The Beautiful Upset: WK4 - TUE
THE KING WHO DISAPPOINTS OUR EXPECTATIONS
Mark 11:7–11 (NLT)“Jesus came to Jerusalem and went into the Temple. After looking around carefully at everything, he left because it was late in the afternoon. Then he returned to Bethany with the twelve disciples.”
At this point in the story the crowd has rolled out a red carpet of cloaks and palm branches. They’re shouting “Hosanna!” expecting Jesus to step into revolution. This is the moment they’ve all been waiting on! And then Jesus enters the Temple, looks around… and leaves. No cleansing. No proclamation. Just quiet observation. It’s the last thing anyone expected.
History gives us a scene that carries the same emotional whiplash. After the Revolutionary War, the entire world watched George Washington, an American legend. Nations assumed he would seize power. Many Americans expected him to accept some form of kingship, that would have been normal. His generals were ready. The nation was his to command. People waited for a triumphant leader to step into ultimate authority. But instead, in 1783, Washington walked into the Maryland State House, handed Congress his military commission, bowed, and went home to his farm. No coronation. No fanfare. Just restraint so shocking that King George III famously said, “If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.”
It wasn’t what anyone expected, but it was deeply intentional. Jesus’ quiet entry into the Temple carries that same kind of holy restraint. Jesus isn’t hesitating, rather he’s observing. We know this because Mark tells us He “looked around carefully at everything.” Importantly this is before Jesus' famous episode when he overturns tables. Before that moment he pays attention, so we see Jesus demonstrating that before judgment occurs, there must be deep reflection, before action, clarity.
We struggle with that. We want Jesus to act immediately, decisively, loudly. We want Him to fix it now. But sometimes God’s first move in our lives is to simply look around and to take in the truth of the situation we’re in, to expose what’s broken, to prepare the ground for what He’s about to do next. The crowd expected a Messiah who would storm the Temple instead they got a Messiah who walked in, noticed, and walked back out. And that quiet, intentional pause was not the absence of power, it was the beginning of transformation.
Mark 11:7–11 (NLT)“Jesus came to Jerusalem and went into the Temple. After looking around carefully at everything, he left because it was late in the afternoon. Then he returned to Bethany with the twelve disciples.”
At this point in the story the crowd has rolled out a red carpet of cloaks and palm branches. They’re shouting “Hosanna!” expecting Jesus to step into revolution. This is the moment they’ve all been waiting on! And then Jesus enters the Temple, looks around… and leaves. No cleansing. No proclamation. Just quiet observation. It’s the last thing anyone expected.
History gives us a scene that carries the same emotional whiplash. After the Revolutionary War, the entire world watched George Washington, an American legend. Nations assumed he would seize power. Many Americans expected him to accept some form of kingship, that would have been normal. His generals were ready. The nation was his to command. People waited for a triumphant leader to step into ultimate authority. But instead, in 1783, Washington walked into the Maryland State House, handed Congress his military commission, bowed, and went home to his farm. No coronation. No fanfare. Just restraint so shocking that King George III famously said, “If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.”
It wasn’t what anyone expected, but it was deeply intentional. Jesus’ quiet entry into the Temple carries that same kind of holy restraint. Jesus isn’t hesitating, rather he’s observing. We know this because Mark tells us He “looked around carefully at everything.” Importantly this is before Jesus' famous episode when he overturns tables. Before that moment he pays attention, so we see Jesus demonstrating that before judgment occurs, there must be deep reflection, before action, clarity.
We struggle with that. We want Jesus to act immediately, decisively, loudly. We want Him to fix it now. But sometimes God’s first move in our lives is to simply look around and to take in the truth of the situation we’re in, to expose what’s broken, to prepare the ground for what He’s about to do next. The crowd expected a Messiah who would storm the Temple instead they got a Messiah who walked in, noticed, and walked back out. And that quiet, intentional pause was not the absence of power, it was the beginning of transformation.
- When has Jesus responded differently than you hoped?
- How do you react when God pauses instead of moves?
- What might Jesus be seeing in your life that you’ve overlooked?
By Andreas Beccai
Crosswalk Redlands
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