they chose to remember this.  Why?  Why was it important for Jesus to do this?  I think it was also deliberate.  It was almost to say goodbye.  The Temple was a place of worship, a place where many believed God actually dwelled.  Jesus said that he would destroy the temple and raise it again in three days.  I think Jesus was being nostalgic.  I think he was almost reminiscing how this was about to change.  Maybe Jesus knew his fate, maybe he didn’t.  But it does not matter because he did everything that day with the intention of giving glory to God.  Misunderstood or not, Jesus’ goal was to show others the love of the Father.  

Sometimes our faith can seem like work.  Sometimes it can seem like it is not bearing fruit.  If allowed to, our faith can lose its excitement.  This morning, I am asking you to have the faith of a child.  Be excited like a child getting to work on the farm.  Be so excited about your faith that you almost want to skip breakfast.  Be filled with purposeful excitement. Be intentional about your faith even if you do not know for sure where it is headed.  Amen.