Mtr Mary Trainor

“...when he had looked around at everything...he went out to Bethany with the twelve.” —Mark 11:11 

Dear friend,

For my fiftieth birthday year I decided to try some things I had wanted to do for awhile. Call it a pre-bucket list. At year’s end, the grand finale was a tandem parachute jump.

But the first event for the year was the most terrifying. I joined Toastmasters.

Simply put, Toastmasters is about developing skill and poise in a variety of speaking situations.

One of its teachings came to mind as I read today’s Office Gospel from Mark (11:1-11.) Toastmasters suggests that when you are asked to speak somewhere, get there early. Check out the podium, the microphone, the projector, whether or not stairs are involved. It’s preparatory work for the big event. This run-through intends to alleviate some of the anxiety that always comes with public speaking. 

In Mark today, Jesus approaches, then enters, Jerusalem. Timewise it is what we call Palm Sunday.

After Jesus enters Jerusalem, he checks out the temple and “when he had looked around at everything” he and the twelve left and went to Bethany. They would return to Jerusalem the following day for a series of events we know leads to the cross.

As Jesus approached Jerusalem that first day, he was the only one in his entourage who understood what was coming. Even if any of the twelve believed his predictions of death, my guess is none of them grasped it at the gut level, and none knew it was now.

But Jesus did. He knew the plan. He knew what was about to happen. Maybe not to every last detail. But enough. Enough to feel incipient anxiety as he approached the gates of the city.

I wonder if the fully divine Jesus who had so resolutely set his face toward Jerusalem now competes with the fully human Jesus nervously riding a colt to his destiny.

As he jostled past the cheering crowd, along the coat-strewn, leaf-laced path, the Son of Man almost certainly thought of the death that awaited him.

“...when he had looked around at everything...he went out to Bethany with the twelve.”

I wonder if entering the temple, seeing what was there, gave him the sense of command he would need when he entered again the next day. Perhaps it calmed his nerves, ordered his thoughts. The time ahead was limited. What was coming was coming. He was as organized as he could be.

Death awaited him in Jerusalem. Nothing would change that. He had made the obligatory public entrance, he had checked out the temple, looked around at everything. The plan was in place. It wouldn’t be long now.

But there was this one final opportunity for relative peace. So he took the twelve with him and headed out to Bethany to spend one last joyful night with friends.

It’s something we might do to steady ourselves for a difficult tomorrow.

Mtr. Mary