"Hosanna in the Highest" Matthew 21a Dec 15 2024

Intro & Scripture

Good morning

We are continuing in the Gospel of Matthew

We are now in Chapter 21

We’ll be looking at the first 17 verses in this chapter

It represents the first day of events when Jesus enters Jerusalem

And verse 14 records the last time we see him in his healing ministry before his crucifixion

We will see Jesus, in his Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem

This marks the last time he enters Jerusalem before his death on the cross

This morning we will also see just how Jesus cleansed the temple

This whole section of Scripture is pretty familiar with most people

It’s been in movies, etc

And I assumed I knew all about it, and this would be an easy sermon

But there’s a lot going on

And the more I really studied this, the more I found it’s not that straightforward - and some of it was actually difficult to understand

But I think this morning we can do our best to unravel the truth

I think it’s possible to understand Scripture when we have a grasp on its context

As Jesus entered the city, there were crowds that went before him - and crowds that followed him

This is what they shouted -

Please read this verse with me -

Matthew 21:9 (ESV)

“Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

(Pray…)

The Triumphal Entry

As we continue in Matt 21, there are two themes present

I love to discover themes in the Bible

I read this over and over - and there are two very subtle themes which I think are important

1. The crowds

2. The theme of “the last will be first, and the first last”

Let’s look at the first section - The Triumphal Entry

Chapter 21 starts off this way -

Matthew 21:1–3 ESV

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.”

In doing this, Jesus was fulfilling prophecy from the prophet Zechariah

Matthew makes this clear in the next two verses

Matthew 21:4–5 ESV

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 Bible says that the two disciples did exactly that

They found both a female donkey and a colt with her

Now here is where there’s some confusion and a bit of criticism

Matthew mentions the colt with a female donkey - presumably its mother

Mark and Luke only mention the colt - a young donkey, never ridden

This is not a contradiction

Matthew is not making stuff up

(Air show - only report The Blue Angels…)

It’s perfectly logical that a young colt, which has never been ridden, would be with its mother

It’s likely the mother donkey would go along with its colt as Jesus rode on it

I want to clear up another confusion

Let’s look at verses 6 and 7

Matthew 21:6–8 ESV

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.

To begin with - this is a strange scene for most of us

I can’t remember anyone famous riding into Nashville on a donkey

The wording in these verses seems a bit awkward

But we have to carefully read this passage - there are detailed clues

The disciples find the donkey and its colt - they put their cloaks on both of them - and Jesus sits on “them”

Some people imagine that Jesus somehow got in a funny position and sat on the two animals simultaneously

But Greek has a rule that a pronoun almost always refers to its most recent antecedent

In this case, when it says that Jesus sat on them, “them” is referring to the cloaks on the colt

The cloaks on the colt is mentioned last

It would be like me saying, “I walked into a room full of ladies and saw my wife, then I walked up to her and gave her some ice cream.”

When I say “gave her some ice cream,” the context is clear that I gave ice cream to my wife, not any of the other ladies

Which is probably smart on my part!

And notice, then it says that “most of the crowd,” spread their cloaks on the road

So you have the two disciples putting their cloaks on both animals - with Jesus sitting on top of the cloaks - the ones which were on top of the colt

Got it?

And then you have “most of the crowd” spreading their cloaks on the road -

And others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road

If they cut branches, then we can picture these were all green and not brown, withered trash

Again, this is not a normal scene of events for us today -

but the point is: everyone is honoring the Lord, and making way for him

And then it specifically says there were crowds who went before him and crowds that followed him shouting:

“Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Hosanna” means save now, help now. It can also mean “Save, we pray”

The people are recognizing Jesus as their Savior - their Messiah

Now, they had a different view of Savior

When we say that Jesus is our “Savior,” we’re acknowledging that Jesus saves us from our sins because he died on a cross

The Jewish crowds saw him as Savior of the Jews

That he will save them out of their position under the rule of Rome

But nevertheless, the people were praising Jesus as a prophet and as their savior

Why ride on a donkey?

Look again at verse 5 [previous slide]

It says, “Your king is coming to you - humble and mounted on a donkey”

This is the picture of Jesus when he first came to Earth - he came in humility

Revelation says when he returns, he will be riding a white horse - and will return in judgment

Let’s look at the last two verses of this section - I’m sorry I have to dissect this so much -

Matthew 21:10–11 (ESV)

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.”

Notice, there is a distinction between the city folks and the crowds

It says that the “whole city” got stirred up and they asked a question

And it was the crowds who answered the whole city

I told you earlier - there are two very subtle themes in these first 17 verses of Matt 21

The first subtle theme is the crowds

If you remember, at the end of Chapter 20 - Jesus is setting out from Jericho towards Jerusalem

And it says that, “a great crowd followed him”

I think it’s possible that the crowds in Matt 21 are the same crowds that followed Jesus into Jerusalem from Matt 20

I count five references to these crowds in the first 11 verses of Chapter 21

I think the simple lesson from the crowds, for you and me:

1) They faithfully followed Jesus

2) They praised Jesus - and looked to him as Savior

This is the message for us - that we should follow Jesus because he is our Savior

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

Now we come to the part where Jesus cleanses the temple

Verse 12 tells us that he entered the temple, and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple

He overturned the tables of the money-changers, and even the seats of those who sold pigeons

Then he quotes Isaiah and said, “It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers.”

There are two issues with this:

What Jesus did came close to resembling a revolt against the political order - he had earlier predicted his death - now it seems, he’s provoking it

Here’s the other issue: in itself, there is no problem with selling pigeons (or other livestock) - and in itself, there’s nothing really wrong with money-changers

Some people say they were greedy

You can’t even lay blame on the money-changers themselves - because it says Jesus went after those who “sold and bought in the temple”

Money-changers were necessary to provide for people travelling to Jerusalem, so they can pay their temple tax.

This tax was well established in the OT (Exodus 30:11-16).

The pigeons (and livestock) were being sold presumably for a noble purpose.

An offering of a pigeons or turtledoves was also established in the OT

All Jews were required to enter Jerusalem three times a year (Deut 16:16)

It would be hard, if you had to travel all that way to Jerusalem to have to bring a pigeon or your livestock with you

But you could buy one when you get to Jerusalem- and then offer it as a sacrifice

The Lord allowed for poor people to sacrifice two turtledoves or two pigeons - because that may be what they could afford

So what’s wrong with the money-changers and the pigeon sellers?

Believe me, scholars agonize over this

Here’s where I think the problem lies:

The issue is that money-changers and folks peddling pigeons were not originally mentioned in the instructions of the building of the temple

These things should never have taken place within the temple walls

And that’s where they were conducting their business

In essence, they were defiling the temple

The temple was meant to be a sacred place of prayer and worship - it was not a marketplace

This is what Jesus opposed

Let’s look what else happened in the temple

Beginning in verse 14

Matthew 21:14–15 (ESV)

14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 15 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,

I have a few things to say about this part -

As I mentioned before, this is the last of the healing ministry of Jesus, as we know it

I love the fact that his last recorded healings were done in the temple

But the religious elite were not impressed

Look at verse 15 - do you see the subtle humor?

It says that the chief priests and scribes saw the “wonderful things” that Jesus did

I think, this is a subtle jab - the author qualifies the things Jesus did as “wonderful”

The religious elite were upset with everything - and Matthew calls it wonderful

Despite these wonderful things Jesus did...they were still indignant.

This is a theme throughout the Gospels -

That the Pharisees, the chief priests, and the scribes are never happy with anything Jesus does, no matter how miraculous, no matter how wonderful

Isn’t that how the world is?

You can preach the good news of the Gospel - but some sinners are not impressed - they become indignant

Churches can go around and do wonderful things - and the church still gets criticized

That’s why Christians ought to praise God and worship him

We celebrate the Lord - because that’s the opposite of being indignant and critical

Praise God - don’t cross your arms and shut him off to your heart

Give him access to your heart

Let him come in

Thank him - give him praise!

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

Close

I want to close with this

Jesus came to love and to serve “the least of these,” (Matt 25:40)

We are constantly confronted with that same theme:

The last will be first, and the first last

You could almost say this is an over-arching theme of the entire Bible

God hates the proud, but helps the humble

Jesus came to love and to serve the last - and we are to do the same

The religious elite could care less for these people

And now even children are crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”

These religious elite and experts in the law are actually disturbed by mere children -

“Do you hear what these [children] are saying? (Matt 21:16.)

And here is what Jesus said to them

They become indignant at the children crying out in the temple

And they ask him, “Do you hear what these [children] are saying??”

You can hear it in the tone of their voice -

Things were fine until you got here, Jesus

Do you hear what these stupid children are saying?? In the temple???

And Jesus says this -

Matthew 21:16 (ESV)

“Yes; have you never read, “ ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?”

I think - that the crowds - all the way back from last chapter - the ones who followed Jesus from Jericho

The ones who cried out, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” when Jesus made his triumphal entry

I think, this crowd influenced the children in the temple, to cry out the same thing

This crowd followed Jesus and praised him

And their generation influenced the next generation - to follow and to praise Jesus

I think that’s our job

In Matthew 25, Jesus said, “As you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”

That we live a life in such a way, to be worthy of his grace - to walk in the ways of the Lord

That we love the least of these

That our lives influence the next generation to do the same

Let’s pray...

Communion

The Lord’s Supper is similar to The Passover from the OT.

It celebrates the fact that the Lord delivered his people from Egypt - and delivered his people from his own wrath

Today, we celebrate Communion which holds the memory of Christ’s death on the cross

The death of Jesus on the cross delivered us from the desolate wilderness of our sin

And saves us from the coming wrath of the Lord

When we take communion, there is a sense of past, present, and the future

Past: Communion looks back in remembrance of Christ’s death on the cross

Present: It is a celebration of the New Covenant we are in

Future: It causes us to look forward to when we will celebrate with Jesus face to face

(Pick one…)

Matthew 26:26–28 ESV

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Luke 22:19–20 ESV

And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 ESV

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.