The Conquering King
Video: https://youtu.be/PUjW0y6ibNM
Last week, we learned about a childlike openness, humility, and obedience that allows us to see and receive the Kingdom of God and Eternal life. This week we are going to look at the Kingdom of God that is to be seen and grasped but maybe just beyond our vision. God created this world, He is sustaining it and ultimately it will all recognize Him as Lord, so it should not be surprising that God’s Kingdom is visible all around us, which is challenging and overturning old orders and bringing about something different. I believe that God’s beauty and love are all around us. I also believe that through the Holy Spirit God is continually shaping this world, doing work that is leading it toward’s His Kingdom. Yet as much as I see, as much as I know this, it can be just as easy to ignore God’s work through this world and only focus on the momentary tangible realities. There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in this world’s philosophy.
Mark teaching us about seeing the unseen begins ironically with a blind man named Bartimeaus. Bartimeaus is yelling out for Jesus. He is yelling out even though everyone else is telling him to shut up. Why is this man so willing to go against the social norms and expectations? Well, even though he is blind Bartimeaus sees who Jesus is. This is a theme for many throughout the Scriptures, but each new vision adds something else. Today, this blind man sees that Jesus is Rabbi or teacher, that He is the son of David, and that Jesus is the merciful one. Rabbi or teacher is a term used primarily for religious teachers already high praise. When Bartimaeus calls Jesus the son of David, he is bringing forth this great prophecy and hope for the Israelite people that a son of David will come to rebuild the Kingdom of God to reign forever - this was the hope of the messiah. When he calls out for mercy, anyone can show mercy, a judge, a neighbor, anyone but someone who can show mercy over the very nature of things, mercy over the created order, that can only be God, the truly merciful one. Bartimeaus sees, he has faith and he asks God in that faithfulness, even though everyone else is trying to stop him and God does the impossible. God moves the mountain for this man. So, we see God’s Kingdom breaking through as Bartimeaus follows him eyes opened wide.
This passage coming before Jesus’ triumphant entry, tells us something. This blind Bartimeaus saw Jesus’ triumphant entry before anyone else. He was yelling out for Jesus, praising him, where those that could physically see would be doing the same thing only in a few minutes or hours. Yet both groups are seeing something that the simple facts don’t point to. Here is Jesus, he is a single man riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. Hundreds of people would come into Jerusalem on donkeys every day and yet something was different. They treated this like Jesus was some returning conquering king. Could they see how Jesus was about to conquer everything on the cross? Probably not, but what they could see is that Jesus was doing and speaking amazing things that reordered everything. Now that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, the centre of their faith and hope, they knew Jesus was going to do something amazing.
The men who freely let the disciples take the colt for the Lord give in to this hope. Even though they could just as easily asked, who is this Lord and what right does Jesus have. Instead, they trust and believe, which paves the way for Jesus’ entry. Then the cries of the crowd reflect this amazing hope and vision. They yell Hosanna, which is both a cry for divine help and a cry of praise. Both of which should have only been offered to God, they were lifting up for Jesus. They see that Jesus is doing God’s work and so Jesus is bearing God’s name everywhere He goes. They see that Jesus is bearing a new Kingdom and bringing it about through His work and words. They recognize that Hosanna is even being cried out in the highest heaven. What an amazing vision this group has as Jesus enters. The vision makes sense once we think about it, but do we always stop to see and think about it. They may not have known what was coming, but they sure could see that Jesus was worthy of all praise and honour even before His death and resurrection.
It is a funny moment now in the gospel of Mark because there is all of this praise and hope, but Jesus ends up getting to the temple too late, so he goes back to Bethany. Obviously, what Jesus needs to do is so important that he needs to take time, that it can’t be rushed, people need to see it so that its significance will be experienced.
So, the next day, we get Jesus overturning the tables of those exchanging money and selling animals. Jesus tells us all why. “My house is to be called a house of prayer for all nations”, “but we have made it a den of thieves”. These are quotes from the prophet Isaiah and Jeremiah respectively that both call out our hope and our shame. The outer courts of the temple were meant for anyone from any nation to come and pray to God and yet there was no divinity or sanctity, in fact the opposite, people were using to make money on forgiveness and connection with God. The salvation of God and His mercy are a free and sacrificial gift for us and yet people were experiencing that. Jesus overturns the tables, the old order, the economy and more. A physical act means a lot more than just disrupting the economy.
We could stop there, but because this passage is sandwiched between this section about Jesus cursing a fig tree, we can see that there is a lot more meaning. In vs 12-14, Jesus is hungry, so he goes to a fig tree, when he finds that there is no fruit because it is out of season, Jesus curses it. We might all cry out, “this is unfair, the tree was only doing what came naturally to it, how was it supposed to bear fruit when none of the others would”, but that is exactly the point. The Pharisees, the money exchangers, the animal sellers, and people throughout Israel were only doing what came naturally to them. They weren’t bearing fruit, they were feeding those that were hungry, they weren’t giving back to God. The natural order needed to be overturned because it was corrupt and Jesus was doing that. No wonder the national and religious leaders were scared, they were being overturned with those tables.
The disciples find themselves challenged by the cursed fig tree. Not only did Jesus do something amazing again, but what could this mean for us. We can so easily be trapped in a cycle of what seems natural. We can so easily be fruitless as we go with what we want or think. We can so easily get caught up with an economy about what I get rather than what I give to God. We can be corrupt. Does this mean that we are cursed?
Jesus tells us if we truly believe and ask God for anything it will happen. Something so natural and monstrously established as a mountain can be thrown into the sea. God can overturn it in the world and in you. If we weren’t relating this amazing power of prayer to human relational and internal struggles and sin, Jesus reminds us. “If you hold anything against anyone else, forgive them so that your Father in Heaven will forgive you”. These are the greatest mountains to be moved. This is the greatest corruption that needs to be overturned. This is what makes you fruitless. The corruption of our sins is pulling us away from one another and God. Our sins are making us care more about the economy than worship than bringing others to God, our sins are what gets in the way of us being fruitful and building God’s Kingdom with Him.
The final story confirms this. Jesus came into Jerusalem bearing God’s Kingdom and then He goes in and starts to create space for it. The religious and national leaders come to him spiritually blind. They know they have been challenged so they challenge him. Jesus gives them a very simple yes or no question. In some ways, Jesus is being smart, but more than that He is pointing us and them to our dishonesty and blindness. They care so much about people’s opinions and about being right that they don’t even mention in their conversation what they think the right answer is. They are not even willing to say what is in their hearts. So just like their undecided answer, they make it impossible for themselves to know Jesus and see the Kingdom He is bringing.
So as a recap: God’s Kingdom has arrived. It is showing itself all around us for us to see, but do we actually perceive it so that we can receive it? The amazing hope and salvation is marching in, are we calling out in praise and supplication? What in our faith, our economy, our “nature”, our work needs to be overturned so that we can be truly fruitful for God and His coming Kingdom? What do we care about so much that is actually getting in the way of us seeing and hearing the good news of God’s Kingdom come? These are all essential questions because God’s Kingdom is here. It is close at hand. Hosanna in the highest heaven. AMEN
