Matthew Chapter 21 -- John Karmelich

Gospel of Matthew Chapter 21 -- John Karmelich

1. Chapter 21 can be summarized in one word: rejection.

a) We are going to read of Jesus being corporately rejected by the Jewish nation.

i) When I say “corporately” I mean the vast majority of the Jewish people who were aware of Jesus, rejected him as the Messiah.

ii) There were many individual exceptions.

b) The first section of this chapter deals with Jesus presenting himself to Israel as their king.

i) This takes place in Verses 1-11.

ii) While many accept and praise Jesus as the Messiah, the majority of this same group will reject him once they realize Jesus is not there to overthrow Rome.

c) The next section has to do with the “cleansing of the temple”.

i) This takes place in Verses 12-13.

ii) The religious leaders of Jewish temple were corrupt at this time. They were taking advantage of people and profiting off of people’s desires to worship God.

d) The next story is Jesus performing some more healing after the temple is “cleansed”.

i) This is just one verse, Verse 14.

ii) This one verse is sandwiched between a number of stories about rejection.

a) It shows that “miracles are not enough” to convince people who Jesus is.

e) From Verse 15 to the end of the chapter, and going into Chapter 22, we have Jesus telling parables and illustrations that all tie to his corporate rejection by the Nation of Israel.

i) There is an “exception” in Verses 17-22, where Jesus curses a fig tree.

a) The main point of that cursing is not because Jesus hates figs, J it was symbolic of Jesus’ rejection by the Jewish leadership. We’ll discuss that some more when we get there.

2. To most of the readers of this study, the rejection of Jesus is old, historical news.

a) It is as if to say, “Yeah, yeah, I know all of this, what does it have to do with me today?”

b) What is interesting to read as a modern application is how Jesus handled rejection.

i) What I want to comment upon off and on through this study is how Jesus dealt with rejection and how we can apply that to our lives.

ii) All adults go through some periods of rejection.

iii) Jesus promised in a sense that non-believers would reject us for our belief.

iv) Jesus said, “All men (non-believers) will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 10:22, NIV)

c) Remember that Matthew didn’t write this for the purpose of showing of how we are to deal with rejection. He wrote this to show that Jesus is the promised Messiah despite the fact he was rejected, collectively by the Jewish nation.

i) Matthew goes out of his way to show the Old Testament predictions about how the Messiah (“the king”) is to be rejected.

ii) Jesus himself will quote predictive scriptures in this chapter on that issue.

iii) It is only a secondary “purpose” of this chapter that one can study this chapter for comfort and say, “You know, if people will reject Jesus, they are going to reject me. If I take a stand for Jesus, I can expect rejection. It comes with the territory.”

d) What you are not going to see in this chapter is Jesus throwing a temper tantrum, nor are not going to see Jesus calling out for angels to strike people dead, etc.

i) Jesus still focuses on those who are called to serve them.

ii) He focuses on those who want him, and predicts the bleak future of those who choose to reject him. On that somber note, let’s go to Verse 1.

3. Verse 1: As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, ² saying to them, "Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. ³ If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away."

a) OK, let’s set the scene:

i) In the latter part of Chapter 20, Jesus has been on the road from Jericho to Jerusalem. It is about a 17-mile journey.

ii) This is an uphill climb. In this journey, one rises about 3,000 feet in elevation.

iii) Bethphage means “house of figs”. This is a hillside location that is part of the Mount of Olives area. From this point one has a panoramic view of Jerusalem, which is in a valley surrounded by a mountain range. This spot is about 300 feet higher than where the temple was located.

iv) We know from the other gospels that the village ahead is called “Bethany”.

a) Matthew will refer to Bethany later in the text.

b) Here was Jesus about to enter the town. He told his disciples in effect, “All right guys, go into town. Here is what you are going to find. There will be a donkey and the donkey’s colt. Take them, and if anybody questions you, say “The Lord needs them.”

i) That is a miracle in itself. Imagine if a couple of strangers walks up to your driveway and start to take your car away. You spot them, and they say, “The Lord needs them”. What are you going to say? “Ooh, that’s ok, it’s got a full tank of gas, enjoy!” J Are you going to say that? If you’re like me, you’re either reaching for a gun or the telephone to call the police.

ii) My point is that the taking of the donkey is a miracle unto itself.

iii) It shows the miraculous powers Jesus had as he was able to predict in advance what was going to happen.

4. Verse 4: This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: ⁵ "Say to the Daughter of Zion, `See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.' "

a) Let’s remember the basic purpose of Matthew’s gospel, which is to show Jesus as the promised eternal king of Israel.

i) Matthew is quoting Zechariah 9:9 in Verse 5.

ii) This verse was written after all the kings listed in the book of Kings, and after the return from the Babylonian captivity. Therefore, it does not refer to any other Jewish king. It is a prophecy of the Messiah to come.

iii) Zechariah was sent to encourage the Israelites to rebuild the temple, which was destroyed by the Babylonians. Zechariah is predicting, “Your king is coming”.

b) Of all the Old Testament predictions about Jesus, this is the only one I can think of where Jesus goes out of his way to arrange the fulfillment of that prediction.

i) Other predictions like “born in Bethlehem, born of a virgin, miracles, etc., could not happen without the power of God working through Jesus. Yet this one miracle of riding into town on a donkey, let’s face it, could be done by anybody.

ii) The only “miraculous” part was the fact that the donkey and his colt were there and nobody complained that the disciples took the animals.

a) That little verse is a reminder that God is working in the background in ways we may not comprehend for the moment.

iii) Some commentators believe that the fact that Jesus could ride on an “unbroken” (un-trained) colt was a miracle unto itself.

5. Verse 6: The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. ⁷ They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them. ⁸ A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹ The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Hosanna in the highest!"

a) This is the story of “Palm Sunday”.

i) It is mentioned in all four gospel accounts.

ii) We call it “Palm Sunday” as the followers of Jesus cut down palm branches and laid them at Jesus feet. John’s gospel says they were palm branches. (John 12:13).

iii) Christians usually take the Sunday prior to Easter to remember Palm Sunday, as it occurred exactly 7 days prior to Resurrection Sunday (i.e., Easter Sunday).

b) OK, time for the big theological question. Why did Jesus do this?

i) First of all, it is so that Israel has no excuse as to why they rejected Jesus.

a) Let’s suppose “Palm Sunday” never happened. The Israelites could claim to God, “It is not our fault we rejected Jesus. We never had an opportunity to worship Jesus as a collective group. We never got to see him proclaim himself as the Messiah. How can you blame us when he never came to us as a group to proclaim his Messiahship?”

b) With that possibility, it was necessary for Jesus to do this.

ii) Another reason was to fulfill prophecy.

a) In Daniel Chapter 9, there is a prediction of the exact day when Jesus would come to proclaim himself as the king. Palm Sunday is that day.

b) “Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two‘ sevens.’ (Daniel 9:25a, NIV)

(1) That word ‘sevens’ is a period of seven years.

(2) This verse says that from the day the order comes to rebuilt Jerusalem “until the Anointed One (Jesus) comes, it will be 62 ‘sevens’ plus 7 ‘sevens’, or 69 ‘sevens’ in total.

(3) If a ‘seven’ is a 7-year period, the total time frame is 69 x 7 years.

(4) In the book of Nehemiah, a decree was given to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, which was in rubble from the Babylonian conquest.

(a) History records this date as March 14th, 445 BC.

(b) (Source: Encyclopedia Britannica, Volume 10, Page 642).

(5) Daniel says from that day in Nehemiah, you count 69 x 7 years. (The Hebrew calendar has 360 days in year.) The exact day that ends is Palm Sunday. Again, I don’t want to go into all the details of the calculations, but it does work!

(6) In fact, in Verse 26 of Daniel, a prediction goes on to say that “after this” (i.e., the events of the 69 ‘weeks’) the Messiah will be “cut off”. This means to be executed.

(7) If you desire more details on this, please see my writings on Daniel Chapter 9, Part 2.

iii) I believe Jesus held the nation of Israel responsible for understanding the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy. The religious leaders should have known that this is the day that the Messiah would come to present himself before the people of Israel. Even if they didn’t know the exact day, they should have known “roughly” that this was the time.

a) “As he (Jesus) approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.””
(Luke 19:41-44 NIV)

c) Let’s get back to the verses and describe this scene.

i) Jesus descending from a high hillside down to the City of Jerusalem. He was riding on the colt of the donkey. The “mother” donkey was leading the colt. The disciples laid their clothes on both animals. The other gospels make this clearer. Again, this story is told in all four gospels.

ii) Here was this procession of people coming into town with Jesus.

iii) The verse says some were in front of Jesus and some were behind him.

iv) I suspect many of the followers of Jesus were hoping that he was going to overthrow the Roman Government and here was Jesus the Messiah.

d) Next to the Jewish temple, was a Roman fort, known as the Antonio Fortress.

i) Can you imagine what the Roman soldiers were thinking about this procession?

ii) Did they have their guards up, thinking that a revolt was about to happen?

iii) Further, when Roman soldiers saw kings coming to town, usually the king was lead by a big fancy procession. The king himself would be riding in a chariot or at least on a horse.

iv) Here was Jesus sitting on a donkey’s colt. The crowd was calling Jesus their king.

v) I don’t know if the Roman soldiers were laughing at this procession or nervous or both. We don’t know. The point to learn from the Romans and their silence is one can’t be neutral about Jesus. You can’t watch Jesus go by, shrug your shoulders and be neutral. Jesus says that whoever is not with him is against him (See Matthew 12:30). Eternal condemnation is not just rejecting Jesus, but being neutral about Jesus when you are aware of his presence.

e) Let’s talk about Verse 9 for a second. It says the crowds following Jesus were saying “"Hosanna to the Son of David!" Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Hosanna in the highest!"”

i) Remember that “Son of David” is a title for the Messiah as God made a promise to King David in that he would have a son who would rule forever.
(See: 2^nd Samuel 7:12).

ii) The word “Hosanna” was originally was a cry for help: "Save!" (Ref.: 2^nd Sam. 14:4; and 2^nd Kings 6:26). In time it became an invocation of blessing and even an acclamation, the latter being the meaning here.” (Bible Expositor’s Encyclopedia)

a) John’s translation: Those Israelites knew what they were doing.
They were worshipping Jesus as the promised Messiah.

iii) Remember that most of this same crowd would later reject Jesus.

a) This is why I believe they were hoping Jesus would overthrow Rome. When they saw that was not Jesus’ intention and saw him beaten by the Romans, that helped lead to the rejection.

b) It is also a reminder that an emotional reaction by a crowd is not enough to get people to change their lifestyle. It has to be a change of heart.

f) One more bit of bible trivia before we move on.

i) This Sunday was 4 days prior to the Passover.

a) Passover is a Jewish holiday ordained by Moses to remember the Exodus from Egypt. It always occurs on the “10^th day of the month of “Nissan”, on the Jewish calendar. It would be “Thursday” of this week.

b) It is required of all Jews to celebrate Passover.

c) Many went to Jerusalem for this celebration. The historian Josephus records that the population of Jerusalem swells up for this holiday. Visualize the population of New Orleans “normally” versus the population at the time of Mardi Gras, and you get somewhat of an idea.

d) On this Sunday, traditionally, is the day when the religious leaders picked the lambs to be slaughtered. One of the requirements for the Passover dinner was to eat roasted lamb. On this Sunday, the lambs were chosen to be slaughtered. No lambs with “blemishes” or defects of any kind were picked. (All of this points to Jesus as the perfect “lamb of God” sacrifice, but we’ll save that for another day.)

e) My point is while the religious leaders were picking which lambs to choose, here is Jesus saying in effect “choose me, I am the true lamb of God coming to be sacrificed for your sins”.

6. Verse 10: When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, "Who is this?"
¹¹ The crowds answered, "This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee."

a) Again, remember that Jerusalem’s population swelled immensely for Passover.

b) Many Jews who live in other parts of the world make a pilgrimage for Passover.

c) The point of these two verses is that Jesus trodding into Jerusalem on the donkey’s colt was seen by a large crowd. It was the major event of the moment.

d) It is interesting to note that the crowd saw Jesus as a “prophet” but not as Messiah.

i) The followers of Jesus understood this and were proclaiming that fact.

ii) The bystanders who heard of Jesus’ reputation were calling him a prophet.

iii) This has to remind you of something that occurred in Matthew 16:

a) “Jesus asked his disciples in effect, who do “the people” say that I am?” Peter answered, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” (Matthew 16:14 NIV)

b) Peter then had one of his better moments when he declared that Jesus was none of these other people, but that Jesus was the Messiah.

iv) In the world today, many acknowledge Jesus as a prophet, but not the Messiah.

a) Muslims honor Jesus as a great prophet, but no more.

(1) I’ve never understood how they acknowledge Jesus as a prophet, but then ignore his predictions about himself being the Messiah!

b) Many religious Jews argue that Jesus existed, and he was a great teacher, but nothing more.

c) My point is unless you understand that Jesus is God, that Jesus is the promised Messiah, anything “lower than that” (i.e., “prophet”) is not acceptable for eternal salvation.

7. Verse 12: Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. ¹³ "It is written," he said to them, " `My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it a `den of robbers.' "

a) Notice Jesus first order of business after riding into town on the donkey’s colt.

i) It wasn’t to stand on the temple and say, “Thank You, Thank you, yes, I am the Messiah, you know!” J No, he went up to the temple and cleaned the place out.

b) It may help to understand the historical context:

i) The 1^st century historian Josephus records that the High Priest of that day was very corrupt. He was eventually ousted by his own people.

a) He made money by selling “official” sacrificial animals. People would bring their sacrificial animals to the temple and they would say, “Sorry, there is a blemish here, you can’t use that one. Tell you what, we have some good one’s over here. I’ll sell you one for this price.

b) Also, a temple tax was required. Only a Jewish “sheckle” was permitted to pay this tax. When foreigners would come to exchange their money, they would charge very high exchange rates.

c) The modern comparison is the danger of those who rip-off Christians with “official” Christian merchandise.

c) The fact that Jesus had a large crowd following him was enough intimidation that the moneychangers had to let Jesus get away with this for the moment.

i) I suspect the crowd that followed Jesus, who wanted Jesus to overthrow Rome, were cheering as they knew these officials were corrupt. It was common knowledge, but they had the power of the Roman government behind them.

d) This is actually the second time that Jesus cleansed the temple.

i) In John Chapter 2, we read of Jesus cleansing the temple in an early part of his ministry.

ii) There are many sermons preached on the fact that Jesus occasionally “cleans out our temples” as Jesus wants to be worshipped alone. There are times in our lives where we get focused on other issues, or our life is getting some corruption, and we need Jesus to clean out “our temples” whether we like it not.

8. Verse 14: The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them.

a) I love this verse, particularly in this location of the text.

i) Here was Jesus cleaning out the temple of the corrupt officials.

ii) Jesus does not say, “Woe is me, I’m being rejected? J

iii) Jesus does not say, “Ok, the temple is clean, let’s go take on the Romans!”

iv) Instead of all of those options, Jesus goes back to healing people!

b) Jesus came to help the hurting and pay the price for their sins. Despite the rejection by the Jewish leaders, Jesus still took the time to reach out to those who wanted to be healed.

i) This is a reminder for us to focus on what God has called you to do, no matter what the circumstances.

ii) As believers, God has called on us to be his witnesses to the world, no matter what the circumstances or whatever else is going on in our life.

iii) Here was Jesus, about to face rejection and crucifixion and he still took the time to minister to other hurting people. We need to keep that in mind during the difficult times of our lives as well.

9. Verse 15: But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they were indignant.

a) Here were the religious leaders, seeing children yelling to Jesus as the Messiah and they further saw the miracles Jesus performed, yet refused to believe.

b) I was thinking about this verse and wondering, “What does it take to convince people?”

i) This verse is a reminder that miracles are not enough to change people’s hearts.

ii) People can see all sorts of evidence of changed lives through Jesus and still not repent, mainly because they don’t want to change their lives.

c) There is a term I use on occasions called, “The tyranny of the status quo”.

i) What that means is once a big organization is formed, be it a government organization, private organization or even a church organization, it is difficult to get it to change. People get set in their ways. People get comfortable in the structure of that organization as it is. They don’t want to change. That is, “the tyranny of the status quo”. Status quo just means “the way things are now”.

ii) Here were these religious leaders. They were making a comfortable living from the money exchanges. Even if some were not corrupt, they were “used” to being in power and used to people coming to them for religious help.

a) Now their existing power is threatened by Jesus.

b) It is as if to say, “Who cares about Jesus’ miracles? He is affecting my income. In that sense, he has to go!”

c) Unfortunately, many in the world reject Jesus because it would hurt their income, their source of power, or their existing beliefs. These issues become too much of a “mountain” for them to overcome.

d) Thus, they reject Jesus and they reject you and me.

e) God does change people’s hearts, even of those who face these issues. It is only through prayer that God can reach out to the hearts of those who are trapped in the “tyranny of the status quo”.

10. Verse 16: "Do you hear what these children are saying?" they asked him. "Yes," replied Jesus, "have you never read, "`From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise'?"
¹⁷ And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.

a) Jesus quotes a line from Psalm 8:2 to the religious leaders.

b) Jesus is telling them that even the fact that kids are calling out to Jesus as the Messiah is an Old Testament Prediction. If you read that verse in Psalm, you would think it is simply a praise to God. Jesus is saying that verse is predictive of him.

i) It is simply another reminder that the Old Testament is full of predictions that we may not realize are predictions. The Old Testament is full of word-patterns and word-pictures that are fulfilling some aspect of the events of Jesus’ life.

c) Notice Jesus left these guys in Verse 17.

i) He didn’t spend hours debating them.

ii) This is a reminder to use our time and resources wisely. If people aren’t interested in change, don’t spend lots of time trying to convince them otherwise. Part of the “trick” of being a witness for Jesus is learning how best to use our time wisely.

11. Verse 18: Early in the morning, as he was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. ¹⁹ Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, "May you never bear fruit again!" Immediately the tree withered.

a) This is the only place we ever read of Jesus saying to anyone else he was hungry.

i) &