Matthew 21: The Beginning of the End

Introduction

We are now entering the home stretch of Matthew’s Gospel. Chapter 21 marks the beginning of the final week of the Lord’s life before his resurrection. Over the coming weeks we will see the Lord Jesus go in and out of Jerusalem performing different deeds and giving his final teachings. This will all culminate in his death and resurrection.

21:1-11: The Triumphal Entry

Jesus approaches Jerusalem, and this time the atmosphere is much different than before.

The Lord had been to Jerusalem many times over the past 3 years, but he wasn’t really well known during those times. Now, everyone has heard about Jesus of Nazareth. More than that, many of them believed that He is the Messiah.

This trip from Galilee in the north where he’s spent most of his time, down to Jerusalem in the south I think would be seen as a sign that something big was about to happen and the crowds reacted accordingly.

Jesus believed He himself was the Messiah, hence why he set the fulfilment of a Messianic prophecy into motion. He tells two disciples go find a donkey and a colt.

He tells the disciples to simply say, “The Lord needs them.” and this works. It’s unclear if Jesus had this arrangement pre-planned, or if he knew this would happen prophetically, or perhaps the owners knew who Jesus was and rightly associated Him with ‘the Lord’.

Whatever the case, Matthew connects this event with the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9 “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.”

The King enters into Jersualem to much jubilation. But it should be noted from an outside perspective how strange a sight this would have been.

The Son of David wasn’t riding in on a white horse, but on a lowly donkey. The Jews would have recognized the parallelism here with 1 Kings 1:38 “So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, and Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites went down and had Solomon ride on King David’s mule and brought him to Gihon.”

But to the Gentiles, I think it would have been a strange sight. This is their king? That dirty old preacher? And where is his army?

This is how the King of Kings completely turned the dynamics of power upside down. He did not need to demonstrate his power or demand praise, and yet the crowds could not stop praising Him.

The people put their cloaks on ground and spread palm branches (John tells us they were palm branches specifically).

Notice that Matthew notes that ‘Most’ or many did this....but not all. Matthew likes to point out throughout his Gospel that not everyone believed in Jesus (see 28:17 for example).

The people worshipped Him, singing a mix of various Psalms which they believed applied to Him.

Psalm 118:25 “Save us, we pray, O Lord! O Lord, we pray, give us success!” (Hosanna means ‘Save now/us’)

Psalm 118:26 “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! We bless you from the house of the Lord.”

Psalm 148:1 “Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights!”

As I mentioned, this was quit the spectacle to those who weren’t necessarily participating. I would imagine it raised some Roman eyebrows. At the very least they probably thought, “These people are weird.”

It caused people to ask questions, namely: Who is this guy?

The people respond: Jesus the prophet, from Nazareth of Galilee. This showed that they clearly held this man in high esteem. Prophet was the highest possible title they could think of the ascribe to Jesus.

There shouldn’t be any doubt that they were worshipping Him though, because Luke tells us that the religious leaders found this blasphemous and asked Jesus to make them stop (he didn’t).

Does our worship (and not just singing praise, or words, but also our actions as a ‘living sacrifice’ to the Lord) cause people to ask, “Who is this guy?”

12-17: Cleansing the Temple

After entering Jerusalem, the people are probably wondering, “What’s the first thing the King is going to do? Waltz right up to Pilate and the Romans kick them out?”

Instead, Jesus waltz’s right up the temple and kicks the money-changers out!

This is actually the second time that Jesus ‘cleansed’ the temple. John tells us that he did it very early in his ministry (John 2:14-16). But back then nobody knew him and he probably just looked like a crazy dude chasing people around with a whip.

To add to this, back then when the people asked for a sign he had said, “Destroy this temple and I will rebuild it in 3 days.” John makes it clear that they had no idea what he was talking about and that it sounded like crazy talk!

3 years later, he’s back and at it again. But this time, he’s not just some random crazy guy. Everyone knows who He is which means his actions carry that much more weight.

The money-changers and animal sellers weren’t bad on principal per se. Worshippers coming from around the world would not have brought their own animals with them, so it was good to have the resources there.

The money-changers themselves were used to convert currency since Roman coinage had the face of the emperor on it and that was seen as idolatry and couldn’t be used in the temple.

I think the problem is that both parties had set up shop within the Temple itself. They might have also been charging absurd prices, and just been an overall distraction taking away from the point of the temple: worship.

Hence Jesus quotes Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11 as justification for his actions - he’s again fulfilling prophecy by cleaning His house.

I once had the pleasure of visiting the beautiful Notre Dame in Paris (before it tragically burned). As wonderful of a building as it was, it had clearly become more of a tourist destination than a church. This was even more clear by the fact that in order to leave the building you had to walk through a gift shop. It made me think of this story.

After he cleared out the temple, He now opens it up to those who might not have had the opportunity to enter beforehand: the blind and the lame, and he healed them.

Remember, healing the blind and the lame was an important Messianic sign, and Matthew has recorded several instances of Jesus doing this.

To add to all this, some children were now running around also excitedly singing praises to Jesus (probably echoing what they heard at the triumphal entry!)

All of this of course irks the chief priests and scribes. Their whole domain is being disrupted. I think Matthew takes a slight dig at them by indicating how they saw the “wonderful things” Jesus did…and were still indignant.

Since they can’t complain about expulsion of the merchants…or the healing of people…they decide to pick on the kids. It seems like Jesus said something about bothering kids or causing them to stumble....

This exchange between them is a little comical. “Do you hear what these are saying?” and Jesus matter of factly snaps back, “Yes;” but then almost insults them by asking, “Have you read the Bible?”

He quotes to them the Greek version (Septuagint/LXX) of Psalm 8:2. This is slightly different from our versions would are translated from the original Hebrew.

Psalm 8:2 “Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.”

Psalm 8:2 (Greek) From the mouth of infants and nursing babies you created praise, on account of your enemies, to destroy the enemy and the avenger.

Thus, these innocent children running around singing are actually fulfilling prophecy. How beautiful!

The Lord ends this first day of the week by retiring to Bethany and staying there. John tells us that this was with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus (whom he resurrected just prior to this).

18-22: The lesson of the fig tree

Before we look at the significance of this little story, it should be noted that Matthew and Mark both tell it, but give different chronologies. Some might find this to be a problem, but not really.

In the ancient world, chronology was not as much of a focus as it is for us today. Mark probably gives the more accurate timing of the story. Matthew cares more about the facts of the story rather than the precise time and order in which they occur.

To add to this, Matthew leaves out certain other details that Mark provides and condenses the story as a whole.

On the surface this story seems a little silly. Was Jesus just hangry (angry from hunger), and when the true didn’t have any fruit he cursed it? (Side note, Jesus being hungry demonstrates his humanity).

The fig tree has a long history in Scripture, and often symbolized prosperity and long-continued well-being. Micah 4:4 “but they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.”

In contrast, it’s destruction was often a sign of judgment like in Psalm 105:33 “He struck down their vines and fig trees, and shattered the trees of their country.”

These thoughts are in the background of Jesus (God) now encountering a physical fig tree. It looked like it was fruit-bearing, but upon closer inspection it was fruitless, only giving the appearance through its leaves.

Because of this Jesus curses the tree, and it withers very quickly. This amazes the disciples, and Jesus takes the opportunity to use this as an illustration of the power of faith.

He tells them (and us), that “if you have faith and do not doubt” they will be able to do the same as what he did to the fig tree, and more than that, move mountains.

I don’t see any problem in this being metaphorical. The Lord himself never literally moved a mountain into the sea (even though he could have). Nor is there any record of any of the Apostles, or even any Christians, doing such a thing either.

The Lord is encouraging us to take all of the problems of life, all of the ‘mountains’ to God in prayer and ‘you will receive if you have faith.’ This language closely echoes James 1:6 “But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.”

It should be noted that this idea of ‘not doubting’ refers more to having a ‘split mind’. Matthew’s Gospel heavily emphasizes the need to have a single-minded focus on Jesus and his kingdom (this is faith!). To be ‘double-minded’ (i.e. doubt) of course will lead to us not getting what we ask for, because we aren’t trusting Jesus enough to even fully focus on Him!

The bigger picture of this withered fig tree can be seen as a parable I think. Jesus is subtly warning against those who ‘act righteous’ but aren’t really producing fruit.

The religious leaders of his day were a prime example of this. But it can happen to anyone.

If we aren’t producing fruit (of the Spirit) in our lives, then Jesus is clear that we will be destroyed. He is not interested in posturing.

This was what John the Baptist warned about in Matthew 3:10 “Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

Jesus himself puts this illustration into teaching in John 15:2 “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.”

Conclusion

As the King makes his way to the cross, he begins physically cleaning up the temple, and also spiritually cleaning our hearts. He emphasizes the need to produce fruit, living righteously, having been made righteous through faith in Him.

What does this fruit look like? Well a good starting place is the fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22–24 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”