Our 15th reference to kingdom is found in Mark 11:10 but we need the immediate context too: 4 They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, 5 some people standing there asked, ?What are you doing, untying that colt?? 6 They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. 7 When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. 8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. 9 Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, ?Hosanna!” ?Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!? 10 ?Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!? ?Hosanna in the highest!? 11 Jesus entered Jerusalem and went to the temple. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve..

1. The anticipation of the crowds, including the disciples according to Luke 19:37, is eschatological: they see in Jesus the arrival of the one who comes in the name of the Lord. This is messianic and it is Davidic — it is the arrival of royalty.
2. Jerusalem is the center of this expectation; the expectation is ruggedly earthly. It concerns peace in the Lukan parallel (19:38).
3. The one who comes in the name of the Lord is the one who brings what? “The coming kingdom of our father David.” This, my friends, is the very heart of anything and everything said about kingdom in the Gospels. The expectation of David’s kingdom frames everything the disciples around Jesus expect and Jesus gives them that … but not as they expect.
4. Yet, at some level, they are mistaken for the kind of kingdom expected is not quite what Jesus brings. Instead, the kind of kingdom he brings will not be by way of the sword or the throne, but by way of the cross and a church and a coming kingdom.
Here are some themes that arise this week out of the texts we have examined:
The kingdom is the long sought-after kingdom of David as it was expected to come at the close of the Age. That kingdom will come with power by the end of the lifetime of his disciples.
The kingdom is intimately connected to Jesus.
The kingdom is populated by those who are attached to Jesus; by those who receive the kingdom and who enter the kingdom. These people discard anything that hinders their entrance into that kingdom.
The kingdom is connected to the eternal life of eternity.