Truth springs up from the earth, and righteousness smiles down from heaven. Psalm 85:11

Hosanna!

            With Easter Sunday coming up at the end of the month, I'd expect the scene outside my window to at least be beginning to look like spring, but it snowed again overnight and we're told to expect more snow throughout the day. It reminds me of the description of Narnian weather in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, "always winter, but never Christmas," only this is Easter, so the snow seems even more of a trial. But one good thing about foul weather, it's good for staying in and catching up on a few things--email, housework, reading, writing, and grading.

            As an English teacher, I urge students to "show instead of tell" in their narratives. I'm always looking for descriptive language that places me in the stories they've written and lets me have a look around. I love those moments.

            This morning, while reading the Gospel of Mark, I had one of those moments. The writer of Mark gives the following description that I have to say I'd never noticed before today's reading:

So 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 (Mark 11:11, NLT).

            What did Jesus do after going into the Temple? He looked "around carefully at everything" and then left. I love picturing him doing this!

            To give some context, Jesus often visited the Temple in Jerusalem, but this time his visit took place just after his triumphal entry into the city when the people lauded him with palm branches and shouted:

"Hosanna!
'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!"
Blessed is the kingdom of our father David
That comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest!" (Mark 11: 9b -10, NKJV)

            As mentioned, Jesus had visited and taught in the Temple in Jerusalem many times. Why would he look around so carefully at everything this time? Scripture doesn't tell us, but considering where this visit falls in the timeline of his life, it's worth considering. Could it have had something to do with the fact that the people's praises were still ringing in his ears? And that these praises were actually prophetic words about the Messiah recorded in Psalms hundreds of years before?

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
We have blessed you from the house of the Lord. (Psalm 118: 26)

            Could it have been that Jesus was reveling in the fulfillment of prophecy, and anticipating its further fulfillment? Or maybe he was making sure everything was in order for what was soon to take place? These are just guesses on my part since Scripture doesn't let us in on his thoughts. In any case, we know that Jesus was again in the Temple and about his Father's business, just as he had been since he was a twelve-year-old boy.

            Don't you just love it when stories "show" instead of "tell," and when they circle back around? Circle back around like seasons--the spring that's sure to come to the landscape outside my window eventually, season with all those daffodils springing up, shouting their hosannas.

Daye Phillippo

March 2016