Saturday: Week 4 in Lent Year B

Lent for Everyone
Mark Year B
WEEK 4 SATURDAY...

...It happens all the time in spy movies and TV thrillers. Some- one does or says something which, by itself, seems quite unimportant. But the hero, or perhaps the villain, recognizes that this is the sign. This is the moment. He or she at once takes the hint and sets off to bring matters to a head. We watch, realizing that, even though we didn’t know such a sign was coming, we are now witnessing its effects.

Actually, those with eyes to see might have spotted that some such sign was imminent. When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the donkey, he was acting out – and many of the onlookers must have realized he was acting out – the strange scene from Zechariah 9.9. John quotes that verse in 12.15. But the passage isn’t just about a king coming to his people riding on a donkey. It is about this same king going on to establish his peaceful rule over the whole world, ‘from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth’. The prophet is echoing many older passages, not least in the Psalms, which say substantially the same thing.

Thus, though Jesus has conducted his public career only among Jews (and of course Samaritans, as in John’s famous chapter 4), there has always been the implication that if he was indeed Israel’s Messiah the time would surely come when not only Israel but also the rest of the world would come to him...

Taken from Lent for Everyone Mark Year B by Tom Wright