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21:1-11
Triumphal entry into Jerusalem
(There were two 'entries' into Jerusalem. This was the first of them. The
second one is described in Mark 11:1-10, Luke 19:30-34, and John 12:12-15.
In this, the first entry Jesus came as a king, with two animals, in the
second he came as a judge, with only one animal. In this the first entry the
city did not know who was coming, in the second they were prepared for him. In
the first entry the prophecy of Zech.9:9 was fulfilled but in the second only a
part of the prophecy is referred to.)
Jesus walked from Jericho up to the east side of the mount of Olives,
where Bethany and Bethphage are located. (From here the road skirts the south
end of Olivet, dips into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, crosses the Brook Kidron,
and then climbs up to Jerusalem.)
Jesus sent two disciples ahead to Bethany.
"When you get there" said Jesus, "You will find a tethered
donkey, with her colt beside her. Untie the donkey and bring it to me. If anyone
asks you what you're doing, tell them you have been sent by the Lord to get
them."
There is a clear prediction, attached to the Messiah, which mentions a
donkey. The words are found in Zechariah 9:9 where he says : "Tell the
people of Jerusalem - look! Your Messiah is coming to you! He is riding on a
donkey, and with him is an ass, the foal (colt) of the donkey!"
So away went the disciples, and when they walked into the town the first
thing they saw was a donkey, tied up and waiting, and with the donkey was its
colt. They untied the donkey and started to lead it away, with the colt
following.
When they returned, the disciples took their outer garments off and
draped them over the donkey. Jesus took his seat on the clothes and began to
ride down the road leading to Jerusalem.
The large crowd of people who were with him saw what he was doing, and
they became excited. They thought that, at last! Jesus was about to assume the
royal position they had so longed for. He was going to be their king! Some
people pulled palm fronds down from the trees near the road and spread them on
the road. Others ran ahead, telling the people to prepare for Jesus. Some people
pulled clothing off and spread it on the ground, showing their enthusiasm.
(It was an amazing, happy, celebratory moment, and also an historic
event, because now was being fulfilled the final part of the 70 weeks prophecy
in Daniel chapter 9. Soon the Messiah would be "cut off" - that is,
crucified, but the people did not know that yet.)
People started to shout and cheer in Aramaic. "Hoshia-na!"
(Meaning "Save us now!) Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in Jehovah's
Name! Hoshia-na! to the Lord in
heaven!"
(The people were quoting from Psalm 118:25,26 - which again pointed
at the Messiah.)
But when Jesus entered the gates of Jerusalem, the people of the city
were not sure as to who he was, or why he was coming. "Who is he?"
they asked, "What is he doing here?"
The people who had followed Jesus all the way along the road came rushing
through the gates behind him. They were quick to say who they thought Jesus was.
"This is the prophet from Galilee!" they said. "You know -
Jesus! He's the one God sent to save us! He's the Messiah!"
21:12-17
Jesus cleanses the Temple
But when Jesus was inside the walls of Jerusalem, he made no attempt to
take the throne. Instead, he rode as far as the Temple and dismounted, then he
went through the main entrance and looked around at the Temple courts (Greek =
hieron = courts.) Instead of seeing people coming and going quietly, he was met
by the smell, and sound, and sight of pigeons, and moneychangers. He was
immediately filled with anger and disgust. He quickly began to stride about the
place, tipping tables over, freeing pigeons, and kicking the seats over.
Instantly the place was filled with shouts of confusion.
Despite the noise, the voice of Jesus could still be heard.
"The Bible says that the Temple is meant to be a place of prayer,
but you have turned it into a hangout for thieves and robbers!"
(Jesus quoted a composite of verses from Is.56:7, and Jer.7:11. Since he
was the One who inspired these words, he had every right to adapt them to fit
the circumstances.)
No-one stopped to argue with Jesus. They all knew that he was doing the
right thing. With guilty consciences they slunk back to the street. Ashamed the
money-collectors gathered their scattered coins, and the last of the birds were
chased out, then the people began to come into the Temple court and cluster
round Jesus.
(The corrupt practises of the moneychangers probably consisted of the
following : they charged excessive fees for sacrificial birds and animals, and
they converted other currencies into half-shekels (again) for excessive fees. In
every way, they were turning a practise which God had set up, into an
opportunity for commercialism, profiteering and greed.
In a similar way, Christians ought to keep themselves from
these things too - in church life, and also in personal habits.)
Jesus stayed in the Temple courts for a while, working such miracles as
healing the lame, and restoring sight to the blind, and as he worked, a number
of children began to copy the adults by shouting "Hoshia-na! Hoshia-na! Son
of David! Hoshia-na!" (These were probably special, or outstanding
miracles, marking the end of his public ministry.)
To Jesus it was a beautiful sound, but to the chief priests and scribes,
it was a terrible noise. They hated Jesus, and they hated his miracles . . . and
now they hated the children ( who were, to them, ignorant and stupid people
anyway) shouting praise to this man who challenged everything the priests held
dear!
"Do you hear what they are saying?" said the priests angrily,
"How long are you going to put up with this racket?"
"Yes, I hear them" said Jesus, "Its the sound of praise.
Have you never read that children can praise and worship God? (Ps.8:2) Even
little children, who have no theological training, can offer perfectly
acceptable praise to their Creator - its a pity you didn't know this."
The priests backed away, fuming. How dare this self-styled fraud of a
prophet presume to give a lesson on the Bible!
But Jesus had no time for them now. He wound up his work and left the
Temple, then he walked out of Jerusalem and followed the road down to Bethany,
where he found a suitable place to stay for the night.
(It is good to know that children, though uneducated and naive, can
also have deep spiritual insights way beyond their years, and what they lack in
knowledge, they can more than make up for in faith and love.)
21:18,19
The barren fig tree
In the morning, Jesus went back to Jerusalem, and on the way there
he saw a fig tree (In Mark's account - 11:12-14 - it is pointed out that it was
not the season for figs). He was hungry, so he looked in amongst the leaves for
a fig or two to eat, but he found none.
"Let no fruit grow on you again" said Jesus, and then he walked
on, but the disciples watched the fig tree. It began to droop, and its leaves
fell off. In a very short time the whole tree was dead!
(For Jesus, this was not a fit of petulant anger, or some similar human
failing. He was behaving in a symbolic way. The fig tree represented the Jewish
nation, which had welcomed him (the leaves) but had not produced any real change
of heart (fruit).
In Bible lands fig trees produce two crops a year. The first one forms
before the leaves grow and the second crop forms after the leaves have grown. In
a symbolic way, because there was no fruit from the first crop, it was highly
unlikely that there would be any from the second.
Jesus cursed the tree. In the same way the Jewish nation was cursed, and
it died in 70 AD under the Roman general Titus (son of Vespasian). The fig tree
was cut down and its remnants were scattered across the world, to become the
lost, ostracised, hated, hounded, slaughtered, homeless and wandering Jews - a
people who could have been the nucleus of God's kingdom on earth!
21:20-22
Lessons based on the fig tree
The disciples, who had watched the fig tree wither and die, were amazed.
"How did it manage to die so quickly!" they gasped.
Jesus grabbed the moment and turned what he had done into a lesson on
prayer and faith.
"You don't have much faith" said Jesus, "But if you had
more, you could perform miracles like this too. The trouble is, you don't have
enough confidence in God to do this sort of thing.
"But if you did have my kind of faith, you could achieve tremendous
things! Making a fig tree wither would be insignificant compared to what you
could do.
"Can you remember what I said to you before, about the mustard seed?
(17:20 and also James 1:6) You only need faith about that size to do great
miracles. You could make mountains jump about! You could deal with huge
obstacles - provided you were in agreement with God on what you were doing.
"Whatever you want, provided it is in God's will, just ask, and be
confident, and it will happen! This is the third time I have explained all this
to you. Please let it sink in."
(Jesus was not here advocating unqualified prayer-requests.
Christians cannot ask for anything and then expect to get it. They must
pray in line with the conditions, or guidelines - see notes on 6:5-14 and
7:7-12. The conditions for successful prayer : have no unconfessed sin - Ps.
66:18, have faith/confidence - James 1:6-8, be in conformity to God's will -
1John 5:14, be persistent - Luke 18:1-8, be sincere - Heb. 10:22).
21:23-27
Jesus' authority is questioned
When Jesus reappeared back in the Temple courts again the next day, the
priests and others were not pleased to see him! Jesus, on the other hand, went
on with his work. He had little time to spend on people who hated him.
But the priests were determined to do something - anything - to stop him,
so they pushed their way through the crowd and rudely interrupted Jesus in
mid-sentence.
Who do you think you are?" they demanded, "We never gave you
the authority to teach! Where are your credentials?"
(Jesus was caught, so they thought, between several answers. If he said
his authority came from God, they would accuse him of blasphemy. If he said his
authority came from men, they would over-ride it. If he said his authority was
from himself alone, they would kick him out of the Temple as a false teacher. If
he said his authority came from the Jewish priesthood, they would cancel it.)
But Jesus was too clever to be caught like this.
"I'll tell you, if you tell me something first" he said.
This sounded reasonable to the priests, so they agreed.
"Tell me" said Jesus, "Where did John get his calling
from?"
(Now the priests were trapped, because if they said John was a man sent
from God, they would have to agree that he was the fore-runner for God, who came
before the Messiah. However, if they admitted this, they would also have to
admit that Jesus was the Messiah, because this is exactly who John said Jesus
was! In one fell swoop, Jesus had completely tied the priests up with their own
logic.)
To avoid being forced into this logic-trap, the priests said "We
don't know". (This of course was a lie, because they did know. They knew
that most of the people around them were convinced about John's God-directed
ministry. They knew that John's witness was perfectly clear and consistent. They
knew from prophecy that John fulfilled the "messenger" predictions. )
"Well" said Jesus, "If you 'don't know', then I see no
need to tell you where my authority comes from."
21:28-32
The parable of the two sons
The priests were stunned. They had expected their clever question to give
them the advantage over Jesus, but he had completely reversed the trap. Now, as
they stood silently nearby, Jesus told them a parable.
"A certain man, who had two sons, also owned a vineyard. One day he
went to one of his sons and asked him to put in day's work, but the boy was
bad-mannered. "No thanks Dad!" he said, "I don't want to work
today!" but after his father had gone the boy was sorry for the way he had
spoken, and he went to work.
"When the father asked the second son to do a day's work, the boy
was extremely polite. "Yes, certainly father, I will go right this very
minute!" said the boy, but as soon as his father was gone, the boy lay down
and shut his eyes.
"So which of the two boys did what his father asked? said Jesus.
"Obviously the first one" said the priests.
"Let me put it this way" said Jesus, "You are like the
second son. God asked you to work in His vineyard, and you said, in your typical
religious way, "Oh yes, God, here we are, we're off to work for you right
this minute!" but you didn't go did you? You dressed up, and you said all
kinds of fancy prayers, and you pretended to be righteous and good, but you
stayed home.
"On the other hand, when God spoke - through John - to the
tax-collectors, and prostitutes, and all those other people, they said
"No" at first, but later on they began to repent, and now they are
working in the vineyard. There are more people like them in the kingdom of God,
than people like you!"
21:33-46
The parable of the vineyard
While the priests thought about the story of the two sons, Jesus added
a further dimension to it.
"There was a certain
landowner, who decided to plant a vineyard on his land. He did all the usual
things - built a wall round it, dug a winepress hole, and erected a tower, then
he rented the vines to some other people and went far away on a trip.
"The seasons rolled by, and eventually it was time for the grapes to
be picked. The owner of the vineyard sent his servants to collect the agreed on
percentage of the crop from the lessees, but they wanted to keep the entire
crop, so they beat the servant up.
"Annoyed, the landowner sent a series of servants, one after the
other, but the lessees refused to hand anything over, and instead they threw
rocks at these servants, and attacked them, and some they even killed!
"The landowner was now extremely sad, but also determined to receive
his rightful earnings, so he decided to send his own son.
"They will respect my son" he said, "Surely!"
"But he was wrong. Instead of showing respect, the lessees came up
with a terrible plan. When they saw the son coming along the road towards them,
they realised that this young man was the legal inheritor of the vineyard, and,
they thought, "If we can get rid of him, we can take the vineyard
ourselves! And since the owner himself doesn't seem to want to show up, we'll
get away with this scott free!"
"The son arrived at the gates and walked on to the property his
father owned, but the lessees grabbed him and dragged him out into the fields.
There they clubbed him to death and left his body lying under the open sky.
"Now" said Jesus, "What do you think the landowner will do
when he comes back?"
The priests, who had not yet understood the double meaning of the story,
gave Jesus the most likely solution they could think of.
"The landowner will destroy those wicked men . . . and lease the
vineyard to someone else!"
(The story is national in quality.)
God is the landowner, and the vineyard represents the little Jewish
nation. Israel of old used to be God's vineyard, but the bulk of Israel was now
long gone into captivity. (Ps.80:8, Is.5:1-7, Jer.2:21)
The wall around the vineyard represented the Law of Moses, which formed a
line of separation between the Jews and the Gentiles.
The winepress represented the fruit, which God expected of the people.
The tower represented God's watchful care over His people - Is.1:8, 5:2, 24:20,
Job27:18.
The lessees are the Jewish priests and others like them.
The servants sent to the vineyard are the people of God, the prophets and
others, calling to the Jews to repent.
And the son is the Lord Jesus whom the Father sent "(Surely) they
will respect my Son"-v.37. But the priests said "This is the
heir!" - in this way they made themselves guilty, because by their own
admission, they took Jesus seriously. If they had considered him "mad"
they would never have been so desperate to kill him, but the very fact that they
treated him the way they did, turned in on them and convicted them of the crime.
As soon as the priests had acknowledged the point of the story,
Jesus moved on to another picture relating to himself. This time he drew on the
field of architecture for his illustration.
"I'm sure you must have read this in the Bible - "The builders
threw out a stone, but someone picked it up and used it as the most important
part of a building. It went from the rubble heap to the cornerstone position.
The Lord made this happen - isn't it marvellous!" (Psalm 118:22. Also used
in Acts 4:10-12)
(When Jesus, the Stone from heaven, was presented to the builders - the
Jewish religious leaders - they decided he was not suitable. They could not fit
him into their building plans, so they threw him away. But God picked Jesus up
from the rubbish and placed him in the most important position possible.
(Phil.2:9))
"Therefore" said Jesus, "The kingdom, which you Jews had
the opportunity of becoming, is going to be taken from you. It will be given
instead, to another nation, and God will see to it that this other nation will
do the job properly! (Jer.30,31 - the New Covenant with the nation of Israel.)
"Now getting back to the stone" said Jesus, "I am the
Stone, and my kingdom will be like me - invincible. Anyone who tries to break me
will in turn be broken, and anyone I fall on will be ground inevitably to
dust."
The chief priests and Pharisees gradually understood what Jesus was
saying. As they put his story ideas together, it dawned on them that they were
being pictured as : the useless son who said he would go but didn't; the lessees
who killed the servants and the heir; and the builders who rejected the stone.
Convicted and angry they wanted to do only one thing - grab Jesus and physically beat him up with their own fists, but they controlled themselves because there were many people standing around, who might want to defend Jesus. Outnumbered, the priests held themselves back, waiting for a better opportunity.