Matthew 21:1-17
This is the post for the AM message on April 2, 2023
There is a sense in which the entire Book of Matthew was written to answer the question that the people in Jerusalem asked in Matthew 21:10 – “Who is this?”
For those who read Matthew’s Gospel, beginning with chapter 1, the answer begins to emerge.
By His ancestry (as the Son of David) and the angelic announcements, we are introduced to Jesus. He is the One who will save His people from their sins. Wise men find this King of the Jews and a wicked king tries to destroy Him. God’s messenger, the forerunner, announced His entrance into the ministry, and God the Father and the Holy Spirit confirmed it.
The Devil tested Him; His disciples followed Him. His sermons were thought-provoking and His miracles were powerful. Jesus quieted storms on the Sea of Galilee and quieted the demonic storm in the life of the Gadarene.
The Lord Jesus forgave sins and fought the cynics. He raised the dead and healed the blind. And all the while He preached His message and demonstrated His power with miracles.
He commissioned His disciples to preach and comforted the doubters with prophecy. But all the while, Jesus warned those who refused to repent and offered rest to souls of the humble.
Our Lord used the Scriptures to confront error and used parables to enlist the attention of the curious. He fed the multitudes even as He fed the faith of His men. Jesus answered those critics who despised Him and showed His disciples that He is the Christ. The Lord Jesus taught the terms of true discipleship and was transfigured to show His men His glory.
He taught His followers to become like children and challenged them to learn how to forgive. At every turn, Jesus used the Scriptures to answer those who opposed Him and give light to those who questioned Him.
Even as He answered His critics, Jesus prepared His disciples for His own crucifixion. But blind men could see what His own disciples could not. This summary of the first twenty chapters in Matthew leads us to our text today. Through it all, we learn that God, in His Providence, has given us exactly what we need to identify and exalt the Lord Jesus.
I. God uses His servants and what they possess to identify and exalt the Lord Jesus. 1-3
“And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find a donkey tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them unto me. And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them” (Matthew 21:1-3).
The travelers had climbed the road from Jericho, a distance of about 17 miles, ascending 3000 feet. When they came to a town named Bethphage (meaning “house of figs”) Jesus gave two of His disciples a task. When you read these first three verses of Matthew 21, they can strike you as presumptuous.
What right did Jesus have to a donkey and her colt? And wouldn’t His disciples seem to be rude to take the donkeys without first asking the owner? We find our answer to these questions with the message Jesus gave them. If anyone challenged them, they were to say, “The Lord has need of them.” Jesus assured His disciples that the owners would send them along.
How did He know this? He had to know that the owner of the donkeys was one of His followers. He knew that the owner had embraced the truth He taught about discipleship: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). The owner of the donkey honored Jesus as Lord. When Jesus knows that about you, then He knows that He is not presumptuous to use your possessions. Jesus knows that when He owns you, He owns everything that you possess.
Can Jesus count on you to use every one of your possessions without even asking you? Is it enough that the Lord has need of them? At times, those who are trying to follow the Lord can seem presumptuous. But since they have given themselves to the Lord, they assume other professing believers have as well. They know that God loves a cheerful giver, and they cheerfully give themselves and everything they possess. About the giving by the churches in Macedonia, the Apostle Paul testified that they “…first gave themselves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God” (2 Corinthians 8:5).
And don’t miss the fact that this sacrificial gift was designed to help answer the question, “Who is this?” Wouldn’t it be wonderful to know that the Lord used your possessions to help others embrace Him?
According to Matthew 26:6-13, a woman greatly honored the Lord Jesus while He was sitting at a meal in the house of Simon the leper in Bethany. She anointed the head of Jesus with precious ointment from an alabaster box. About her sacrifice, Jesus said, “Verily I say unto you, wherever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her” (Matthew 26:13). Her sacrificial gift was honored in the pages of Scripture.
In the same way, the owner’s permission to use the donkey is also recorded in Scripture. This reminds us that every sacrificial gift we give is remembered by the Lord. He is not unrighteous to forget your work and your labor of love (Hebrews 6:10).
According to the next several verses, it is clear that some of the people understood the prophetic meaning of Christ’s riding the donkey into Jerusalem. This is what we celebrate on Palm Sunday. Through this passage, we learn that God, in His Providence, has given us exactly what we need to identify and exalt the Lord Jesus.
II. God uses His prophecies and principles to identify and exalt the Lord Jesus. 4-14
“All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon a donkey, and a colt the foal of a donkey. And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, And brought the donkey, and the colt, and put on them their clothes [cloaks], and they set him thereon. And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strewed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.” (Matthew 21:4-9)
Why did Jesus send His disciples to get the donkey? Matthew 21:4 answers the question this way: “All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet…” Which prophet, and what did the prophet say? The prophet Zechariah had written, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.” (Zechariah 9:9).
Now here are a few things to bear in mind. If the people were to proclaim Jesus as the Messiah when He entered Jerusalem, it would have started a military battle. Until Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection, people thought of the Messiah in political and military terms. If Jesus had been proclaimed as Messiah at that moment, the Romans would have slaughtered the crowd. (The people did use the term “Son of David” to communicate the same idea in veiled terms.) So in God’s plan, Jesus did not enter Jerusalem on a mighty war horse, armed for battle. (As we have learned from Revelation 19:11-16, Jesus will one day come in that regal form.) But on this occasion, Jesus entered Jerusalem humbly, riding upon a young donkey. The Romans would have missed the significance, but those who knew the Scriptures would have understood the symbol from Zechariah’s prophecy.
The riding of a mule to proclaim an Israelite king was not unknown. David had Solomon ride his mule to the Gihon springs in 1 Kings 1:33-34. The spreading of their cloaks and the strewing of palm branches in the way showed the special significance of the occasion, and the city of Jerusalem was stirred by the spectacle.
“And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.” (Matthew 21:9).
This is a quote from Psalm 118:25-26. The word “Hosanna” could be translated as “save now.” As noted above, “the Son of David” is a Messianic term. Jesus did not rebuke the crowd for proclaiming this; He accepted the praise which is reserved for God alone. In these verses, we see that God used His prophecies and principles to identify and exalt the Lord Jesus.
III. Don’t miss the point when God uses His servants, prophecies and principles to identify and exalt the Lord Jesus. 10-14, 15-17
“And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? And the multitude said, ‘This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.’” And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and He healed them” (Matthew 21:10-14).
Despite the prophecies and proclamations about this procession, the people were still puzzled. Even the power of His miracles did not open their eyes. They asked each other, “Who is this?” After years of His ministry, the people still didn’t acknowledge His true identity. They honored Him as a prophet from Nazareth of Galilee. They did not honor Him as the Son of God and fall down to worship Him.
Don’t make the same mistake. As you read this Gospel, look for His true identity: God’s only Son who will save His people from their sins. Ultimately, Jesus died on the cross for your sins and rose again. Will you embrace Him as your Lord and Savior? Or will you merely think that He is an important religious figure? Don’t miss the point.
To emphasize His authority from God the Father, Jesus went into the temple and overthrew the tables of the money changers and the businesses that sold sacrifices. It was necessary for the pilgrims to exchange their Roman coins (which bore images) for the Jewish shekel. But those who exchanged the money were making outrageous profits. For them, the money changing and sacrifice selling was more of a business than a provision for worship. To drive home the point, Jesus quoted Isaiah 56:7 to remind them that the Temple should be a house of prayer. But by their greedy materialism, they had made it a den of thieves. As New Testament believers, we have to ask that question about ourselves today. We are indwelled by the Holy Spirit; individually and as a congregation, we are the temple of God. Are we then a house of prayer or a den of thieves?
“And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise? And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there.” (Matthew 21:15-17)
Here it is clear that the religious leaders – though they were schooled in the Scriptures – were missing the point. The children in the Temple echoed the cry, “Hosanna to the Son of David.” But the chief priests and scribes were very upset by the children’s praise. The crowd of children could see what the “clergy” could not. But to give the leaders one last reminder, Jesus asked them to remember Psalm 8:2, “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise? And He left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and He lodged there.” Here we see the remarkable glory of God. He uses the weak things to confound the mighty and the foolish things to confound the wise. Don’t be like those who miss the point. In these verses, we see that God used His prophecies and principles to identify and exalt the Lord Jesus. Now use this passage to rightly answer the question: “Who is this?”
Pastor Gordon Dickson, Calvary Baptist Church, Findlay, Ohio https://www.cbcfindlay.org/who-is-this/
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