The blind men want to see Jesus. We know from Mark that one of those blind men were named Bartimaeus, and he had been blind all his life. First thing you see when you open your eyes is Jesus. I think that would be a wonderful thing!
But we see that the crowd rebukes them. This is like the people who brought the children to Jesus, but the disciples rebuked them. And here the crowd was trying to push the blind beggars away from Jesus. But Jesus stopped and He healed them.
Application:
If you want to come to Jesus there will be people who will oppose you and try to hold you back.
The money changers were in the temple and they were there because of two primary reasons.
1. There was a temple tax that everyone had to pay. If you want to pay the temple tax, you cannot pay it with the Roman or Greek coin, but with the temple money. So you had to bring whatever cash you had and transfer it. There were these transfer booths where these exchanges took place. They had these set up around the outer court, the court of the gentiles.
2. You would need to buy a clean animal to make the sacrifice. So you had to go in and transfer your money, because all of the animals in the temple are considered to be clean. According to Josephus, you buy an animal outside of the temple, and it is clean and spotless, but when you bring it into the temple, the priest is sure to find some problem with it. So you had to buy an animal that was stamped by the priest as clean, worthy for sacrifice. But you might pay just Rs.10/- for a dove outside, and spend Rs. 100/- for the same dove approved by the priest inside the temple!
People were being financially exploited for the desire to come into the presence of God to obey His commands.
The other issue that Jesus is so angry about is the court of the gentiles was the place where anyone from anywhere could come. The place of worship had become a house of profit. A refuge had become a trap. The blind and lame were traditionally kept from the inner courts. But Jesus receives them and heals them.
Once again, children come to Jesus. The religious leaders are indignant because the children are quoting Psalm 11823 the stone that the builders rejected has become the capstone. The LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.
It is a misuse of Scripture to quote this verse and apply it to whatever situation you choose. I have seen wedding invitations and they quote this verse -- it is the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. If you are getting married to the Messiah, and it is the second coming of Jesus and you say this verse, then it's appropriate.
It refers to the Messiah, rejected of the builders, who became the stone upon which the Church was to be built. THAT was the LORD's doing. IT is marvelous in our eyes. Nothing else compares or fits that description.
READ Psalm 118:24-26 - This verse is also often quoted out of context. The entrance of Jesus is coming into Jerusalem -- that is the day the Lord has made and we will rejoice in it. The next verse -- Lord, save us -- it means, hosanna!
So Jesus not only rebukes the Scribes and the Pharisees saying, "Have you not read..." but He quotes from another Psalm 8. READ Psalm 8:2.
Jesus came to the blind men, He came to the city, He came to the temple; the blind, and lame, and the children all came to Him and He received them, but he left the religious leaders.
Jesus came to the people who needed them. But He left the religious leaders, and that is how this whole section ends.
According to Josephus, the crowd was about 3 million people in Jerusalem. Imagine people taking off their coats and placing it on the floor. They also take palm branches. And if you look at the crowd, there was a very high excitement the day Jesus entered Jerusalem.
So as He enters Jerusalem, cleanses the temple and heals all these people, I think there are several lessons we can draw from these.
Lessons
1. If we want to come to Jesus there will be opposition.
John Stott was the pastor of All Saints Church in London. I had a chance to meet John Stott while I was in London. He died last year. He is really credited with starting the evangelical movement in England. Before that movement was started, about 60-70% of the clergy did not believe in the fundamentals of the biblical faith. And by the time John Stott died, more than 80% of the clergy believed in all the fundamental teachings of the faith.
When people in his church came to Christ, he had a tradition. He would have those people sit at the back and at the end of the service, when everyone was walking out, he would have them walk to the front. It is actually a very small passage to get out of the church there. And the reason he had these people walk against the traffic walking out of the church was because he was trying to teach them, once you decide to follow Jesus, you will have to go against the flow! It was a symbol of the opposition that we are going to face.
2. We have to ask whether what we are doing is keeping people from God. Think about who it was who kept the children from coming to Jesus? The people who were trying to discourage the blind men from coming to Jesus? It was people who were following Jesus! Many times it is us - the Christians who keep people away from Jesus.
I was talking to a young man who is a Buddhist who comes to my voice lessons. He really does not believe in Buddhism and does not follow any religion. He says, "It is better to be a good person with no religion, than to be a person who is religious and be a bad person." I really could not argue with that. I said in principle I agree with what you say. But I also believe that there is something special about Jesus, because Jesus is attractive, even when His people are not attractive.
3. We have to ask what might be keeping Jesus from us. Jesus entered into the temple and He cleansed it before bringing healing into peoples' lives. Who is the temple today?
Paul said "Know ye not you are the temple of the Holy Spirit"? . . . What must He drive out of our hearts before He can bring healing and restoration? There are at least 5 things that Jesus would drive out of us:
i. Greed-the desire for money or resources. If we are striving for things for ministry, it could drive us to behaviors which would drive people away from Jesus, rather than drawing people to Jesus. I see fund raisers as an example. We want people here in the campus who do not know Jesus to tell them about Jesus, otherwise what is use of this campus? It is a terrible shame when we go door to door who do not know Jesus and say, "Hi, we are here for some fundraising." Before we have introduced them to the Lord, we are saying our Lord needs the money! That is a sad thing. We as God's people should have nothing to do with such kind of things -- nothing.
ii. Busy-ness-the pace of life. The pace of life which makes simple forms of service to others beyond our physical capacity, and makes prayer a distant memory -- that is busy-ness.
Our kids are here who study outside and they are observing that we are busy. This is not a good sign, because if we are too busy physically, we become incapable of meeting the needs of people around us. If we get too busy to meet people on an individual basis, then we are too busy. Carl Jung said, "Busyness is not of the devil, it is the devil." James Dobson said, "If the devil cannot make you sin, he will make you busy and accomplish the same thing."
Think of Jesus, He was certainly a busy man. He was going to Jerusalem with a purpose. He knows that when He gets to Jerusalem, there will be millions waiting to say, "Hossanna, blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!" And just 4 days later the same crowd would say, "Crucify Him!" Blind people trying to get His attention, Jesus stops and He has time to heal them and minister to them. This last week of His life, He is meeting the needs of the people.
iii. Religion/Tradition-that form of Christianity which becomes a form of LAW rather than grace-we judge and condemn others because they are different and don't match our standard, rather than reaching out to them with the love of Jesus. I cannot help but think about the church I went to in the mid 70s in California. There were Hippies there. And I would sit next to these guys in the church. There was one time I noticed that this guy's Bible was totally beat up because we could tell that he had poured over -- the whole text was highlighted and marked up. And I forgot to bring my Bible. And he said, "Take my Bible man! It's cool eh!" By God's grace God called a pastor who met the needs of these people.
We should not make people feel that they are less spiritual because they are dressed in a different style than we think they should. Jesus can deal with the conscience, and it is our job of love and not to judge.
iv. Power-we are so involved in our need to control others that we forget to allow God to control us (the Pharisees "the whole world is going after Him!" John 12) according to Josephus there were about three million people in and around Jerusalem at the time of this Triumphal Entry. When John Glenn received his ticker tape parade, clean up crews collected over 3,000 tons of confetti. The mayor of New York estimated four million people were there. . . to imagine the crowds and setting of Jesus entry into Jerusalem, we have to imagine crowds of this magnitude. The religious leaders were afraid of losing their power and position. Therefore they stood against Jesus.
v. Offence-holding something against another because we feel we are not treated as we should be-like unforgiveness. The Pharisees angry about the children singing to Jesus. Maybe that will not offend you. When somebody hurts you, and maybe it is a legitimate hurt, what is it that we must do? We have to forgive! Get over it -- forgive, love and be kind. Go out of your way to be good to the person who has offended you. And the Lord will provide you with healing.
God needs to cleanse these 'animals' within us -- He needs to overturn these tables so that He can clean out our hearts and do a work of healing and restoration within us. Then He can use us for the community around us. This is His purpose for us, and may we be submitted to that purpose.
