Matt. 21:1-3 – Most of us in the United States are not oriented to the concept of royalty other than the periodic displays of English coronations, weddings and funerals. In this chapter we come to the display of God’s King being presented to His people. His entire earthly ministry has led to this significant point. Since the fall God promised a restoration of His creation that fell after the disobedience of Adam and Eve and the judgment that followed. Genesis 3:15 promised that from the seed of the woman one would come who would crush the serpent. Since the fall there has been a battle between two realms. The seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. The serpent and his offspring are in rebellion to God and have been at work to undermine their prophesied end.
With the birth of the Messiah and starting with his earthly ministry beginning at age 30 Yeshua has been demonstrating that He is the promised seed of the woman. Part of the prophecies from Genesis to Malachi (the last prophetic word to Israel until the New Covenant) was that the promised seed would be Israel’s King. In this chapter God the Father has led His Son to Jerusalem to be received as the Promised King and redeemer. Not just for Israel but for all the nations. An essential element was for God’s first-born sons among the nations to acknowledge Him as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This is why this chapter is so significant.
Since Passover was the first of the three mandatory pilgrimage feast days, Jerusalem was filled with both Jewish people from the land and the diaspora as well as multitudes of Gentiles who believed the God of Israel was God. Some estimate the amount of people present in the City to be as high at two million people.
Yeshua knowing God’s Word and its prophecies set about to prepare the people for his entry into Jerusalem as king. He sent two of his disciples to a village nearby to get the mount that he would ride in prophetic fulfillment. His divine knowledge enabled him to know that a mother donkey and her colt were tied. Jesus also knew the disciples would be questioned about taking the animals. He therefore further instructed them, “If anyone says something to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.” Mark tells us that “some of the bystanders,” who Luke says were the owners, did ask, “‘What are you doing, untying the colt?’ And they spoke to them just as Jesus had told them, and they gave them permission” (Mark 11:5–6; Luke 19:33).
Vv 4-9 V 5 comes from Is 62:11 and Zch 9:9, both are prophecies of the future deliverer or Messiah that would rescue Israel from her persecutors. The daughter of Zion is a reference to the people of Jerusalem, which is often referred to as Zion, because of Mount Zion the city’s most prominent hill. Zechariah 500 years earlier had predicted that the people of Jerusalem would hail the Messiah as their King when He would come into the city. Unlike worldly kings He would be gentle, or humble. This is indicated by him riding on a donkey as oppose to horse. The former indicative of humility an the latter pointing to power and might. This is how Yeshua is described in His second coming to Jerusalem (Rev. 19:11-16).
The timing of this event was also predicted by Daniel in his prophecy in Daniel 9:25 in which he predicted when the King would come to present Himself to Israel. In that verse we learn that from the time of Artaxerxes’s decree ordering the rebuilding of the Temple until the coming of the Messiah would be “seven weeks and sixty-two weeks” (Dan. 9:25; Neh. 2:6), 69 weeks total. The literal translation is “seven sevens and sixty-two sevens,” seven being a common designation for a week. In the context of the passage, the idea is 69 weeks of years, or 69 times 7 years, which comes to 483 years. Which is the year that Yeshua enters Jerusalem to reveal Himself as Israel’s promised King.
The disciples did as they were told and the Lord rode upon the foal further demonstrating His humility in His first coming to Israel. In response the multitude spread their garments in the road. This was done also when Jehu was anointed as King in Israel (2 Kings 9:13). This was an indication of the people recognizing that Yeshua was indeed the promised and were acknowledging by this act their submission to his authority.
While people were laying their garments, others were cut branches from the trees, and spreading them in the road. From John 12:13 we learn that the branches were from palm trees, symbolic of salvation and joy a key element of the celebrations during the Feast of Tabernacles. Zechriah spoke of the Messiah’s coming with the Feast of Tabernacles in 14:16. This kind of expression is described in Revelation of the future day of millennial kingdom (Rev. 7:9). There was great excitement as the multitude proclaimed praise to the Messiah who had demonstrated His authority with His miracles and teaching.
VV. 10-14 – Despite the shouts of acclamation, when the people asked who He was, the response was not that He was the promised Messiah, the King of Israel, but the Prophet Yeshua from Nazareth in Galilee. These people heard the message of Yeshua and beheld his works for three years and still did not comprehend who He was. But this fulfilled the words of the prophet Isaiah 6:9-10 where Isaiah described God’s people’s heart, eyes and ears dull to understand what God was doing in their very day. Then Yeshua entered the Temple. Rather than rebuke Rome, he rebuked His own kinsmen who were profaning the Temple by their wares. The merchants were in the court of Gentiles, hindering the Gentiles in their attempt to draw near to the One True God. This section of the Temple became known as the “Bazaar of Annas”, who oversaw the franchises and commissions received from sales in this court. There were gross overcharges on the buying of animals, as well as the costs of exchanging money. Jesus cried out that they made God’s House a robber’s den rather than a House of Worship. This quote comes from Is. 56:7, and Mark 11:17 where Mark adds the words “For all the Nations”. When Solomon dedicated the Temple, it was to be a place of refuge for all peoples and the place where God might be found in His holiness (1Kings 8:22-42). The priests and Temple guards were both afraid and unable to touch Yeshua in this open display of hostility and dishonor toward them. They feared the multitudes who believed that He was a prophet of God and a miracle worker. While in the Temple the blind and the lame came to Him and He healed them. This further strengthened His authority favor and honor from the people compared to their disdain for the hypocritical Pharisees and the Sadducees.
Matthew 21:15-17 – The chief priests and the Pharisees were witnesses of Yeshua healing the blind and the lame. When the children cried out to Yeshua, the same words that their parents had cried “Hosannah to the Son of David”, which was a reference to His being the promised Messiah, they became indignant. They felt that Jesus was now leading children astray allowing them to believe He was the Messiah. He told them that He was fully aware of what they were doing and then he cited the prophecy of Psalm 8:2 as being fulfilled by these cries from the children. Israel’s shepherds did not recognize who He was but the children did. A few days earlier he told the Pharisees that even the stones would cry out if these children would not (Luke 19:40). At that point He turned on them and left to go to Bethany to spend the night.
Matthew 21:18-19 In the morning he returned to the city. In a demonstration of His humanity, Matthew notes that He became hungry. Looking at a fig tree, a symbol of God’s blessing, he sought for fruit and found none. (Zechariah 3:9-10).
The fact that there were no figs was an indication of God’s judgment on the city, the nation and its people. Fig trees produce fruit twice yearly. The first ripening occurred before the leaves bloom. This tree had leaves on it, and it was either March or April, and so it should have had some fruit remaining. Because of its failure to produce in due season Yeshua cursed the tree, with immediate results.
The fig tree in Scripture is a picture of Israel, (Hosea 9:10; Matthew 24:32; Luke 13:6-7) . The fig tree’s bareness is used by Matthew to picture Israel’s failure to bear fruit for God. The time would come when the tree will be cut down and replaced by others who would bear fruit (Matthew 21:18-20). Four other parables of Yeshua (Matthew 20:1-15; 21:28-32, 33-46; John 15:1-11) emphasize the same sad truth. However it should serve as a warning for us today for the call by our Messiah to bear fruit for Him by abiding in Him.
Matthew 21:20-22 – When the disciples saw how quickly the tree withered, Jesus used this incident to teach about faith. For a mountain to be taken up and cast into the sea was an allusion to a Talmudic expression of the day. A great Rabbi was known as a “rooter up of mountains”, because of his ability to solve great problems or to do that which was seemingly impossible. Jesus was saying to His disciples that they would be granted similar abilities if they will place their faith in and abide in God (John 14:13-14) this is not just faith for selfish reasons, but a call to be obedient to His will for us (James 4:3;1 John 5:14).
Matthew 21:23 – This was Wed. morning of the week of Passover and once again He is in the Temple. Some of the leading priests and elders, probably members of the Sanhedrin, come to Jesus to question His authority. The day before He had cleansed the Temple, and there was great fear and concern that His actions could precipitate a riot by the multitude of people present for Passover, with the result that Rome would respond with bloodshed or worse.
When they approach Him, He is teaching in the Temple. The challenge came because He taught without any of the recognized Rabbinical schools or leaders endorsing or ordaining His ministry. It was obvious to the multitude that this was indeed the power of God that enabled Him to do such things, but the Pharisees were unconvinced. They had already accused Him of working these miracles through the power of Satan.
Jesus never used the Rabbinical or Talmudic method of citing authority for His teachings or His actions, this continued to frustrate them and was bringing matters to the confrontation that would end in a conspiracy to put Jesus to death in order to preserve their “arrangement” with Rome. The resurrection of Lazarus probably set in motion the chain of events that would lead to His crucifixion. These leaders were once again seeking to trap or convict by His words. If He claimed only human authority, He would leave Himself vulnerable to the charge of sinful action against the temple. But if He claimed divine authority, He might be open to the charge of blasphemy by claiming divine prerogatives. So, He responded in a typical rabbinic way by asking them a question before replying to their question.
Matthew 21:24-27 – He asked them about the source of John’s baptism, whether it was from God or man. John was respected by the multitudes as being a prophet of God. This question caused them to confer to come up with the correct answer. To accept that John was indeed a prophet sent from God it would mean that they would have to accept John’s testimony that Jesus was indeed sent by the Father. To say otherwise would be to lose the favor of the multitudes who believed He was of God. Probably now that John was dead, they began to acknowledge that John was a prophet sent of God. Their only recourse was to say that they didn’t know. This gave Jesus the perfect excuse to avoid their question.
Matthew 21:28-32 -This is a parable that describes the state of Israel and her leaders. The point is that it is better to do the work of God than to say you will do His work and not do it. Pointing to the tax collectors and other law breakers he said that they were closer to obeying God than they were. They were willing to repent while the chief priests and pharisees were unwilling. This was the greatest blow to their system of righteousness. He answers His question declaring that John came to show the way of righteousness, but you refused to believe him, but tax collectors and harlots did and came to him confessing their sins. The Messiah came to save the lost not the “righteous”. Those who were willing to humble themselves a requirement for finding forgiveness and righteousness.
Matthew 21:33-39 – The parable of the landowner and the vineyard. A vineyard was built and fortified to protect it from animals and thieves. It included a wine press to get the juice from the grapes, as well as a tower for a watchman to further guard against attack. When everything was set, he then rented the property out to wine growers and went on a journey. Several months later when it was time for the harvest he sent some of his servants to receive his agreed upon proceeds. They beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. The tenants had a wonderful opportunity but because of their greed they challenged the owner of the vineyard. The Vineyard thought that they would respect his son, but quite the contrary they saw him as one who would claim his inheritance, so they murdered him. This was premeditated knowing full well who he was.
Matthew 21:40-42 – At the close of the parable he asks what should be done to vine growers. The chief priests and elders response is that they should be brought to an appropriate end and the vineyard be rented to faithful growers. Isaiah 5:1-7 is a companion to this parable. It seems that Israel’s leaders were completely unaware that this parable applied to them. He then asks them if they are familiar with a passage from Psalm 118:22 “The stone which the builders rejected …“ This was the Psalm quoted as He entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, and for which He was rebuked in (Luke 19:39). These words were quoted regularly at two times of the year; at Passover at the close of the Passover Seder, and the second was at the pouring of the water ceremony which occurred every day during the feast of Tabernacles. In both situations the call is for God to send deliverance to His people “Hoshannah” in Hebrew is “save us”.
Matthew 21:43-44 – It is here that God still further rebukes the Pharisees telling them that the kingdom of God would be taken from them and given to a nation that would produce fruit. Of course, this relates to what we have just said regarding Is. 5 and the parable of the vineyard. This was the fruit that John the Baptist called for of Israel (Matthew 3:8). The fruit that God looked for was the fruit of the Spirit and the works of a life filled by God’s Spirit. This is exactly what the prophets called Israel to do. (Micah 6:8).
Those who believe themselves to be God’s people and who rely on the sacrifice for sin which God has provided (Hebrews 10:12) have sometimes assumed that because their sins have been dealt with that it does not matter how they live. The Bible emphasizes that those who would live in fellowship with a holy God as His people must live in a way that reflects the holiness of God (Leviticus 20:7;1 Peter 1:16;1 John 1:5).
The words of Micah 6:8 includes a call to “kindness” (hesed, Hebrew) is a rich word which includes the idea of faithful love in action. Walking with God implies a manner of life characterized by gratefulness and obedience to God (Isaiah 38:15). “Humbly” stresses that man must remember that he is man, and God is God. The proud man will find that God resists him (1 Peter 5:5;Proverbs 11:2;Matthew 23:23;James 4:6-10).
Because Israel failed to walk in this way with God He has extended His call to others (Romans 9:25-26). He who does not believe will be shattered by this stone that the builders rejected. It brings to mind the picture Daniel saw concerning Babylon (Dan 2:32‑35).
Matthew 21:45-46 The reaction demonstrated that they understood that Jesus was referring to them. They wanted to take and kill Him right then and there, but because they knew that the multitude believed that He was sent from God they dared not lest they cause a riot themselves earning the reaction by Rome. This is why they determined that they had to arrest Jesus at night rather than in the day.
