15 Jan - Mark 11

Today’s reading in the Tattoo Church Reading Plan is Mark 11. This chapter in Mark has another one of my favorite recorded events of Jesus’ life. Here are a couple thoughts to consider:

1. Mark tells us of how Jesus came into the city of Jerusalem and people were freaking out laying coats and tree branches on the ground. Most of us miss the significance of this event. Why were these people losing their minds? Just because it was Jesus? Kind of but not really. People were talking about Jesus being the Messiah. The Messiah was someone who God foretold the Jewish people about in the books of the Old Testament. And people were figuring out that Jesus met all of these promises of the Messiah. So why the rock star entrance into the city? The Jewish people thought Jesus was coming to set up his kingdom and rule them again as God had told them the Messiah would. 
2. Then instead of going to some palace Jesus goes into the Temple, where the Jewish people would go to worship God. Here, Jesus sees something that obviously makes him pretty mad but we do not see Jesus flying off the handle. Instead Jesus leaves that day and goes away and comes back the next day. Then he proceeds to throw these guys a beaten that they were not expecting. Can you imagine everyone whispering “there’s that Messiah guy” and then seeing him start smacking people around?!? Awesome, right? Of course the leaders were not happy about this and began to look for a way to have Jesus killed.

So in this chapter we read about people thinking Jesus was going to usher in a new kingdom and become king and he was but he just takes a very different route than they expected. Instead of getting a crown and throne, Jesus was crucified and died on a Roman cross to bring a new way to have a relationship with God. Now instead of having to go to a priest and have him talk to God for you, Jesus made a way for every person to have direct access to God. That is a very big deal.

We also see Jesus looking more like Jason Statham then the image we normally associate with Jesus. Why was Jesus so angry? Aren’t we supposed to not get mad like this? We read in Psalm 4:4 “in your anger do not sin.” So did Jesus sin? Clearly the Bible tells us that Jesus was without sin so obviously Jesus was acting in accordance with how God felt. But what was it exactly that made Jesus and God so mad? Jesus sees these religious leaders allowing people to get taken advantage of. They were in various ways charging people money to gain access to God. The very reason Jesus came down from heaven was to show us a new way to have a relationship with God. Does Jesus throwing the guys out of the Temple raise any new feelings about him in you?