Mark chapter 11
Read verse 1 . Bethphage and Bethany are small towns near Jersulam. the Mount of Olives is a hill near Jerusalem.
Read 2 through 6 . Mark must have been just as amazed as we are that Jesus could see the future and arrange for the colt in this way. Just 5 days before he was nailed on the cross, Jesus used this method to remind us that he is God. He had enough power to escape from the cross, but He died for us willingly.
Read 7 and 8 . By doing this, the people were honoring Jesus as their King, that is, as their Messiah.
Read 9 and 10 . The word Hosanna is a Hebrew which means ” save us ” . This song uses phrases from Psalm 118 : 25 and 26 . The phrase ” who comes in the name of the Lord ” means that they knew that Jesus was the Messiah sent by God.
Read 11 to 14 . Obviously Jesus did not curse the tree because He does not like trees. He was using this action to make a point. The point is explained in verses 22 to 24, below.
Read 15 . People were selling things in the Temple that were needed to make sacrifices.
Read 16 and 17 . Here Jesus is quoting from Isaiah 56 : 7 and Jeremiah 7 : 11 . By saying these things, Jesus wanted people to know that He had authority over the Temple : that means, He was more important than the Temple. This made the Jewish leaders very angrey, because they felt no one should criticise the Temple.
Read 18 and 19 . The Jewish leaders did not dare to arrest Jesus openly, because the common people would interfere. But they could not arrest Him at night, because they did not kniow where He went.
Read 20 to 24 . This is another way that Jesus showed his power, so the disciples would believe He is God. Here Jesus also encourages us to have faith in His power.
Read 27 and 28 . You can see here that the main problem was that Jesus claimed to have special authority – to be higher than the Temple and the leaders – but the leaders did not accept this.
Read 29 to 33 . Jesus did not answer them directly, because they would only keep debating. Jesus knew that in a few more days, he would not have to say anything, because when he rose from the dead, everyone would see that He was higher than the Temple and leaders.
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