Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Are Your Expectations of Jesus Wrong? | The Gospels | John 12:12–19

Episode Date: July 29, 2026

Why did the same crowd that welcomed Jesus with palm branches shout "Crucify him!" just days later? What changed? And what happens when Jesus doesn't answer our prayers the way we hoped? In today's episode, Jensen explores John 12:12–19 and shows how misplaced expectations can keep us from seeing the King we truly need. Read the Bible with us! This year, we’re exploring the Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—and it's never too late to join! Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passage: John 12:12–19

Welcome to 10-minute Bible talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Jensen Holt McNair. We all have expectations, expectations for how the day will go. Expectations for your future. It's perfectly normal and natural to expect things. But psychologists and researchers like Dr. John Gottman say that unrealistic expectations, specifically in your marriage, often lead to its demise. Because when you expect something from someone and they don't deliver on it, you grow discontent. You resent them. You feel betrayed all because of unspoken expectations that you had for your spouse.

Now, this isn't just a marital problem. When our expectations aren't met in any relationship, we fall under the same feelings of discontent, resentment, and betrayal. I've long wondered how the same people who welcomed Jesus into dreams, Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, shouting, Hosanna, save us. We're shouting, crucify him by Friday. What happened?

What did Jesus do that so greatly offended them? How did their belief wither so quickly? Why the shifting emotions towards this man? Now, the answer lies in expectation. Let's take a look at John's account of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The next day, the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him shouting, Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Blessed is the king of Israel. So from the outside, it looks like these people, the crowds who we learned later had heard of the miraculous signs, the raising of Lazarus from the dead, it seems like they're beginning to understand who Jesus really is. They shout, Hosanna, save us. They see that Jesus comes from the Lord. They even call him king. From our vantage point, it looks like they get it. Jesus came to save them.

He was sent by God. He came to be king of all creation. But there's a hint in here that tips us off to what this crowd is actually saying here. They were waving palm branches. Now, when we hear this, we think nothing of it, because every year in church we pass out palm branches and wave them to remember that Jesus came to save us, that he was sent by God and he's king. But the palm branches had a specific symbolism to these Jews in the crowd praising Jesus. They were actually a nationalistic symbol.

The waving of palm branches isn't just a fun prop for Sunday school, it's a loaded symbolic gesture. These people believe that Jesus has come to be a national deliverer, to deliver these Jews from the Romans who oppressed them, to be king of Israel, to sit on an earthly throne, to lead a physical rebellion. Their expectation of the Messiah is immediate physical relief from oppression. Jesus had come to save them from the Romans. God had sent him to be their deliverer like Moses was. Jesus would be king of Israel, not Caesar, not the emperor. God was going to deliver his people. See, they were saying the technical right things, but their expectations for who Jesus would be and what he would do would turn out to be wrong. John continues by saying, Jesus found a young donkey and

sat on it, as it is written. Do not be afraid, daughter Zion. See, your king is coming seated on a donkey's cult. At first, his disciples did not understand all this. Only after Jesus was glorified, did they realize that these things had been written about him, and that these things were written about him. And that these things had been done to him. So even the disciples didn't fully understand. Even they had wrong expectations for Jesus. It's why they scatter and deny when the hand of Rome seems to be defeating Jesus. Now that passage that John references here is from Zechariah 9-9. The original passage says, Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion, shout, daughter Jerusalem. See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly, and riding on a donkey, on a colch, the full of a donkey.

He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. See, this king would be victorious, but it would be through humility, lowly riding on a cult. He will proclaim peace, not just for Israel, but for all nations. He will reign, not just over Israel, but to the ends of the earth. Later, after Jesus's resurrection, he appears to the disciples multiple times, and it says that he explained the scriptures to them and how they were all about him. The Old Testament scriptures point to the one who would come, but they talk of the Messiah who would come with peace, with humility, one who would serve, who would suffer, and through suffering, would save.

You see, the crowds weren't wrong that Jesus was the promised one. They were just wrong about what that meant. They had expectations that they had placed on Jesus that he never indeed. tended to meet. And when Jesus clearly wasn't what they thought, they killed him. When the crowds called out for saving, they expected physical relief. But Jesus came to save in a way that no one before him was capable of. God used Moses to rescue his people from slavery, prophets and judges to deliver them from oppression, David, to establish them as a nation. But no matter what physical relief, God brought his people, they were still infected by a spiritual enemy. One they could not conquer,

escape or overcome in their own power. Every human leader, every king before Jesus fell prey to the evil one. Now the good news of the gospel, the mission that God sent Jesus to accomplish, was to bring freedom from the curse of sin and death and to deliver his people to life in the kingdom of God. Colossians 2.9 through 15 says this. It's long, but stick with me. It's so good. For in Christ, all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. And in Christ, in Christ, Christ, you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. So Jesus, he is king. He's just not the one that he expected. In him, you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by flesh was put off when you were

circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God who raised him from the dead. So yes, you were oppressed, but not by physical powers, by the flesh, by sin, by your desire to rebel against God, your inability to live holy lives. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. God did it because we couldn't on our own. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness which stood against us and condemned us. He has taken it away, nailing it to the cross, and having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

It was on the cross that Jesus was triumphant, that he overcame death, that he secured our freedom. Everyone thought his death was his failure, proof that he wasn't the Messiah because it wasn't what they expected. But it was actually his victory. You see, the crowds didn't understand the kind of saving they needed. They didn't see how dead they were. They thought the relief they needed was from the power of Rome, but they failed to recognize the powers and authorities, the spiritual forces of evil, the curse of sin and death that held them captive. It's not that Jesus didn't care about their physical oppression. It's that he understood who the real enemy was. He cares, for the ways his people suffer. He desperately loves us. He wants to see humanity flourish. It's just

that the ways we expect him to bring flourishing oftentimes isn't in line with what we really need. Do you have expectations for Jesus? Are you maybe facing oppression, opposition, suffering of your own? Do you have a realm? Something you desperately want relief from? I've heard countless stories from friends and family who have turned away from the faith, been hurt, been confused, been frustrated, felt discontent with their circumstances, resentment towards God and betrayed by Jesus because the ways he answered prayers or didn't fell short of their expectations. When our expectation is physical relief, when our expectations of God revolve around a belief that Jesus came so I could live a happy, healthy, and blessed life,

we will oscillate between the crowd's posture of Palm Sunday and Good Friday. God, save me. If you're good, you'd remove this. If you can hear me, if you care, deliver me. Desperation followed by unmet expectation leads to defeat, resentment, discontent, betrayal. But what if we remembered the promises of God? What if Jesus didn't come for us to live comfortable, blessed lives from a worldly perspective? What if our expectations are all wrong and they're keeping us from knowing, loving, and relying on Jesus as our true eternal king. You see, Jesus has already saved you in the way that you and I both desperately need it. He has already made the way for us to flourish and the way that we were created to. He's made a way for

us to live in the fullness of who we were created to be. You were made to be with God. By Jesus' righteousness, you can do that. You can draw near a holy God because you have been made knew, you have the promise of resurrection, you have the power of the spirit. Jesus wants you to rest in what he has already done for you. He saved you. He is king. You can be with God in times of suffering or in times of flourishing. Your physical, earthly circumstances have no bearing on the reality of your spiritual standing before God. Examine your expectations. What do your emotions towards God reveal about what you expect from him, what you believe is true about him, what you believe is true about yourself. Confess that to God. Lay your expectations at the foot of the cross and

take up what is promised to you. Live in light of what is already true of you. You are deeply loved, so desperately that God became human and walked among us so that he could humble himself, die, a criminal's death that we deserve and disarm the power that the spiritual forces of evil had over us. He rose from the dead becoming the first of all renewed humanity, paving the way for you and for me to live in his kingdom, all of eternity. When we live guided by that reality, it will change everything. It will push back the feelings of discontentment, resentment, and betrayal and replace them with gratitude, surrender, and safety in the arms of the one who loves us.