Matthew part 36
The King has Arrived!
The King Enters the City | Matthew 21:1-11
Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,
“Say to the daughter of Zion,
‘Behold, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”
Matthew 21:1-11
Matthew’s account of the triumphal entry is relatively short. Luke includes a few stories not in Matthew, such as Jesus’ encounter with Zacchaeus. And that is because Matthew wants us to connect Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem with his identity. One of the threads we have seen throughout Matthew is his goal of proving the case Jesus of Nazareth really is the Messiah promised to Israel. That is why Matthew includes this quote from the Old Testament. It is actually a combination of two different prophecies.
Behold, the LORD has proclaimed to the end of the earth: Say to the daughter of Zion, “Behold, your salvation comes; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.”
Isaiah 62:11
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Zechariah 9:9
Both of these verses point to the same moment in history. The Lord will bring salvation to Jerusalem (Daughter of Zion is a nickname for the city), and it will be in the form of a king riding a donkey. The significance of the donkey cannot be overlooked. A conquering king would ride into a city riding a horse. This king is riding a young donkey humbly. One commentator says the modern equivalent would be riding a pickup truck instead of a tank.
At least some of the population in Jerusalem understand the significance of Jesus’ arrival. They cry out “Hosanna to the Son of David!” which translates to “Save us, Son of David!” They recognize Jesus as the promised king and celebrate his arrival with palm branches and shouts of pride.
The donkey reminds us Jesus is the King who comes to bring peace and salvation.
The shouts of the crowd stirs up the rest of the city, and those who did not know come out to see what is happening. Their answer tells us a bit about the spiritual state of the crowd. They recognize Jesus as a prophet of God, and they know he is from Nazareth. Their shouts of Hosanna certainly demonstrate they know Jesus is bringing salvation. What is not known is whether these people are willing to accept that Jesus will do just that through his death. I would guess probably not, considering we have already seen the disciples had trouble with this truth, as well.
Regardless, Matthew wants us to see that Jesus is truly the Messiah, the true King of Israel, and this crowd rejoiced in this, even if they didn’t expect what would happen next.
The King Cleanses His Throne Room | Matthew 21:12-17
And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”
And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read,
“‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies
you have prepared praise’?”And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.
Matthew 21:12-17
When Jesus enters the temple, he sees an abomination to the temple system and the Law of God. These money-changers and bird sellers represent an abuse of power by the priests and those in their circles. They are actually two different problems in relation to keeping the Law.
For the money-changers, they started as a means of avoiding having Roman money inside the temple complex. The problem with Roman coins is they include a depiction of the emperor of the time, and many times the coin would include a description of the emperor which may include an invocation of a pagan god, or as in the case of Antiochus, it may call the emperor a god. Obviously, the temple priests could not have blasphemous, graven images as part of the temple worship. So, they established the role of what amounts to ancient bankers who could exchange the Roman coins for temple currency, since travelers from around the empire would have Roman coins.
It is a good idea, except as with many human inventions related to money, it became a source of great corruption. The money-changers charged fees to exchange the currency, and many were accused of charging excessive fees that amounted to theft.
In the case of the pigeon sellers, this career also began out of necessity for the travelers. As a faithful Jewish believer, you know you must bring a sacrifice to the temple on the high holy days—especially Passover which is coming soon. Now, you could bring the animal yourself, but if you have to travel a far distance, thanks to these animal salesmen, you can simply pay them for the sacrificial animal. Again, it sounds like a good plan, but it is another opportunity for the religious system to abuse their power and steal from the people.
In fact, when you put these two careers together, the temple becomes a great place to pilfer money in the name of God. “Oh, you have come a long distance without a sacrifice or temple money? No problem! Just head over to Steve the money-changer, and he will exchange your filthy Roman money for some clean, kosher temple coins. Then, you can step over to Bob who will get you a wonderful critter that can be your sacrifice to God. Sure, the exchange rates can be hefty, but, hey, you want to bring an appropriate offering to the Lord, right?”
The Temple is supposed to be where the people can meet with the Lord, but instead it became a place to be robbed in the name of God.
Then, after he ruins business for the pilfering hypocrites, the blind and the lame come to Jesus for healing, and that is what they receive! The Lord has entered his temple and is bringing salvation and healing to the people. It should be a moment of great celebration, but look again at how his appearance is received. The chief priests and scribes, those who knew the Law best, were indignant at Jesus. How dare he ruin their money-making system! How dare he actually heal the lame and the blind! And even though it was a well-known teaching the Messiah would be the only one who could heal the blind, they ignore the fact the blind can now see, and they plot at how to get rid of him. (Though Matthew will give them a bit more time before they start to plan Jesus’ death, John tells us it was at the time Jesus cleanses the temple they began to plot.)
Matthew gives us another strong look at the hypocrisy of the priests and scribes. Those who knew the Law the best kept it the worst. Those who should have seen Jesus as the Messiah first refused to believe in him.
The King Exercises Control Over His Dominion | Matthew 21:18-22
In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.
When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
Matthew 21:18-22
This cursing of the fig tree appears to be a little out of place, but Matthew has put it here in order to reinforce the problem with the Temple. The emphasis is made clear by the parables that we will look at next week, but for today, Jesus is demonstrating what happens when the people of God do not bear fruit. They will eventually be cursed and whither to death.
We can compare this cursed tree with John 15 in which Jesus says,
I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.
If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
John 15:1-2 & 6
Those that bear fruit are pruned and dressed to bear more. Those who do not whither and die. In this particular instance in Matthew, the fig tree represents the Temple and its priests. The Temple should be bearing fruit. People should see the character of God, the power of God, and the healing of God at the Temple. But they can’t because of the corruption of the chief priests and scribes.
Just as the fig tree is cursed, the Temple will be cursed and destroyed in 70 AD.
The second point of this fig tree scene is to remind the disciples of the power of prayer. How is Jesus able to curse this tree and it whither so quickly? It is by the same power we can ask from God and receive what we ask for—prayer.
Mountains in life and fruitless obstacles can be removed through prayer.
In Matthew 6:7-15, Jesus teaches us how to pray and the purpose of prayer. Ultimately, prayer is about tuning our minds and hearts with God’s, so we should not take 21:22 out of context as a license for getting whatever we want. But even so, as we pray, we can also approach God with our wants, needs, and desires. We absolutely can bring these things to God because He loves us and wants us to share these desires with Him. And, crazy enough, there are times when He will give us what we ask for.
But here is the really interesting part about praying with God. As we spend time in prayer, and especially if we follow the pattern given in Matthew 6, we can also spend time listening for God. And as He speaks to us, we will know the answer to our prayers, but more importantly, we will know what it is that God would have us do in life. And when God calls us to a task that seems like a giant mountain to climb, or when we recognize fruitless trees in our life that need to be removed, we can ask God to overcome those things. And He will give us the power to overcome.
The King’s Authority Questioned | Matthew 21:23-27
And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?” And they discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
Matthew 21:23-27
This section begins a series of questioning by the religious leaders against Jesus. In fact, it is worth noting from here to the end of chapter 23 all takes place inside the temple. The first question seems simple enough, “What authority do you have to do the things you are doing?” I am sure they have more than just ransacking the money tables in mind. Consider that up to this point Jesus has healed the lame, given sight to the blind, raised the dead, cursed fig trees, walked on water, fed thousands with a single sack lunch, and taught with such authority the people are compelled to listen. The religious leaders may not have been present at all of these miracles, but they have certainly heard the stories!
But Jesus doesn’t answer their question. Instead, he turns the table on them by addressing their own spiritual failure. He asks them where did the baptism of John come from. It is a loaded question, and the chief priests see the problem straight away. If they say “from heaven,” that would be admitting John the Baptist was a prophet, and when he pointed to Jesus as the Messiah, they would be admitting he must have been right. But, they can’t say “from man” because the crowd is listening, and they have all agreed John the Baptist was a prophet of God. If they say John was just speaking as an ordinary man, they will quickly lose the support of the people.
Now, there is another layer here that Matthew doesn’t overtly address. When we look at this time in history, the Jewish people have had a series of revolts already. The Romans are tired of this area and really only need a small excuse to come and remove the religious leaders from the temple. They have already disallowed the civic leaders to be fully Jewish. That is one reason no one like the Herods.
The chief priests refuse to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah, but they also can’t lose support of the crowds for fear they will lose their positions of power from the Romans.
So, they decide to skirt the issue with “We don’t know” in hopes that Jesus will say something to cause his own demise. But instead, Jesus just says, “Well, I won’t answer your question either, then.”
We will pause their interrogation for the moment, but let’s look again at the scene we have walked through. Jesus has entered Jerusalem on a beast of burden symbolizing his approach as the King of Jerusalem, the Son of David promised in the Old Testament who would save God’s people. As the King of Kings enters the land, he finds the Temple of God filled with thieves and priests who have allied themselves with pagan rulers above their God. In response, he clears out the money-changers and the animal salesmen, and then curses a fig tree to teach the disciples what will happen very soon to these abominations of God’s temple.
And when the chief priests and scribes meet with Jesus, rather than recognizing their own sins and failures, they begin to question him. They want to bait him into saying something they can arrest and kill him for. They begin proving their allegiance is not really to the God they proclaim to serve.
Matthew has been threading this sub-plot throughout his gospel, and it will continue through to the end. The implication for this plot brings us to our concluding question for today:
“Where is your allegiance?”
As we consider this story, where do you find your own allegiances? Are they with the chief priests and scribes who ally themselves with the political authorities and economic gain? Are they with the crowds who know there was something with John and something with this Jesus, but these are the same crowds that will turn on Jesus in just a few short days? Or are they with the disciples who have devoted themselves to following Jesus? Yes, these same disciples will fail to uphold their allegiance, but they will also be restored and go on to begin the greatest religious movement in history that transforms the globe.
Today, where is your allegiance? Have you surrendered to the King of Kings who came riding into his city on the back of a donkey to bring peace?