Who is He? Matthew 21:1-17

Who is He?

Matthew 21:1–11 (ESV)

Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 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. 3 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” 4 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.’ ” 6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. 8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 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!” 10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”

In verse 10 the people who witness the crowd stirred up by Jesus’ entry ask the question: “Who is this?” And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”

Now, I don’t believe they fully understood who Jesus is, and I also don’t think they were demoting Jesus either. Jesus has entered the city like a king, and the people are shouting as He enters, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

The exuberance and the words used to praise Jesus are phrases and words reserved for the Messiah. And, as Matthew points out in verse 4, “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.’ ”

So, even though the crowd replies with Jesus name and the city He grew up in, they were not necessarily saying that He was less than the Messiah. They were proclaiming that Jesus, from Nazareth is likely the Messiah who has come to save us.

You see there are really only three options for consideration when it comes to determining who Jesus is. I say that because there are some who would say that Jesus was just a good prophet. Or, one of the most popular views of Jesus is that He was a great moral teacher. But, I think that CS Lewis has penned one of the best arguments for who Jesus is by detailing who He isn’t.

You see, Jesus cannot be a prophet, or a good moral teacher if He really meant what He said. Listen to what CS Lewis wrote:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. . . . Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God.” (CS Lewis, Mere Christianity, 55-56)

The argument that CS Lewis makes in Mere Christianity is known as the Trilemma. A Scottish Christian preacher by the name of John Duncan formulated this argument in the 1800s. He wrote, “Christ either deceived mankind by conscious fraud, or He was Himself deluded and self-deceived, or He was Divine. There is no getting out of the trilemma. It is inexorable.” (John Duncan, In Colloquia Peripatetica)

Jesus claims to be Lord, He has already done so in this gospel and He will do it even more as we continue to study it. In fact, as we will see in a few moments, the very way that Jesus entered the city was another proclamation that He was the Lord, the Messiah, the Son of God.

Therefore, if Jesus is not who He says He is, then He is either a liar or a lunatic.

This is the point that CS Lewis and others are making, you cannot allow for Jesus to be anything but the Divine Messiah that He claimed to be. If Jesus is anything other than the Son of God, the promised King of Israel, the Divine Savior, then He is far from good.

No good man would lie about who He is.

For you cannot be a good moral teacher or a prophet who lies. It is immoral to lie, even if the lie has a good purpose. If Jesus is intentionally lying about who He is then He has forfeited the right to be considered good and moral. So, we must accept that Jesus is not just a good moral teacher or a prophet, at this point He is either the Messiah He claimed to be or He is insane. Why? Because…

No sane man would believe His own lies

If Jesus was lying, but believed His lie then He is not the Messiah. Jesus cannot be a good moral teacher or a prophet of the Lord if He is wrongly convinced of His own identity. So, this leaves us with limited options.

Jesus is either Lord, a liar, or a lunatic.

Matthew presents Jesus to us as the Messiah, the King of Israel, the Suffering Servant, our Righteous Redeemer. In our passage today the crowd is receiving Jesus as the Messiah.

Like we mentioned earlier about verse 11, the crowd wasn’t necessarily saying Jesus was less than the Messiah. The crowd demonstrated a belief or hope in Jesus as the Savior they had yearned for. But, what the crowd did demonstrate is their continued misunderstanding of who Jesus and the way He would rule and reign over His kingdom.

Jesus demonstrates His nature and His purpose through the way He enters Jerusalem.

The way of Jesus is consistently contrary to the way the Jews thought He would be.

In the same way we saw last week in Matthew 20:17-34 that, “The way of the cross is the way of the Kingdom,” we see that the way Jesus enters Jerusalem demonstrates His nature and His purpose.

In our sermon last week we said that Jesus demonstrated the way He would rule His kingdom by the way He established it: The Cross.

The disciples and others were vying for power and position, while Jesus demonstrates that His kingdom is built on serving, and He served to the fullest extent by dying in the place of sinners on the cross. And, in the same unexpected, but prophesied manner, Jesus came into the city different than the people were expecting.

Jesus didn’t come into the city of Jerusalem on a strong horse and with a sword in His hand. Jesus came riding on a young donkey that was being led by its mother.

It was common for Jewish kings to ride a mule as a symbol peace during a peaceful time, rather than a horse.

In addition, by riding on a young donkey Jesus is fulfilling a prophecy found in Zechariah 9:9–10 (ESV),

“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. 10 I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace to the nations; his rule shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth.”

Zechariah prophesied the king would come on a donkey rather than in a chariot or on a horse. That he would come without a bow and instead come to speak peace to the nations.

The king who comes on the donkey comes to rule and reign rather than to make war. By coming this way Jesus is demonstrated that the war is won, victory is already His. Even though the cross is waiting for Him at the end of the week… Jesus is the Lord of all creation. He is the King of the entire universe, and He enters Jerusalem like it is already His, because it is!

Jesus demonstrates His nature and His purpose through the way He enters Jerusalem. We saw back in Matthew 11 the nature of Jesus, or as we called it then, the way of Jesus.

In Matthew 11:28–30 (ESV) Jesus said, “28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

The way Jesus enters Jerusalem reveals that He came to give rest to the souls of those who follow His rule.

He came to give rest, not lead a squadron of soldiers. Jesus came to rule with peace while at the same time making peace with God through His sacrifice on the cross.

At the time of the passover people from all over Judah were coming to the city to celebrate and sacrifice a passover lamb. As everyone entered the city to make a sacrifice celebrating the work of God in the past, Jesus demonstrated His purpose to bring peace between God and sinners by being the sacrifice that liberates the people of God.

The nature and purpose of Christ is evident in the cleansing of the temple.

The jews were looking for the Messiah to come and conquer the Romans, but instead so far Jesus has come to correct the Jews.

Matthew 21:12–17 (ESV) says,

12 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. 13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” 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, 16 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’?” 17 And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.

The cleansing of the temple was the result of Jesus’ character and purpose.

Again in this section of His gospel Matthew shows another of Zechariah’s prophecies fulfilled. Zechariah 14:21 (ESV) says, “21 And every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holy to the Lord of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and take of them and boil the meat of the sacrifice in them. And there shall no longer be a trader in the house of the Lord of hosts on that day.”

The cleansing of the temple courts moved the traders in the house of the Lord on this day. Jesus fulfills prophecy when He enters the temple and overturns the tables and throws out the money changers.

There was a practical need for the exchange of money and the purchasing of sacrifices. This was the time of Passover and there were upwards of 2 million people in the city of Jerusalem. All of them to celebrate the mighty work of God to save Israel from Egypt through the Passover.

The passover explanation….

It was normal for some people to need to purchase an acceptable sacrifice on a regular week. But, with all those who had traveled into the city there was a significant need for appropriate sacrifices to be purchased, and to purchase the sacrifice there was a need to exchange money from one region or cities currency to an accepted currency in the temple.

But, the money changers and those who were selling sacrifices had set up their tables inside the temple. In particular they had set them up in what is known as the court of the Gentiles. This was the outermost court, but it was a place of worship nonetheless. Each of the courts in the temple was for the worship of God. The next court was the court of women (Jewish women), then the court of Israel (Laymen), the Sanctuary (the priests), and then the holy of holies (the high priest). When Jesus cleansed the temple He accomplished a few things:

1. Jesus cleansed the temple to remove religious hypocrisy

The traders were likened to robbers, which is a reference to the book of Jeremiah where the house of the Lord is depicted as a den of robbers. It’s not just that they had placed profits over the worship of God, they were being dishonest in their dealings to make a greater profit through the desire of those who came to worship.

This happens today as well. There is a growing host of charlatans around our country and the world that prey on the worship of God’s people. They use the church and the worship of God as a means to profit and they are good at it. Many of these men today will promise great wealth to you, but first you have to give to them. If you give to them, then the Lord will give back to you more than you gave to them. And, if that doesn’t happen then there must be something wrong with your life and your heart, because they have the proof of God’s blessings in their life through the money you sent to them.

Not only does health and wealth gospel focus on wealth as the primary blessing of God. But, their efforts distract those who want to worship from Jesus. In addition their efforts are an obstacle to the reaching of the nations, like in the temple.

2. Jesus cleansed the temple to reach the nations

As Jesus is driving them out He says “My house shall be a house of prayer.’ This phrase is a quote from Isaiah 56. Let me read Isaiah 56:6-7 (ESV) for you,

6 “And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant—7 These I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

There was no way to worship in the court where all of this commotion was happening. And, the Jews didn’t care about the gentiles worshipping the Lord because they were the enemy. The Jews ignored what God said through the prophets. They ignored that God has promised to bring Gentiles into the fold. They ignored that the gentiles would then make sacrifices that were accepted on the altar of God.

The house of God is a house of prayer for all peoples because God has promised to save people from every tribe and nation.

By cleansing the temple Jesus brings His plan to reach the nations into view. At the end of the gospel Jesus says in Matthew 28:19–20 (ESV), “19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

3. Jesus cleansed the temple to reveal who He is

They asked “Who is he?” When He entered the city. Now the leaders of the Jews are asking “Do you hear what they are saying?”

Jesus is the gentle and willing Savior who came to save the world from its sin.

Jesus clears the temple of the religious hypocrites and fills the court with the blind and lame and heals them. The leaders of the Jews saw all the wonderful things that Jesus was doing and they were incensed. The temple was filled with people who had been healed and the sounds of the children crying out praise to Him saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David.”

The court of the Gentiles that was once filled with the noise and clamor of money being exchanged and sacrifices being purchased is now filled with the worship of those who see Jesus for who He really is.

When the Jewish leaders show their indignation, Jesus points out another time they have missed the Word of God. “Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “ ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?” Standing in the midst of the praise of His people, surrounded by those who are being healed, Jesus says, didn’t you know this was what would happen? This is just one more time that Jesus reveals who He is through the misunderstanding of who they thought He would be.

Application: Who is He?

1. Is He Lord, a liar, or a lunatic?

2. Is He the one you worship or is He the means to what you truly desire?

Do you need the courts of your heart to be overturned and the worldliness of the money changers driven out? If so, invite Jesus in because this is what Jesus does… He takes the worldly selfishness out of your heart and He replaces it with worship.

The next time Jesus comes, He will come riding on a great and powerful white horse, wielding a sword, and issuing judgement on the world. When He comes again He will take His throne and vanquish His enemies.

But, this is why He came to establish peace through the cross. Jesus has conquered the greater enemy of death as a suffering servant. When He returns as the conquering hero it will be put the remaining opposition away. He has established His reign in the hearts and minds of those who are His.