“Just Looking Around” – MARK 11:1-11

For many in the crowd, and perhaps some of the disciples, Jesus’ entrance in Jerusalem seemed like the pinnacle of His ministry.

In all of the fanfare, Jesus knew this was not why He came. Palm branches and adulation (11:7-8) seemed to be ushering Jesus into the city as the long anticipated conqueror. Jesus knew that He was not there to conquer a city, but he came to conquer hearts. How empty did He feel, knowing that many of these people would soon cry “Crucify”? How hopeful did He feel knowing that some of them would soon obey the gospel in light of His resurrection?

This is certainly one of the most sublime scenes in Scripture.

The miracle of omniscience and the obedience of the owner of a colt must have amazed the two disciples who preceded Jesus into Jerusalem (11:1-6). The colt and the “Hosannas” were fulfillment of prophecy (Zechariah 9:9), and the name of David was even a statement of faith in who He really was. The miracle that truly mattered was still days away. The “victory” of this day would be followed by the “defeat” of confusion, death and abandonment before the ultimate miracle would occur.

Jesus knew that He was not there to ride into the city to sit on a throne, He came to hang on a cross.

After all of this, Jesus goes to the temple. In an apex of anticlimax He leaves after “looking around at everything” (11:11). No, it was not quite what it once had been before Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the one built by Solomon, but the temple was magnificent. Not so much a building as a complex, it was the center of Jewish life and focus. So what did Jesus see as He was just looking around? This temple made by hands had been corrupted by dark hearts and needed to be cleansed (11:15). This temple made by hands would be destroyed (Mark 13) in AD 70 at the hands of the Romans as punishment for the hardness of their hearts. Jesus knew that He did not come to cleanse this temple, He came to cleanse sin.

Jesus knew that He did not come to see this temple, He came to BE the temple.

Jesus knows that people get the wrong ideas in our heads and that we put our focus where it produces no spiritual benefit. For the Christian, this scene provided a microcosm of our daily lives in Christ. If He is our Lord and Master, we must welcome Him with each morning. If He is our King we must praise Him in our lives. If He is our Savior then we are His dwelling place and are a part of the temple, the church.

And, perhaps most troubling … each day He needs to just come take a look around!