I. "And When They Are Drawing Near Into Jerusalem Into Bethphage And Into Bethany Toward The Mountain Of The Olives..."
II. "He Is Sending Two Of His Disciples..."
III. "He Is Saying To Them..."
IV. "They Went Away And Found..." (That Every Detail Came To Pass As He Had Said).
V. "Blessed be the coming kingdom of our father David".
VI. "He Entered Into The Temple"
A. The significance of His entry into Jerusalem.
1. Matthew 5:35, quoting Psalm 48:1-5, calls Jerusalem "the city of our God" and "the city of the Great King".
a. These are not Mark's words, but the context (immediate, the next paragraph; and larger, the focus in the trial before Pilate upon His identity as "King of the Jews") certainly supports his thesis, particularly in respect to His anger as shown on the next day.
b. In Mark's multiple references to Jerusalem (ten of them), the focus is upon the city as the center of Jewish theology and opposition to Jesus (3:22) to the point of the crucifixion because of His claim to be "the King of the Jews" (15:2 -- the apparent accusation before Pilate, 9, 12, 18, 26, 32).
1) And, again, not Mark's words, but in clear harmony with them, we have the record of John 18:33-40 and 19:12 and 15 where the ultimate claim is, "we have no King but Caesar".
2) For a "trial accusation", the claim was that He made Himself out to be "the king of the Jews" (Mark 15:2).
2. The day's event reaches its climax just before Jesus' entrance into the temple: "Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David". This, on the last day of Daniel's 69th week. Luke 19:11 (in the context of Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem) tells us that the general expectation of the day was that "the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately".
B. The significance of the focus upon the Temple.
1. This is the first reference in Mark's Gospel to "the temple".
2. The immediately following record (11:15-16) is of His anger in the Temple, and the reaction of the "chief priests, the scribes, and the elders" was to demand that He tell them "by what authority are You doing these things" and "who gave you this authority?" (11:27-28).
3. The issue: how is a man supposed to relate to his Creator-God?
C. His "look around upon all things": He took in, again, all of the activities that were going on in God's/His temple.
D. His leaving for Bethany "with The Twelve since it was already 'the hour of the evening'" (Mark used "evening" first in 1:32 where he specifically indicated that the sun had set -- thus, the "Sabbath" was over -- and from there the references to "evening" all indicate a time after sunset).
1. The "reason" is coming in the next two paragraphs with another reference to "evening" in 11:19.
2. "Bethany" has four mentions by Mark, with three of them in 11:1-12 and the final one in 14:3 where He is "anointed for His burial". This reveals that "Bethany" is a type of "refuge from the wickedness", but even that is marred by the rant against Mary for "wasting such expensive ointment".
E. The mention that He led The Twelve to Bethany is likely a kind of reinforcement of the benefit of being surrounded by loyal disciples in the growing hostility of His adversaries.
