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March through Matthew with Jesus:
Matthew 21
During Lent in March we continue reading through the Gospel of Matthew, one chapter a day--28 chapters--with points to ponder, background information and personal application. Pray God strengthens our faith on this spiritual journey in His Holy Word
Some Points to Ponder as we read Matthew 21:
1. Matthew 21 is filled with Old Testament references demonstrating over and over again that Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s perfect plan of salvation predicted by many prophets in many places over many centuries before it all happened. These incredible Divinely directed connections demonstrate that God is the author of Scripture and our story of salvation.
2. Jesus enters Jerusalem in humility riding on a donkey (Matt. 21:1-11). This the direct fulfillment of the prophecy from Zechariah 9:9. It is also a reenactment of royal inaugurations mentioned in I Kings 1:32-40 and 2 Kings 9:12-13. NOTE: We can easily look up passages using www.Biblegateway.com
3. Hosanna is a Hebrew word that translates: “Save us now, LORD!” This is exactly what Jesus was coming to do for us! When the crowd during the palm parade and later the children in the temple shout “Hosanna to the Son of David!” in Matthew 21:9 & 15 they are quoting from the Messianic Psalm 118:25-26 which was written up to 1,000 years earlier! We hear Palm Sunday predicted in Psalm 118: 25 Save us, we pray, O Lord! (“HOSANNA” in Hebrew)
O Lord, we pray, give us success! 26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
We bless you from the house of the Lord.
4. After the Palm parade of praise ended, Jesus continues His Ministry performing more miracles (21:14), teaching powerful parables, and correcting the false teachings and challenges to His authority from the religious leaders.
5. In His righteous anger, Jesus cleanses the temple of the human abuses happening there. When the children praise Jesus in the temple (Mt. 21:15-16), it deeply upset the religious leaders and they were “indignant.” Jesus tells them what the children are doing by praising Him is a direct fulfillment of what was written/predicted in the Messianic Psalm 8:2.
6. It is interesting to note in Matthew 21:17-18 that after the palm parade and cleansing of the temple, Jesus spent the night outside of Jerusalem in the suburb of Bethany. Jesus then returns the next day to Jerusalem and is hungry. When Jesus sees a fruitless fig tree, He curses it in Matthew 21:19-20 for not bearing fruit. This foreshadows that God will punish those who do not bear fruit for Him since it indicates they do not have living, active faith. Jesus’ cursing of the fruitless fig tree may also be a prophecy of God’s punishment upon the unbelief of fruitless Israel who would experience the destruction of Jerusalem Temple by the Romans in 70 AD.
7. The Messianic Psalm 118 is quoted a SECOND time in Matthew 21:42--this time by Jesus. Jesus clearly states that He is the stone the builders rejected Who has become the cornerstone.
We now read Matthew 21…
Matthew 21 (ESV)
The Triumphal Entry
21 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” 4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,
5 “Say to the daughter of Zion,
‘Behold, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”
6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. 8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “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 entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”
Jesus Cleanses the Temple
12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”
14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, 16 and they 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 infants and nursing babies
you have prepared praise’?”
17 And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.
Jesus Curses the Fig Tree
18 In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. 19 And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once. 20 When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” 21 And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. 22 And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
The Authority of Jesus Challenged
23 And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” 24 Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. 25 The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?” And they discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 26 But if we say, ‘From man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.” 27 So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.
The Parable of the Two Sons
28 “What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ 29 And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. 30 And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.
The Parable of the Tenants
33 “Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. 34 When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. 35 And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. 37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ 39 And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.”
42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord's doing,
and it is marvelous in our eyes’?
43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. 44 And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”
45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. 46 And although they were seeking to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because they held him to be a prophet.
+Prayer+ Loving Savior, as we ponder Your Passion recorded in Matthew help us to remember anew and reflect once again upon Your incredible, sacrificial love for sinners like us. We thank You, Jesus, for loving us and saving us! Amen.
Pastor Scott Schmieding
Senior Pastor
Immanuel Lutheran Church and School
115 S. Sixth Street
Saint Charles, MO 63301
636.946.2656
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