A triumphal entry sounds like a joyful, victorious celebration.

So why is it Jesus' disciples were astonished and even afraid as they approached Jerusalem for his triumphal entry into the city?

Today on Truth For Life we begin a short series titled Some Strange Ideas.

Alistair Begg gives us a closer look at what happened on Palm Sunday.

Our God and our Father, we come to ask that you will speak to us as we study the Bible together.

We are not interested in the monologue. We are deeply concerned that this would be a dialogue.

You are living word dialogue with our hearts and minds, showing us its truth and turning us afresh to Christ in whose name we pray.

Amen. And I invite you to turn to Mark's Gospel and the 11th chapter.

I determined that I would turn to Mark's contribution to the story simply because so many people will come to worship today with Palm Sunday in their minds, on their minds, bringing to our gathering all kinds of hopes and questions and expectations.

It really is very familiar material, at least at a superficial level. And consequently it presents us in studying it with peculiar difficulties.

Difficulty number one is the difficulty really of familiarity because we feel that we know what this is about.

We may come to the study of the Bible with an absence of investigation or without really seeking any kind of explanation.

And certainly with no anticipation of transformation, a kind of transformation that would begin first of all in our minds and then would follow in the details of our lives.

The other side of the coin is the equal danger. It is a danger that presents itself particularly then to the one who has the privilege of teaching the Bible.

And that is the danger of creativity, that the preacher sensing very much that his listeners are familiar with this material, that they have in many cases grown up with it.

They have been to many, many services like this. Then in the absence of investigation and so on, the preacher inserts into the process imagination, a kind of creative flair that is usually if not always dangerous, along with that exaggeration often for effect, which in turn leads to exasperation on the part of all who are listening.

The kind of thing I am referring to is the minister who stands up and says we are going to deal with the Palm Sunday record this morning from the perspective of the donkey.

And he then proceeds to try and get inside the mind of the donkey, which of course is not too difficult in certain cases.

But nevertheless, leaves everybody absolutely high and dry. It is a very foolish idea and yet it is not an unfamiliar approach.

No, we need constantly to come, particularly to portions of the Bible with which we are familiar with a genuine spirit of agnosticism, not in terms of whole-hearted unbelief in the no-ability of God beyond the realm of the natural world.

I am not using it in that primary sense of agnosticism, but rather in the sense of investigation, in the spirit of not unbelief, but the spirit of I am not sure that I have ever fully grasped this story.

I am not sure I understand entirely what it is about. And to the extent that one is prepared to do that, it will yield benefits.

...