AUGUST 15, 2021 | PASTOR JOHN BAYLES | THE PASSION: JESUS STANDS ALONE | MARK 11:1-11

 

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AUGUST 15, 2021 | PASTOR JOHN BAYLES | THE PASSION: JESUS STANDS ALONE | MARK 11:1-11

The Passion: Jesus Stands Alone
Mark 11:1-11

Today we will see Mark turn his attention to the last days before the suffering, trial, death, burial, resurrection and ascension of Jesus. This time frame is commonly known as Passion Week, or the Passion of Christ. Passion is a word which comes from the Latin root word, “patior,” meaning, to suffer. Perhaps the greatest suffering that Jesus will experience will come from having to experience these last days of His life alone. As we have seen throughout our study of Mark, Jesus alone understood the true nature of His message and mission. His disciples did not understand much of what He told them even when He broke down his teaching privately with them. He shared with them repeatedly with great detail what lay before Him in Jerusalem, yet they did not understand or embrace his message. His own family did not understand Who He was or had the slightest hint of the purpose of His calling. The crowds followed Him primarily for what He could do for them: heal them, deliver them and feed them. The Pharisees and teachers of the Law, those who were trained in the teaching of the Scriptures, did not understand that He was the subject of its fulfillment. Jesus entered Jerusalem alone, save for His Father Who sent Him and the Word, who shared His body. In the end of His life, even His awareness of these relationships would become dim. His entire life was one of loneliness and isolation. The prophet Isaiah described His condition clearly: “Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces He was despised, and we held Him in low esteem.” (Isa.53:1-3). Truly Jesus had walked through the years of His life alone – now He would walk alone through His Passion and die alone on the cross.