This is Jesus, The King | Matthew 21
This is Jesus, The King | Matthew 21
INTRODUCTsION
Today is Palm Sunday – the beginning of what Christians call Holy Week, Good Friday, and Resurrection Sunday. This week also coincides with the Jewish Passover – the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
Jesus has been on a road trip towards Jerusalem since Matthew 16. Now in Matthew 21, He arrives. But what happens here is surprising. Up until this point, Jesus has often been quiet about His identity. When people recognized Him as the Messiah, He would tell them not to tell anyone. He operated, in many ways, under the radar. But now everything changes. This is no longer hidden.
This is public. This is deliberate. This is dramatic. Jesus is making a statement.
This passage unfolds in three powerful scenes:
The King is revealed
The King confronts
The King judges
Scene #1 – The King Revealed. The Prophetic Act
Matthew 21:1-11
1As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage (House of the early fig) on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2saying 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. 3If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”
4This took place to fulfil what was spoken through the prophet:
5“Say to Daughter Zion,
‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’” (Zech. 9:9)
6The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. 7They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. 8A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,
“Hosanna (save us) to the Son of David!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
10When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred (turmoil) and asked, “Who is this?”
11The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”
Jesus has timed his arrival in Jerusalem for the week before Passover which is the most significant week of the whole year for Jerusalem.
Jews from all over the world and the localities would come to temple for this week. Jerusalem is overpopulated now.
Jesus approaches Jerusalem from, from the Mount of Olives in the east. The Mount of Olives is about 200 feet from the temple dome. So you can see the city of Jerusalem in the steep down below. At the bottom of the valley are the olive groves of Gethsemane and there’s a little village. V3. “Go into the village and you’ll find a donkey. If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.” This may indicate Jesus’ sovereign foreknowledge—or deliberate preparation.
They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on.Large crowds are publicly declaring Him as the Messiah! “Save us, Son of David!” They take off their cloaks and say:
“Hosanna (save us) to the Son of David!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
This is an event that Jesus has both intended and planned. This is the exact opposite of everything Jesus has been doing. You might remember on more than two occasions when people said publicly after Jesus had healed them, and they said, “You’re the Messiah, the Son of David!” And what did Jesus say to them? “Don’t tell anybody.” He’s been operating under the radar. But then all of a sudden it’s like public!
He gets a donkey. Jesus is not the first king of Israel to ride down this very hillside on a donkey before. David in 2 Samuel 16, after his son rebelled against him, when he is reinstated as Israel’s King, he made the same exact ride on a donkey. When the son of David, Solomon, went to his coronation as king he on a donkey.
So what’s Jesus doing here? This is full of symbolism, full of meaning. It’s as if he’s waited and waited, and now this is the moment to reveal who he is.
Why is Jesus doing such a public, dramatic presentation of who he is?
Jesus is staging a prophetic act.
This is what the prophets of Israel often did. They would act out messages in public, symbolic actions to communicate God’s truth. In Isaiah 20, Isaiah walked barefoot and stripped to symbolize coming judgment. In the Book of Ezekiel, Ezekiel shaved his head and acted out the destruction of Jerusalem. He has a message from the God of Israel that the time is up, and that Israel’s chance to respond to the kingdom of God offered through Jesus, the window is closing.
These were like living parables. And now Jesus does the same. He rides into Jerusalem like a king. The crowds understand the symbolism. They spread their cloaks on the road, they cut branches and they shout: “Hosanna to the Son of David!”
That word “Hosanna” means: “Save us! They are declaring: “This is the King!” “This is the Messiah!” “This is the one who will deliver us!”
But here is the tension: They are right… and they are wrong.
They are right that Jesus is King. But they are wrong about what kind of King He is. They are expecting a political deliverer. A military hero. Someone who will overthrow Rome. But Jesus knows where He is going. He is not going to a throne. He is going to a cross. This is why the whole city is stirred. Matthew says the city is in turmoil. They ask: “Who is this?” And the crowds respond: “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth.” Do you see it?
They call Him a prophet— but He is more than a prophet.
They celebrate Him as King— but they misunderstand His kingdom.
We see the triumphal entry. Scene #1 – The King Revealed. The Prophetic Act
Transition: The King who is revealed now moves to confront.
Scene #2 – The King Confronts. The Corruption of Israel’s Leadership
Matthew 21:12-13
12Jesus entered the temple courts 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’ (Is. 56:7), but you are making it ‘a den of robbers (Jer. 7:11).’”
When Jesus cleanses the temple, He is restoring it as a house of prayer—and today, we are that temple. The Spirit desires to dwell in a pure, surrendered life.
Matthew 21:12-13
14The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. 15But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.
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, Lord, have called forth your praise’ (Ps. 8:2)?”
17And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.
After Jesus making this public claim to be Israel’s true king, where does he go? He goes right to the center of power, to the heart of Israel’s life, culture and leadership. And what does he do? He gets angry. He goes on a rampage. We’re told in the Gospel according to John that this required a whip for him to let people know he is really serious. He made people run. Now, not everybody. Children, the blind, and the lame were actually quite pleased with him. But not the leadership, and not the people running the moneychangers.
Now just think about this. If you travel to another country, what’s one of the first things you need to do when you land there? People have to change money. You have people who don’t live in Jerusalem are going to be in Jerusalem for a week, so they have to be money changers. It’s Passover, there is going to be lots of sacrifices. People need to buy their sacrificial animals and so on.
So what is Jesus objecting to here? Well, where were all these people doing their business? Where were the money changers making a handsome profit off of people? In the temple.
This is a model reconstruction of the temple. So the temple is that tall thing right in the middle, and then there’s a series of courtyards and walls around that. The altar of sacrifice would have been right in the outer court of the building around the temple. And then you have a big huge courtyard, and on the left, that red roof building, it’s called the Portico of Solomon. That’s where the money changers would have been.
Recently, the priestly leadership likely permitted money changers and everybody from outside the walls of the temple right into the heart of the temple. We know that this would have made him a handsome profit. Look what animal tables does he go for? The selling doves. According to Leviticus, if you’re a poor Israelite and you don’t have enough to buy a lamb, but you still want to show your thanks to the God of Israel, what can you buy instead with the little money that you do have? Doves were the offerings of the poor in Israel.
So Jesus walks into the temple, the house of the God. He sees that instead of the temple being a place for the prayer and praise of the God of Israel, the poor are being taken advantage of and are undergoing extortion as they try and exchange their money. And he gets angry. Because in Jesus’s mind, this is yet another example of the corruption of Israel’s leadership.
And so what does he do? Like a prophet, he quotes two prophets. One, Isaiah, who said that the temple was to be the meeting place of heaven and earth, where Israel would become a light to the nations. That’s not happening. And he quotes from the Prophet Jeremiah 7.
Jeremiah 7:1-3, 6-7, 9-11
1This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2“Stand at the gate of the Lord’s house and there proclaim this message:
3This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place.
6if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, 7then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever.
9“‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, 10and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things? 11Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the Lord.
The rest of Jeremiah 7 is God saying because of your sin and evil, the Babylonian Empire is on its way, and God’s going to destroy the temple that Israel built to honour the God of Israel.
What do you think was going through the priests’ minds as Jesus quotes Jeremiah chapter 7? They know what he’s saying and doing. Jesus is pronouncing judgement on Israel and the temple.
You don’t just get the meek and mild Jesus who tells you to love everybody. If you want the meek and loving Jesus, you also have to reckon with the Jesus who says that God will bring justice on human evil and corruption.
Recap: Scene #1 – The King Revealed. Scene #2 – The King Confronts.
Transition: When confrontation is rejected, judgment follows.
Scene #3 – The King Judges. Destruction of the Temple
Matthew 21:18-22
18Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19Seeing 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.
20When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. “How did the fig tree wither so quickly?” they asked.
21Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. 22If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
Jesus has just done the chasing of the money changers in Jerusalem. He is walking back to Jerusalem, and he sees a fig tree. There’s no fruit on this tree, but that’s full of leaves!” For the very small circle of his disciples, he performs his third symbolic act, which is to pronounce a curse on this fig tree.
Jesus does not hate plants or fig trees. Jesus is speaking scripture here. He is using the fig tree to communicate to his disciples yet one more time the gravity of what’s happening here.
Jesus is not the first prophet of Israel to talk about fig trees that have leaves but produce no fruit. Israel is depicted as a fruitless tree that God planted and it produced no fruit.
Micah 3:9-12
9Hear this, you leaders of Jacob,
you rulers of Israel,
who despise justice
and distort all that is right;
11Yet they look for the Lord’s support and say,
“Is not the Lord among us?
No disaster will come upon us.”
12Therefore because of you,
Zion (David gave to the city of Jerusalem) will be plowed like a field,
Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble,
the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.
A couple chapters later, Micah has his own symbolic poetry.
Micah 7:1-4
1What misery is mine!
I am like one who gathers summer fruit
at the gleaning of the vineyard;
there is no cluster of grapes to eat,
none of the early figs that I crave.
2The faithful have been swept from the land;
not one upright person remains.
3the ruler demands gifts,
the judge accepts bribes,
the powerful dictate what they desire—
they all conspire together.
4The day God visits you (judgement) has come
Now is the time of your confusion.
Jesus picks up this prophetic image that they all would have known. Israel are the covenant people of God who were called to be the people who would host the presence of the Living God. And the temple is this place where heaven and earth would meet, and where Israel would come to praise and honor this God who showered them with generosity and with life. And what did they do? They turned it into this shallow religious icon. They turned it into an idol. The temple’s become this idol to them. As long as the building’s shiny and the rituals are cruising, then surely we’re fine with God.
And Jesus comes, and he asserts himself as Israel’s King and says, “No. Everything is not fine.” This drama has been played out before. Israel’s sin and corruption is just the same as it was six hundred years ago when Jeremiah, or 700 years ago when Micah uttered his words. And in Jesus’s mind, Israel’s leadership has reached the point of no return.
And so his disciples say, “Well, what does this mean? How did that happen, Jesus?” And he says, “The fig tree is nothing. If you want to tell this mountain…” (Where are they standing? What are they looking at? What are they looking at? They’re looking at the Temple Mount.) “…if you tell this mountain to be uprooted and thrown into the sea.” What is Jesus going start doing? He’s going to start warning everybody that the temple is going to be destroyed.
This isn’t a random little teaching on prayer. He is predicting what seems known to all of them: God would abandon his temple again. Israel has not learned its lesson! Jesus says we’ve reached a point of no return. It’s not going to be Babylon this time; it’s going to be Rome. And Jesus will go on to predict the destruction of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple as God’s justice for rejecting the offer of the kingdom. Jesus’ prophetic warning is historically fulfilled in AD 70 when Rome destroyed Jerusalem. It was a grim promise for Jesus to utter, just like it was a grim promise for Jeremiah and for Micah to utter. That is why he curses the fig tree.
When we see Jesus driving out the money changes and cursing the fig tree, it is not rooted in hatred, but in holy love. He is zealous for people, and precisely because He loves, He confronts what destroys. Jesus gets angry with the leaders of Israel and the fig tree. The key is love.
Jesus is the embodiment of the passionate love of Israel’s God, who wants more than anything to be reconciled to his rebellious world, and whose response to the rebellious nations was not to destroy them, but to set in motion a plan to bless them through this family of Abraham. And now this family itself has rebelled. And so Jesus comes as the very embodiment of the love and the passion of Israel’s God, and he calls Israel to account. And he warns them. He’s gonna weep over the city in the next chapter: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, if only you knew what I’m trying to do for you, but you would have none of it,” he says.
CONCLUSION
There are moments where the passionate love of Jesus is confrontational. I mean, it happens especially when he sees hypocrisy. When he sees idolatry. When he sees religious people who just think, “We’re fine with God. The temple of the Lord, surely we’re safe. The building’s shiny, the sacrifices are going.” But no, it’s bad fruit or no fruit. There’s apathy, there’s injustice, there’s compromise. And Jesus confronts because he loves.
And there are other times when his passion and his love will move him towards people who desperately need him. Like the blind and the lame. And it’s the gentle Jesus that we love, right, who moves towards people in their need.
There might be some of us who are here but we know that if we’re honest with ourselves, we’ve become shallow. We’ve made compromise decisions. We’ve dishonored Jesus by how we live and how we treat people. And we actually need him to confront us and to get serious with us. The fact that he loves us and gave himself for us and for our sins, and we allow his love to confront us.
And there might be some of us here who are in a place just of pain in our lives, we’re confused, trying to figure out what’s going on. And Jesus comes precisely to those people with gentleness and patience and compassion. This is the real Jesus. A man of passion for people.