Matthew 21: 1- 17
Angaria
21 Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me. 3 And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.” 4 All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: 5 “Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your King is coming to you, Lowly, and sitting on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ” 6 So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them. 8 And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “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 had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?” 11 So the multitudes said, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.” 12 Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. 13 And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’” 14 Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant 16 and 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 babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise’?” 17 Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there.
Now for your personal biblical development regarding the Gospels I want to give you the same situation given in the other Gospels. When we put them together we get a fuller understanding of what went on.
Mark 11, “11 Now when they drew near Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, He sent two of His disciples; 2 and He said to them, “Go into the village opposite you; and as soon as you have entered it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has sat. Loose it and bring it. 3 And if anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord has need of it,’ and immediately he will send it here.” 4 So they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door outside on the street, and they loosed it. 5 But some of those who stood there said to them, “What are you doing, loosing the colt?” 6 And they spoke to them just as Jesus had commanded. So they let them go. 7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and He sat on it. 8 And many spread their clothes on the road, and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 Then those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying:
“Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ 10 Blessed is the kingdom of our father David That comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” 11 And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So, when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve.
Luke 19, “28 When He had said this, He went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. 29 And it came to pass, when He drew near to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mountain called Olivet, that He sent two of His disciples, 30 saying, “Go into the village opposite you, where as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Loose it and bring it here. 31 And if anyone asks you, ‘Why are you loosing it?’ thus you shall say to him, ‘Because the Lord has need of it.’ ” 32 So those who were sent went their way and found it just as He had said to them. 33 But as they were loosing the colt, the owners of it said to them, “Why are you loosing the colt?” 34 And they said, “The Lord has need of him.” 35 Then they brought him to Jesus. And they threw their own clothes on the colt, and they set Jesus on him. 36 And as He went, many spread their clothes on the road. 37 Then, as He was now drawing near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works they had seen, 38 saying: “‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD!’ Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” 39 And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.” 40 But He answered and said to them, “I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out.” 41 Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, 42 saying, “If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, 44 and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” 45 Then He went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, 46 saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house is a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’ ” 47 And He was teaching daily in the temple. But the chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people sought to destroy Him, 48 and were unable to do anything; for all the people were very attentive to hear Him.
Today we are going to review our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ’s prophetic entrance into Jerusalem as Messiah and King.
Many Pastor’s have commented that our Lord had made a pre-arrangement with some guys to rent a donkey and her colt so He could fulfill the prophecy on this fact. I do not agree that this is what happened.
The title for this chapter is ‘Angaria’. This word derives from the verb ‘angariare’ – to press someone into service, which occurs three times in the New Testament. The first occurrence is in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 verse 41), “And whosoever will force thee one mile, go with him other two.” The other two are when Simon of Cyrene is forced to help the Lord carry His Cross, Matthew 27, 32 and its parallel in Mark 15, 21. The noun ‘angaria’ therefore means ‘a pressing into service’ or ‘exaction.’ We will see how this action was utilized by our Master and King Jesus Christ.
Having laid the basis for His Kingship in what has gone before, Jesus now publicly makes clear His claim, by riding into Jerusalem to indicate that He has come in fulfillment of prophesy as its King. The prophet Zechariah prophesied the coming of David’s greater son in is book chapter 9 verse 9, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
This claim will later be consolidated in a further three stages when He will:
. Proclaim Himself as not only David’s son but David’s Lord (22.41-46).
. Declare to His opponents that from now on His heavenly Rule will be continually revealed before all (26.64).
. Assure His disciples that He has been enthroned in Heaven and given all authority in Heaven and earth and will as a result send His disciples out to establish His Rule worldwide with the promise of His ongoing presence with them (28.18-20).
Thus, the emphasis from now on regarding the Kingly Rule of Heaven is His coronation as King after His resurrection in order to further advance His Kingdom already revealed on earth, in spite of the opposition of men and of Satan.
An essential part of any coronation in Israel was a donkey on which the King would ride to the crowning ceremony. This tradition commenced at least when Solomon rode to the River Gihon on the king’s mule to be crowned in opposition to Adonijah (1 Kings 1.33, 38), for the mule was the regular royal means of transport (2 Samuel 13.29), and to the Jews was a noble creature. Later it became the sign by which the coming King would be identified as he entered Jerusalem in lowliness, on an donkey’s colt, presumably in the process of approaching the Temple where he would be presented before God (Zechariah 9.9).
Thus, all that is being said here is that at some stage after the ascent from Jericho The Lord Jesus prepared to enter Jerusalem for a special purpose, having first spent time in Bethphage and Bethany (on the borders of Jerusalem) where He and His disciples had a lodging, a special purpose for which He needed a donkey. We learn in John’s Gospel that this in fact took place after the raising of Lazarus (John 12.17), an event which was probably His first action on reaching Bethany (John 11.1, 18). Thus, it may well have been in anticipation of the people’s reaction to this, combined with the fact of the already gathering sightseers around Bethphage and Bethany attracted by the rumors of what had happened, that our Lord Jesus took the opportunity of preparing for His entry on an donkey. He would thus be entering as a recognized giver of life and at a moment of high expectation.
Many a time the prophets in the past, wanting to get over an important message to the people, had acted out a drama for them which made them ask themselves, why is he doing this? John had done it with his baptism which had depicted the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Now the Legal righteous King Jesus would do it by a triumphal entry into Jerusalem.
21 Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me.
The journey from Jericho having been completed, our Lord Jesus and the disciples settled down in their camp which was established by Bethphage, and near Bethany, on the Mount of Olives. The Mount of Olives was the Mount that towered over even the Temple Mount and gave a panoramic view of the city. It was connected in Jewish minds with the eschatological future (Zechariah 14). At that point our Master Jesus then apparently visited the home of Martha and Mary in Bethany and raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11). But the concentration of the Synoptic evangelists was rather on the momentous entry into Jerusalem and they wanted no distraction from it. They were more used to such miracles than we are (there had been several raisings from the dead) and at this stage they wanted all attention to be on the entry of the King. It was from Bethany that they would proceed to enter Jerusalem via Bethphage.
It was The Lord Jesus’ intention as guided by our Precious Holy Spirit to make this special entry, and for that purpose He sent two of His disciples to the nearby village (probably Bethphage) where they would, on first entering the village, find a donkey and her colt tethered. They were then to loose them and bring them to The Lord Jesus.
It is very possible that the mother donkey was tethered there, along with her colt which was still young enough never to have been ridden. Most would not want to try to ride an untried colt. But in the event, if the disciples did intend to bring the colt, it would be expected that the mother ass would accompany the colt, if only to keep it from becoming too nervous.
Adoni Jesus’ intention was in fact to use the untried, unridden colt, for this use of something previously unridden had a religious significance. It indicated either sacred use or use by royalty. (Numbers 19.2; Deuteronomy 21.3; 1 Samuel 6.7; 2 Samuel 6.3). We can also compare here Genesis 49.10-11 where a donkey’s colt, which was tied up, related to the coming King who would win the obedience of the people, and there it was followed by the ancient equivalent of the Messianic banquet, the feast of good things. In Zechariah 9.9 the Coming King was to enter Jerusalem on a donkey’s colt, humble and riding on a donkey. Thus, to ride into Jerusalem on an untried donkey’s colt would have deep religious significance in terms of both Genesis 49.10-11 and Zechariah 9.9.
3 And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord has need of them,’ and immediately he will send them.”
Now compare this description of what happened. Some teachers as I mentioned say that it may well be that the Lord Jesus had already arranged that He would collect the animals when He needed them and that whoever collected it was to give a kind of password, ‘the Lord has need of them’. Does this reason sound kosher to you? It doesn’t to me.
I believe that He was making use of the custom of ‘angaria’ under which a major religious figure was entitled to procure for himself the use of a means of transport for a period by a simple act of appropriation. ‘The Lord has need of them’ would then be indicating this.
We are in fact probably intended to see in the use of the title ‘the Lord’ a deliberate indication that this was an unusual situation by which our Great God Jesus’ Supreme Authority was being revealed. ‘The Lord’ may refer to God, in Whose Name the Holy Son of God Jesus was acting, or it may have been the title by which the owners acknowledged our Lord Jesus. The whole arrangement thus indicates that the Messiah Jesus has a special significance in what He is about to do. It may well therefore be that the donkey’s colt was in fact being offered for His free use as a major religious figure in accordance with the custom of angaria without previous arrangement.
4 All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: 5 “Tell the daughter of Zion, ‘Behold, your King is coming to you, Lowly, and sitting on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ”
But Matthew then again points out that a further fulfilment of the Old Testament prophetic message was taking place. The Scriptures were coming to a head in The Lamb of God Jesus Christ (5.17). The citation is in fact taken from two places, Isaiah 62.11 and Zechariah 9.9. But in both cases, there is a remarkable omission. Isaiah 62.11 reads, “Say you to the daughter of Zion, behold your salvation comes”, but Matthew drops ‘salvation’ replacing it with ‘King’ from Zechariah 9.9. Zechariah 9.9 then declares, “Behold your king comes to you, He is righteous and having salvation, lowly and riding on an donkey, and on a colt the foal of a donkey’. Again the reference to salvation is dropped. So in both cases Matthew deliberately drops the reference to salvation. Compare also John 12.15 where John also drops the reference to salvation, but there John includes the words, ‘do not be afraid’, emphasizing the King’s lowliness and that He has not come with belligerent or harmful intent.
So the lack of mention of salvation is not to be seen as a threat. Rather it is a sad recognition of the fact that Jerusalem will not recognize or respond to the salvation that He has come to bring, a thought that continues to be emphasized throughout what follows, and is emphasized in Acts, where in spite of the glorious initial response Jerusalem eventually hardens itself against the Lord Jesus.
On the other hand, for those who are ready to respond to Him the underlying message is that salvation is available, for all who knew their Scriptures would recognize that behind the King’s coming in terms of these two quotations salvation was in the air.
Now we can see also the significance of Luke’s added portion of our Merciful and Loving God weeping over the city because they should have been expecting His arrival.
That our Lord Jesus’ careful arrangement for the obtaining of the colt, followed by His equally deliberate riding of it into Jerusalem in Passover week, is intended to have significance is undoubted, for while certainly some wealthy pilgrims did ride into Jerusalem on asses at that time, it was not common practice, and it would certainly not have been expected of the Lord Jesus, for the pilgrims flocked in continually on foot. Thus, He was by it deliberately making Himself stand out, and all would know that by it He was intending to make a declaration. And a careful reading of the witnesses suggests that they saw His intention as being to proclaim His prophetic status (21.11; Luke 19.37; John 12.16-18). It may also be that they saw Him as deliberately using an acted-out prophecy to remind them of the soon coming Messiah. It was only later that recognition would dawn on many who believed, that it was in fact a declaration that He was the Messiah, coming in lowliness to commence the official establishment of His Kingly Rule in Jerusalem (John 12.16-18), as it had already first been established in Galilee. The quotation from Zechariah was certainly seen by the Jews as Messianic, but Jesus’ clothing and demeanor would not have encouraged full recognition.
6 So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them.
The disciples then went and did precisely what their Master Jesus had appointed them. They brought the ass, with its colt, and festal robes were spread on both as part of the recognition of the event. And the Lord Jesus then took His place on the robes which covered the colt (‘on them’, that is, ‘on the robes’). The young donkey presented no difficulty to the Lord of creation, for He was riding an animal which knew its Master.
Passover time was always a time of high excitement and fervor. At that time pilgrims would be flooding into Jerusalem from Galilee (to the north) and Peraea (to the west), as well as from Judaea itself, and others would be flooding in from many parts of the world. And their minds would be fixed on that great deliverance that Passover celebrated, when God had delivered them out of the hands of a terrible enemy (Exodus 12). Now they saw themselves as under the heel of an equally terrible enemy, and they longed for a similar deliverance. Indeed it was because feasts like this tended to arouse insurrectionist tendencies that the Roman governor would ensure that he was present in Jerusalem, along with suitable reinforcements to the garrison, when these feasts took place.
The crowds already gathered in and around Jerusalem, full of religious fervor and in festal mood, and with time on their hands It would not be surprising therefore if the arrival of the great Galilean prophet, riding in on a donkey, increased the fervor and stirred up indirect Messianic expectations, especially as His healings and exorcisms connected Him with, and would continue to connect Him with, the great Solomon, the son of David. This would especially be so if word about the raising of Lazarus had got around. And the fact that He was on an untried colt and not on the full-grown donkey would stress the religious aspect of His ride. On the other hand whilst riding on an donkey would be significant to Jews, it would mean little to the Romans, who would expect a Messianic pretender to be on a war horse. They regularly saw men riding donkeys in Palestine, and He would not look like a pretender. And they were used to Passover fervor.
8 And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road.
At His approach riding on the animal, surrounded by the crowds, the excited people began to spread their robes in the way, and others to cut small branches from trees, possibly including palm fronds, and spread them in the way. The spreading of garments in the way was a regular way of showing honour to someone important. This was a clear indication of the supreme importance of the rider and the honour in which He was held. We can also compare 2 Kings 9.13 where the same happened to Jehu. Such an action may have been intended to indicate the right of the king to possess their possessions, or the idea may have been one of maintaining the donkey’s purity, and preventing it being soiled by the common ground. For everything about the incident indicates its connection with the proclamation of royalty to those in the know, while the thought of preserving purity would fit in with the Lord Jesus’ prophetic status.
9 Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: “Hosanna to the Son of David! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’ Hosanna in the highest!”
And as they went on into the city the crowds yelled from all sides, and they cried ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’, and ‘Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord’, and ‘Hosanna in the Highest’. These are but three predominant examples of many things that would be shouted that day, for the excitement was at its height. It was an upgrading with the words ‘the Son of David’ to the normal cries which greeted pilgrims (and which the Romans were perfectly used to. The Romans would be alert but not concerned).
‘Hosanna’ means ‘save now’, and is taken from Psalm 118.25, but over the years its use had apparently been gradually changed so that it had become a kind of greeting to any who reminded them of the coming expected salvation. And as we have already seen ‘Son of David’ was a title which had a dual significance, pointing on the one hand to the One Who was a healer like Solomon, the son of David and on the other to the Messiah of current expectation (Psalm of Solomon). It may also have gained in significance from the fact that many knew that He really was the Son of David (1.1, 17). But their cries were cries of future expectancy rather than of present hope. In their eyes the Lord Jesus was simply not revealing the demeanor expected of a Messianic claimant.
‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’ was a regular greeting to pilgrims, but possibly here gaining deeper significance from the fact that Jesus was a recognized prophet. They did not, however take the final step of realizing His claim to Messiahship (23.39). They thus spoke truer than they knew.
‘Hosanna in the Highest’ was an expression of praise to the Most High God, and further indicates the significance of Hosanna as a praise word, although no doubt still containing within it a yearning hope that one day He would indeed deliver.
10 And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?”
The massed crowds, and the noise, and the excitement inevitably caused a reaction in the inhabitants of Jerusalem and in many Jewish visitors from around the world (the crowds following Jesus were probably mainly Galileans and Peraeans), so that their interest was stirred and they began to say,’ Who is this?’
11 So the multitudes said, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.”
The triumphant reply then came back, “This is the prophet, Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.” This brought out what the understanding of the crowds was, although some may have had greater expectations. They were welcoming Him as the great Prophet of Whom they were so proud. His identification as from Nazareth reminds us of 2.23 and illustrates the fact that although He was born in Bethlehem and had moved to Capernaum around the time that He began His ministry, the place in which He was brought up from His earliest days was not forgotten. It was Nazareth that had placed its imprint on Jesus, and His memories from His earliest days were of there. That was His home. It is the place of our upbringing, not necessarily our birth, that stamps itself upon us.
12 Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves.
The road led to the Temple, the center of Jewish worship and a focal point at Passover time, where daily prayer would be heard. But few in the Court of the Gentiles were taking much notice of that for the purveyors of sacrificial animals continued to buy and sell, the money changers continued to change the money of visitors into the right coinage for the payment of the Temple Tax (in reliable Tyrian coinage), and those who sold doves for sacrifice continued to do a roaring trade. Little thought was paid to any Gentiles who might have come into that outer court to pray.
So history now repeated itself. Jesus strode ‘into the temple of God and cast out all those who sold and bought in the temple, and He overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of those who sold the doves.’ This time it was a deliberate and thought out action, and not just a reaction against His Father’s house being treated like a marketplace. Having entered Jerusalem as its King He was demonstrating His authority by emptying the Temple of commerce, and exposing the fraudulence and corruption that was taking place in the Temple. He was seeking to turn it into what it should have been for all people, a house of prayer and worship. It was an indication that He had come to purge out evil in all its forms. In the words of Hosea 9.15, ‘Because of the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of My House.’ The Lord had suddenly come to His Temple to seek to purify it (Malachi 3.1-4).
13 And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’”
In defense of His actions, and to explain their significance, our God Jesus Christ then cites Isaiah 56.7 conjoined with Jeremiah 7.11. ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples’ conjoined with ‘is this house which is called by My Name become a den of robbers in your eyes? I, even I, have seen it.’ It brings out the purpose of His action, to turn the Temple back from being a ramp, by which as much money as possible could be squeezed out of the people, into a House of Prayer. Of course, the chief priests would have defended the trading on the grounds that it was necessary so as to make it convenient for the people to obtain what was necessary in their religious worship. But it could have been carried out elsewhere, and that certainly did not excuse the underhand tactics that were often employed, nor did it justify causing disruption in the only part of the Temple where Gentiles could worship.
Our Great Holy Lord Jesus was always very conscious of the context of His quotations and this particular one from Isaiah very much had the coming new age in mind (as had His use of the animals), when reformed worship would become genuine and true. He may well indeed have intended people to remember back to another leader who had purified the Temple in former days, in the days of Judas Maccabaeus. That too had been associated with the waving of palm branches. Then it had been from the defilement of idolatry. This time it was from the defilement of Mammon.
It was not only the Lord Jesus Who was against the Temple trading. It is thought by many that it had in fact become something of a scandal. Extortionate rates of exchange were regularly charged (shared out in different ways, some charitable so as to justify them); sheep which had been rejected for sacrifice because they were blemished suddenly became unblemished after they had been bought at a cheap price, and were then sold on as unblemished, and accepted as such; high prices were charged for everything. This would not necessarily be true of all, but it would probably be true of a large minority, even a majority. Business corrupts. And even the chief priests raked in their percentage. But even worse in our Creator Jesus’ eyes was that it prevented the neediest and lowliest people, the Gentiles and the underprivileged, from praying and worshipping. Note that He was equally concerned to drive out the buyers!
Thus, our King Jesus was revealing that in the new age which He was bringing in, prayer and worship was to become foremost, and everything else must be subsidiary to that, especially corrupt forms of religion and Mammon. Purification of Jerusalem and the Temple were in fact a part of national Messianic expectation (Malachi 3.1-3; Psalms of Solomon 17.30). But this was only a final gesture, a last call to repent, for as He will shortly make clear the corruption of the Temple had gone too far, and it must be replaced (23.38; 24.2, 15; compare John 2.19-22; 4.21-24). It was in fact symbolic of precisely how different the new age was going to be!
14 Then the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.
This verse is in deliberate contrast with those speaking of the casting out of the corrupt dealers. For a short while the Temple was restored to its rightful purpose, and became a place where people were made whole. In the place of the racketeers came the blind and the lame. And Jesus healed them there. Had people but realized it this was a further Messianic claim (11.5).
This would not, however, have been pleasing to the religious authorities. In their eyes such deformities did not fit in with the holiness of the Temple. The blind and crippled were allowed into the Court of the Gentiles, but they could go no further, and even then there were severe restrictions placed on them. So the sight of so many flocking in would have been distasteful to their eyes, and the thought of them being healed there positively disgusting. They may well have felt that such healings must surely leave some residue of the deformity behind. Furthermore, such people would now be able move on into the Temple proper for they were no longer disabled. Such an instantaneous change in the situation about holy matters could not be pleasing and caused problems for the authorities. How did you police it?
There may, however, have been another significance in Matthew citing ‘the blind and the lame’. When David was seeking to capture Jerusalem initially it would appear that the then inhabitants derided him and his followers as ‘the blind and the lame’, seeing them as powerless to enter their stronghold. When he did succeed in breaking in and capturing Jerusalem a proverb then arose that ‘the blind and the lame shall not come into the house’, and this probably applied to the exclusion from favor, and from the central place of worship, of the Jebusites. Thus, Matthew may be pointing out by this that under the greater David the blind and the lame are now welcome. None are now excluded.
15 But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant
The picture here is vivid. Our Holy Father Jesus had been stirred with indignation at the villainies practised in the Temple, while the chief priests and the Scribes were stirred with indignation at the wonderful things which He did. In their eyes He was turning the Temple into a Hospital for the poor and taking over the Temple. What villainy! Such goings on could not be allowed in a holy place. At least, they felt, what they had been doing had had a religious purpose. What Jesus was doing was not even religious at all. Indeed, it was almost anti-religious. (So twisted can men’s thinking become when they are filled with prejudice).
But they were also angry because the children, spurred on by the miracles that were being performed, were crying out that He was the Son of David, and He was doing nothing about it. It appeared to them little short of blasphemy - and possibly dangerous. National fervor could soon be aroused. Why did He not stop it?
16 and 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 babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise’?”
So they sharply drew His attention to the situation. ‘Do you not hear what these are saying? They are calling you the Son of David.’ They knew that such a connection of the Son of David with the Temple could bring down the wrath of the Romans on them, and even possibly the wrath of God. And besides it was unseemly. In the Temple any acclamation should be directed towards God. It should be God Who was being acclaimed. And consider what a noise they were making! It was disturbing everybody.
Our Lord Jesus’ reply was simple. He pointed them again to the Scriptures (Psalm 8.2). There was only One Who brought such praise from the mouths of the young and innocent, and that was God, for their young hearts often saw straight through to what was really important. And in what they were saying they were more right than they knew. It was always those whose hearts were still open to truth, who would discern it.
It will be noted that we have here the first mention of the chief priests as publicly active against the Lord Jesus, something true in all the Gospels except John. Until His ministry began to impact on the Temple itself they had taken little public notice of Him, and thus the Apostles as a whole had not been aware of them, but now that He was publicly challenging their own patch, they could not publicly ignore Him. For the Temple was their responsibility. The Apostle John, of course, had inside knowledge of what went on in high priestly circles and knew a lot more therefore about what went on behind the scenes (John 18.15). He knew that they had regularly been consulted by the leading Pharisees whenever Jesus visited Jerusalem and had plotted with them against Him.
17 Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there.
Then as suddenly as it had begun it was all over. Jesus left them and the city to think things over, and returned to His lodgings in Bethany, just outside the city boundaries.
