The story of the King of Israel, the Child from Bethlehem, the Son of David, comes to his entry into Jerusalem in the style of an entering king. Jesus begins this time in Jerusalem in a crowd. In a week he will walk out of a Jerusalem tomb alone. He will conquer death and sin to establish the Kingdom of heaven.
Chapters 21-24 contain the teaching of Jesus during the few days before his death. We are stunned that he is so vulnerable and open. In these teaching, we get to see the spectrum of the opposition to him. He also are reminded of the sweet, powerful wisdom embedded in his teaching.
To begin his temple teaching, Jesus drives out those who are selling and changing money in the temple. The special mention of those selling doves indicates that some were taking advantage of the poor. The hope of God is that the temple will be a house of prayer. That is probably what the Father wants of us now.
Jesus attracts those who need him and those who think they don’t need him. He heals the blind and the lame, welcomes the praise of children, and deals with the indignant spiritual leaders. The fig tree becomes the metaphor for spiritual leaders. Their time to bear fruit for God is about over.
Don’t miss the call of Jesus for his people to pray in faith, “…believing you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”
When Jesus enters the temple courts, the priests and elders confront him about his authority. Since they are unwilling to say what they believed about the ministry of John, the Baptist, Jesus knows it is pointless to discuss his authority with them.
Jesus does follow their question with three parables that point to the tragic misunderstanding of the spiritual leaders. They say they will obey God, but they don’t. They claim to be workers in the vineyard of God, but they live every day challenging God’s authority and ownership. They reject and kill his servants. The leaders are like those invited to the wedding banquet of the king’s son. They refuse to come. They despise the generous invitation.
In each of the stories, those thought to be on the margins of righteousness are invited to blessing. Those who decide to work for the master are blessed. The vineyard is opened to those willing to respect the owner. The wedding banquet guest list contains the names of the riff-raff. Things are upside down. The religious leaders are rejecting the Stone who will be the foundation for all things.
The Pharisees and Herodians try to trap Jesus with the taxes question. Jesus says, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar and to God what is God’s.”
The Sadducees don’t fare any better with their marriage question. Jesus says there is no marriage in heaven. Then Jesus tags them for their unbelief regarding the resurrection. If God speaks of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the present tense, there is no past tense in the lives of the faithful.
The Pharisees make another run at Jesus with their greatest commandment question. Jesus knows what they know. There are only the two matters of loving God and loving people.
Psalms 110 is one of the favorite texts of the early church. Jesus refers to it here as he asks the Pharisees to unravel the riddle in the text. The Son of David is David’s Lord. How can that be?
The many teachings in Matthew 21 and 22 lead to a focused teaching in Matthew 23 about the nature of the religious leaders and the woes that come to them because of their legalism. They don’t practice what they preach. They made loads for others without offering to help them in any way. The leaders like honor, ceremony and titles. They are so unlike Jesus, the Servant, who calls others to service.
The number of seven woes indicates that the religious leaders are perfectly woeful. They block the entrance to the kingdom. They make converts that are as perverse as they are. They have rules for swearing that make lying possible. They are serious about the trivial and thoughtless about the important — they measure out a tithe of mint and ignore the cries for justice. They clean the outside of their dishes and leave their hearts filthy. They are like pretty tombs filled with rottenness. They are proud of the tombs they build to honor God’s servants while holding the very attitudes that called for the deaths of those servants. These woeful ones will be the ones who persecute Jesus and his followers in the days to come. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem…”
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