Mark 11:1-11: "You can't always get what you want..."

In 1969 the Rolling Stones released a song whose lyrics are helpful in interpreting this part of the gospel of Mark.  The hook to their famous song “you can’t always get what you want,” concludes the title line with, “but if you try sometime, you might just find, you get what you need.”  Though written around two thousand years after Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, it would be difficult to find words, sacred or secular, that better describe what the world wanted in Jesus, and what we actually got. 

One some levels, Jesus’ journey is exactly what we would expect, particularly if we are versed in the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah.  Jesus journey was a sacred one, reflected by his ceremonial usage of an unused colt.  Why an unused colt?  In Numbers, when describing the animal to be brought for sacrifice according to the laws of purification, the Lord spoke to Moses and specified that a red heifer should be used “on which a yoke has never come.” (Numbers 19:2)  According to Deuteronomy, when the community is making atonement for an unsolved murder, the elders are to sacrifice “a heifer that has never been worked and that has not pulled a yoke.” (Deuteronomy 21:3)  When the Philistines are returning the Ark of the Covenant to the Israelites, they are told to use “two milk cows on which there has never come a yoke” to pull the cart. (I Samuel 6:7)  Beyond the special utilization on an unused colt, this is also the only time in any of the gospels when Jesus is said to be riding, and not walking.  There is clearly something significant, and in some ways expected, about Jesus arrival at and entry into Jerusalem riding on an unused colt. 

In addition to being sacred, Jesus’ entry is also triumphant.  Compare Jesus’ reception, and his entry into Jerusalem with that of some of Israel’s past kings. 

·         During Absalom’s revolt, a woman comes seeking help. “When the woman of Tekoa came to the king, she fell on her face to the ground and paid homage and said, “Save me, O king.” – II Samuel 14:4

·         When the Israelites were under siege, we read of the following encounter:  “Now as the king of Israel was passing by on the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, “Help, my lord, O king!” – II Kings 6:26

·         Similarly, when Jehu rose up and took power not long afterward, we read of the response of the people.  “Then in haste every man of them took his garment and put it under him on the bare steps, and they blew the trumpet and proclaimed, “Jehu is king.” – II Kings 9:13

And yet, Jesus’ intentions are totally different from what the crowd expects.  They expect bold military leadership.  They think they are getting their kingdom back.  They shout, “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!  Hosanna in the highest!” (Mark 11:10)  In reality, Jesus is bringing them salvation, and the kingdom not of David, but of God.  It’s the fulfillment of a promise found in the heart of their own scriptures, when the prophet Zechariah prophesies saying, “Rejoice, greatly, O daughter of Zion!  Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!  Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”  (Zechariah 9:9)  Their king has come, but not to bring a kingdom, as odd as that may sound.  He brings something even better, something more eternal, salvation. 

It’s a dangerous thing to upset the expectations of a nation.  But it’s a more dangerous thing to fix our eyes on what we want, to the exclusion of what we need.  Praise God that the words of that Rolling Stones song ring true in the person of Jesus Christ, “we can’t always get what we want, but if you try sometime, you might just find, you get what you need.”