Jesus Enters Jerusalem
as a King and Cleanses the Temple
Matthew 21
One of the many prophecies in the Bible concerning Israel ’s promised Messiah is a passage
foretelling that the Messiah would come into Jerusalem as a king bringing salvation and
humbly riding on a donkey. This prophecy
was given by the prophet Zechariah in around 520 B.C. And it reads: “Rejoice greatly, O daughters
of Jerusalem ! Behold, your King is coming to you. He is just and bringing salvation. Lowly and riding on a donkey. A colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Zechariah 9:9)
In this verse we see
how much God’s ways differ from human ways.
The Jewish people were looking for their Messiah to be a conquering
king. They might have pictured him as a pompous
warring king charging in on his white horse with his army of mighty men and
flashing swords ready to fight and conquer their Roman oppressors. But instead of a proud warring Messiah, the
Jewish people were told by their prophets that their conquering Messiah would be
a lowly Servant Messiah riding into Jerusalem
on a donkey’s colt.
The Jewish religious
leaders may have overlooked this prophecy in Zechariah since it did not fit
with their expectations of what they wanted their Messiah to do for them. They wanted their Messiah to deliver them
from the hated Roman rule. But it might
have been difficult for them to grasp that their Messiah – Jesus - was coming
to do so much more! Do we make the same
mistake and try to make Jesus fit into our expectations? We decide what we think He should do and then
have trouble believing that He is doing so much more? Can we let God be God? Or do we try to put God in a box?
Soon after Jesus triumphantly entered into Jerusalem on a donkey with crowds praising
him as their Messiah; He was arrested, judged and crucified. And after He spent three days in the grave He
rose from the dead. So our humble Servant
Messiah – Jesus - conquered death and
hell and saved us from our sins. He was
and is indeed a Conqueror!
During the last week of Jesus’ ministry, just before He was
arrested and crucified, He fulfilled this prophecy in Zechariah 9:9. In this dramatic way – by riding into Jerusalem as a king to
the praise and cheers of the people - Jesus was proclaiming that He was and is
the Messiah. Scripture tells us that
Jesus told two disciples to go to a certain place where they would find a donkey
tied there with her colt. Jesus told the
disciples to untie the donkey and bring both the donkey and the colt to
him. The disciples were to tell the
donkey’s owner, “The Lord has need of them.” And Jesus assured them that the
owner would let them take both the donkey and her colt. Jesus as Son of God is able to see and know
these things. Both animals were brought to
Jesus and since He rode the colt, the mother donkey was needed there to quiet
the little colt that had never been ridden before.
Scripture describes what happened when Jesus rode the colt with
the donkey following it into Jerusalem . “A very large crowd gathered to greet Jesus
as their king and to spread their clothes over the roadway before him. And others cut down branches from the trees
and spread them on the road to honor Jesus.” (In those days a king’s subjects
paid homage to him by providing a carpet for him to walk or ride on.) Thousands of people ran ahead of Jesus and
shouted out: ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!’” (Matthew 21:8-9)
Biblical prophecies
foretold that the Messiah would come from David’s line, so when the crowds
greeted Jesus by calling him the “Son of David” they were publically
acknowledging Jesus as their long awaited Messiah. And the Hebrew word “Hosanna” means “Save
now.” The shouts of Hosanna from the crowd in Jerusalem were recognition that Jesus is the
Lord who will save – He is God. Scripture
says that after Jesus had ridden the donkey into Jerusalem the whole city was moved! (Matthew 21:10)
Right after Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem He went
into the temple and became angry at what He saw there. Scripture says: “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. 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.’”.
(Matthew 21:12-13)
Tradition has it that the outer court of the temple had
stalls where animals were sold and foreign money was exchanged for Jewish shekels. This large money making market was controlled
by the high priest Annas and was a source of extortion.
The priests were
supposed to be humble men of God and shepherds of God’s people, helping people
come to their God. Instead the priests set
themselves up as a higher status than others, proudly considering themselves to
be more pious and better that the rest. God
had not intended this. They prayed long
pompous prayers in the center of the streets so that everyone could see how
righteous they were. Elevating
themselves above their people while becoming rich by cheating their people, and
all the while using God’s Name!
No wonder Jesus was angry with these men of God gone wrong! They were not bringing people to God but keeping them away from God.
Jesus said that they lay heavy burdens
on the people, keeping them from God. (Luke 11:46) These wealthy self righteous priests had
turned the temple, which was supposed to be a house of prayer, into what Jesus
called a “den of thieves.” Temple costs were
unreasonably high and worshippers were being taken advantage of financially
each time they came to God’s house to pray.
And these fraudulent money making practices were protected by the
priests who were misusing their God given power
Would Jesus find any of the same problems He found in the
Jewish temple so long ago if He were to physically walk into any of our
churches today? Would He turn over any
of our money tables? Would He need to
cleanse our churches like He cleansed the temple? Or would He find our churches to be houses of
prayer as He said they should be?
What is a Christian church today supposed to be? Scripture says that we believers in Christ are
the Church – that the Church is the humble body of Christ. But some of our churches have moved from
modeling themselves to be the humble body of Christ and instead are trying to
follow the models that the popular culture uses. The culture today admires elegance, money,
opulence and success.
People today must be constantly
entertained. We must have big expensive
fast moving productions with lots of action. Rock stars, fast games, flashing
lights, loud music and movers and shakers for our leaders. And some churches have retrofitted themselves
to add these things. Is that always good
or not? Mega churches and huge event
centers have arisen sometimes with stages and theater lighting instead of
altars. If the church doesn’t provide
entertainment then they are told that the people will be bored and not show up. Does the church have to change being the
humble body of Christ and compete with the world in order to survive?
So many churches try to play the game and follow the models
that are popular in the world today. Is
that good or bad? Some folks think they
must “do” something outwardly to gain salvation - work their way to
heaven. Give more money, go on a
mission, say more prayers. We are an
action oriented generation. So we must
do something to win salvation, work to earn righteousness, or so some think!
But Jesus tells us that He is the only One who can give us
salvation. We can never add anything to
that or work our way to heaven or do anything.
Jesus has done it all and He alone offers us the one and only free gift
of salvation. All we need to do is
accept it. Believe it inwardly.
(Ephesians 2:8-9) It all seems too simple,
too easy because it is. If there is
anything we have to “do” it is just to believe.
Have faith. Jesus said: “The work
of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.” (John 6:29)
And we need churches that help us believe in Jesus and
churches that try to be what they are supposed to be – the body of Christ! Churches that provide fellowship and love and
spread God’s Word and minister to the sick and the poor. We need church leaders and pastors who are humble
shepherds and who help the people come to God.
Would Jesus find these qualities in our churches if He were to physically
walk in and visit today? Would He be
pleased with what He would find in your church?
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