The air in first century Israel was thick with expectations. There was, however, little expectation for a Messiah, a King, like Jesus. The Messiah was long expected, but when we read the Gospels, it is clear that for most people, Jesus didn’t match their expectations. That’s not to say that Jesus never fulfilled expectations. When Jesus heals a blind, mute, and demon possessed man, people ask, “Could this be the Son of David?” (Matt. 12:23). He feeds five-thousand people, and they want to force him to be king (John 6:15). Jesus reveals himself to Martha as “the resurrection and the life,” and she believes and confesses him as “the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world” (John 11:25–27). For the most part, however, Jesus’s way of being the Messiah went far beyond anything expected or imagined.
Even for those who believed and confessed Jesus, his actions and teaching often seemed less than messianic. For instance, John the Baptist, after hearing reports about Jesus’s ministry and message had doubts and sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus if he was the Messiah or if they should “expect someone else” (Luke 7:19). Jesus goes to his hometown and faces widespread unbelief and rejection (Mark 6:1-6). Peter believes and confesses that Jesus is the Messiah (Mark 8:29), but moments later, hearing Jesus’s version of what it means for him to be the Messiah—suffering and the cross—Peter takes him aside to correct what he thinks is obviously a bad idea (8:32). As an aside, anyone who thinks he would have reacted differently than Peter at that time is deeply mistaken.
Approaching the Cross in Mark’s Gospel
The “Triumphal Entry” into Jerusalem, particularly in Mark, displays Jesus as the unexpected, expected Messiah. Jesus rides in on a donkey to the sound Psalm 118: “Hosanna (‘save’), blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” (Mark 11:9; Ps. 118:25). In addition, the people shout: “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!” (Mark 11:10). The messianic overtones are unmistakable.
The preceding scene in Jericho sets the scene for Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem. The blind man Bartimaeus hears that Jesus is passing by and calls out: “Jesus son of David, have mercy on me!” (Mark 10:46). When the people around Bartimaeus try to shut him up, he shouts even louder: “Son of David have mercy on me!” (10:47) and, because he believed, Jesus healed him. We don’t know what Bartimaeus was thinking, or what he knew about the messianic buzz surrounding Jesus, or whether he was willing to say anything out of desperation to be healed, but none of that matters. What matters is that Mark, building up to Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem, narrates the event in messianic terms.
The crowd, including Bartimaeus (Mark 10:52), follows Jesus, the Son of David, to Jerusalem. Whatever they thought in detail, this event is the bookend to Jesus’s first entrance in Mark: “After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’” (Mark 1:14-15)
Now, at the climactic moment of Christ’s approach to Jerusalem, Mark is again building anticipation. Before going into the city, Jesus arranges his transportation. He sends the disciples ahead to get a donkey.[1] Mark is not interested in telling his readers whether Jesus knew the owner, but only that, if asked, the disciples are to simply say: “The Lord needs it” (Mark 11:3). By doing so, Jesus asserts his authority and connects the event to Zechariah. The connection is, however, more subtle than either Matthew 21:1–9 or John 12:12-15 make it.
1. The word in Greek can refer to either a donkey or a small horse (“colt” NIV ), but a donkey is probably more likely.
Though Psalm 118 is explicit, Mark (like Luke) implies the fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9: “Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” Zechariah goes on to prophesy the Lord coming as a warrior-king to initiate and complete the total defeat of Judah’s and Ephraim’s enemies and establish his kingdom (Zech. 9:10–10:12).
Readers of Mark, however, should be cautious about interpreting this text based on “echoes” of Zechariah. That is, reading the larger context of Zechariah 9:9 (which is not quoted to begin with) into Mark’s narrative. Identifying Old Testament echoes and allusions is a valid pursuit, but only when the text at hand directs us to do so.
In this instance, Zechariah 9:9 provides an implied backdrop with Psalm 118 in the foreground. Jesus comes into Jerusalem but not exactly according to expectations. It is true that Jesus will win the decisive victory prophesied by Zechariah, but as he enters the city on a donkey, no one expects the form the triumph will take on Friday afternoon.
The crowd that followed Jesus into Jerusalem were undoubtedly sincere. They had no idea, though, that they were escorting him to his death. We don’t know whether any of these people were standing outside Pilate’s court, but the next time we hear from the crowds they scream “Crucify him!” when given a choice between Jesus and a convicted murderer (Mark 15:12–14).
Seeing Triumph in an Empty Tomb
In Mark, Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem isn’t near as “triumphant” as in the other three Gospels. That’s not to say that Mark is ambiguous, much less asserting some notion of a “messianic secret,” but that he chose to include Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem in a way that fits his narrative. Consider how the entry comes to such an abrupt end. The excitement surrounding Jesus fades as quickly as it began. Jesus enters the city late in the day, goes to look at the Temple, looks around and goes back to Bethany (Mark 15:11). Jesus enters Jerusalem as abruptly as he entered Galilee at the beginning. As at the beginning, Jesus will proceed to bring his kingdom in his own way. As for triumph, that is just a couple days away.
The end point of the journey is the Temple—the main arena in which chapters 11–13 take place. Over the course of a couple days, Jesus will clearly exert his authority over the Temple, the practices surrounding it, those in charge of it, and all the religious elite in Jerusalem. Jesus doesn’t come to take his place in it or even in the city, but to condemn and judge it. That Jesus didn’t live up to expectations is most clearly seen in how the Pharisees, the scribes, and the Sadducees reject him.
Most of the elites rejected Jesus outright and began hatching plans to kill him from the early days of his ministry (Mark 3:6). What Jesus has to say about them, the temple, and himself will be the last straw. Finally, with the help of one of Jesus’s closest companions (Judas Iscariot), the support of the mob, and a self-serving Roman governor and his brutal soldiers, they will succeed.
Who would have expected that? Expecting a Messiah? Yes. Expecting a Messiah revealed in suffering and the cross? Impossible. Consider their final words to Jesus as he hangs dying on the cross: “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” (Mark 14:31–32).
The triumph in Mark isn’t an entry but an exit. That is, the triumph of an empty tomb (16:4–8). Yet, even with the teaching meant to prepare his followers for this moment (Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:33-34), Jesus’s resurrection far exceeded their expectations. What made it so was not that they had no concept of a resurrection. They did. They did not, however, expect a resurrection of one person, much less the long-expected Messiah. It was Jesus’s suffering and death that made them slow to accept his resurrection.
It is true that many expectations were misplaced and simply wrong, but it’s not so much that Jesus didn’t fulfill expectations—he exceeded them all but in the most unexpected ways.
