Matthew Matthew 21:12-22 The Perspective of the King

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1 Matthew Matthew 21:12-22 The Perspective of the King The crowds had cheered. They praised the Son of David. They praised God for the coming of the kingdom. Jesus wept over the fall of Jerusalem. And Judas feared He would not take the throne. the thunderous song of the people rushed in again, and Judas heard roarings on every side. He and Jesus once more were riding the great surge of royal power through the city itself! They were at the very gates of the Temple. Jesus dismounted. The Lord went afoot, now, majestic and wrathful, through the Huldah Gate in the southern wall of the Temple, his golden eyes fixed and flaming. The disciples could scarcely keep up with him. Then Judas saw where Jesus was going. The booths. The hundred shops in the southern portico. The tables, the selling of animals for sacrifice, the money exchange, commerce in the precincts of the Temple. As he approached the busy marketplace, Jesus twisted three cords into a whip. Then he cried in a piercing voice, Away!, Away! and began to crack his furious whip over the heads of the merchants. Judas trembled with pleasure. Now it was starting. This was Messiah! Jesus, hurling fire to earth! Jesus, the howl of God, whose voice is a rod of iron: Judgment has come, O you people! For look how the Master flings to the pavement the coins of the money changers! How he tips their tables over! And those who sell sheep and oxen and pigeons them he drives out of the Temple, crying accusations like a Zealot: Away with these things! Away! It is written, My house shall be a house of prayer. But you have made it a den of thieves! Away! All these things took place on the first day of the week, the Sunday before the Feast of Passover. On that day Judas said in his soul, This is he whose coming is a refiner s fire and who shall endure it now? Who shall be standing when this week is done? All the way back to Bethany, Judas wiped tears from his eyes and sighed with excitement. But that was the last time he felt such joy. That was the last time Judas Iscariot was glad, for the rest of his life. 1 X The Coming of the Kingdom 19:1-25:46 B. Jesus Enters Jerusalem 21:1-23:39 2. The Cleansing of the Temple Verses Children s Praise Verses The Cursing of the Fig Tree Verses Introduction: The journey to the cross continues. And, at least initially, it is easy to see why the disciples believed the time of the political kingdom was arriving. But that was not to be the case. In this section we see a different Jesus, one who stands for His Father s honor. Where He didn t feel the need to defend Himself, He won t allow insults to God to go unchallenged. And the result of His obedience is more people coming to Him for their needs, physical and spiritual. 1 Wangerin, Jr., Walter, The Book of God, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1996, p

2 Along the way, Jesus give the disciples a lesson they will desperately need in the coming days. And that lesson is, with faith in He who is faithful, they will be able to rise to what ever challenges they would be facing. This is another case where they might not understand the point now, but in the future And one of the lessons we should take from this is, in faith we do need to stand for the Lord, even when it won t be appreciated. Second, we must remember that we don t need to defend ourselves, that s God s responsibility. We are called to stand for Him, even if that means allowing for righteous anger. 2. The Cleansing of the Temple: But first, we again have to momentarily step back in time. Some hold the view Jesus went into the Temple twice to clean house. Others simply argue John chose to put the same event earlier in his account for thematic reasons. Barton, et. al. note, speaking of the Matthew passage: This is the second time Jesus cleared the Temple (see John 2:13-17). Merchants and money changers set up their booths in the Court of the Gentiles in the Temple, crowding out the Gentiles who had come from all over the civilized world to worship God. The merchants sold sacrificial animals at high prices, taking advantage of those who had come long distances. The money changers exchanged all international currency for the special Temple coins the only money the merchants would accept. They often deceived foreigners who didn t know the exchange rates. Their commercialism in God s house frustrated people s attempts at worship. This, of course, greatly angered Jesus. Any practice that interferes with worshiping God should be stopped. 2 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father s house into a market! His disciples remembered that it is written: Zeal for your house will consume me. (John 2:13-17). What a sad picture we find in God s house. Men where using it not as a place of worship, but as a place to make a dinar. And commerce must outweigh everything, because here comes Jesus again and it s business as usual, but not from God s perspective. for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations (Isaiah 56:7). Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the LORD (Jeremiah 7:11). It isn t surprising that Jesus wrath at the abuse of His Father s house would be perceived as a precursor to His assuming the throne. He s angry. And He has a right to be. He wants to cleanse His Father s house. And this was certainly prophetic. 2 Barton, Bruce B., Mark Fackler, Linda K. Taylor, and David R. Veerman, Life Application Study Bible, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, IL, ) 584 (

3 See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come, says the LORD Almighty. But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner s fire or a launderer s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the LORD will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness, and the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable to the LORD, as in days gone by, as in former years. So I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me, says the LORD Almighty (Malachi 3:1-5). 3. Children s Praise: Not surprisingly, Jesus actions appeal to the people who felt they were being ripped off. So the crowds continue to grow, people continue to get healed. To make matters worse, for the religious powers, much of this was taking place in the Temple courtyard. This was a real problem because Most Jewish authorities forbade any person lame, blind, deaf, or mute from offering a sacrifice, from appearing before Yahweh in his temple. The Qumran covenanters wanted to go further and exclude all cripples from the congregation, the messianic battle, and the messianic banquet. 3 But once again Jesus shows that He is greater than the Temple by healing the ill at the Temple itself and bring these people into a position of being able to enter the congregation of Israel. And God continued this work in His Temple after Jesus had gone to be with Him. Now a man crippled from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts (Acts 3:2). There is an interesting comparison in this section. The powers that be allowed for the commercial activities going on. This may well be why Jesus quotes Jeremiah, calling it a den of thieves and robbers. Conversely, the presence of the sick and hurting, those in need of God s intervention, were unwelcome. Jesus in casting out the money changers and healing the sick showed that God s perspective was significantly different from men s. So everything Jesus did made them more angry. The children, and this isn t surprising considering Jesus earlier teachings, were coming around and praising Him. Like their parents, they praised Jesus as the son of David. This must have been a especially touching to Jesus heart as often the words of children are more genuine than those of adults. He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 3 Carson, D. A., The Expositor s Bible Commentary, Matthew, Zondervan Publishing, Grand Rapids, MI, ) 585 (

4 And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea (Matthew 18:2-6). Well if in the past the disciples were less than positive about children bothering the Lord, they were downright gushing compared to the Chief priests and teachers. The fact the children s behavior was more praise of Jesus was, of course, the problem. So what did these men do? Told the disciples to have Jesus tell the children to shut up. And what was Jesus response? First, He added insult to injury by quoting the psalmist, again applying Scripture to Himself. From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger (Psalm 8:2). And in applying it to Himself, the men could also think Jesus, while not quoting the rest of the passage, was applying the scripture about God s foes to themselves. Which, by the way, they were correct weren t they? Having completed His work for the day, Jesus does what many of the pilgrims had to do, leave Jerusalem for the night. The city was simply too overcrowded to accommodate all of the people coming up for the Passover. And the scene fades out as Jesus and the disciples return to Bethany, never spending a night in Jerusalem. 4. The Cursing of the Fig Tree: As we rejoin the group, the sun has come up and once again they prepare to traverse the couple of miles back to Jerusalem. Where previously we saw God s house as a den of thieves now we see and illustration of the lack of fruit in the nation as a whole because many see the fig tree is the symbol of the nation. From the account Matthew provides, we wouldn t know the cursing of the fig tree was a two step process. Mark provides this additional information. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, May no one ever eat fruit from you again. And his disciples heard him say it This occurred prior to Jesus going to the Temple and casting out the money changers. Picking up with Mark again the next day In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered! ) 586 (

5 Have faith in God, Jesus answered. I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, Go, throw yourself into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. They arrived again in Jerusalem, and while Jesus was walking in the temple courts, the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders came to him (Mark 11:13-14, 20-27). Now, just a bit of environmental background to the fig tree itself. Mark tells us that though it was not the season for figs, the tree was in leaf. Fig leaves appear about the same time as the fruit or a little after. The green figs are edible, though sufficiently disagreeable as not usually to be eaten till June. Thus the leaves normally point to every prospect of fruit, even if not fully ripe. Sometimes, however, the green figs fall off and leave nothing but leaves. All this Matthew s succinct remark He... found nothing on it except leaves (v.19) implies; his Jewish readers would infer the rest. 4 While Carson doesn t believe the fig tree stands in for Israel, This seems to be the least troubling understanding, that is if by Israel we are primarily speaking of it s religious aspects. The leaders had shown that in their service of God, they had become fruitless. Consequently, the relationship of the nation to her God was also impacted. Since the nation s fruit was to be spiritual both the leadership and the nation as a whole was without fruit and dead. Therefore, the dead nation was temporarily set aside and the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD, but this was always intended to be temporary. But the focus shifts from Jesus statement about Israel to another lesson that will serve the disciples well in the coming days, a lesson on faith. They are amazed at the miracle of the rapid deterioration of the tree. But it is only a matter of faith. And the faith teachers love to misuse this passage. Their position is faith is a power that used correctly can accomplish anything. But Jesus point and the teaching of scripture as a whole is, we can accomplish anything God s calls us to, even the miraculous. But the key is, what God calls us to do. If God calls you to move a mountain, you ll be able to. Of course He won t. As we ve seen on so many occasions the focus here isn t on the ability to do miracles, thought at times they occur. The focus, like that on prayer, is about walking in God s ways and in concert with His will. What ever He calls us to do, we can do, in dependency on Him. Conclusion: Jesus in these last days is demonstrating who He is to His enemies, to the crowds, and to the disciples. The lessons are all designed to show Him as Messiah. But the way He does so varies according to whom He is making His point. Jesus message to His enemies is they are enemies of the very God they claim to serve and accordingly the day is coming when they will be judged. And their response is hatred. 4 Ibid. ) 587 (

6 To the crowds Jesus demonstrates His Messiahship by His representing the Father when casting out the money changers. It is also shown by His love and compassion for the people, healing them and teaching them. And to the disciples He gives them what they will need in the future, that is a godly understanding of faith, even if they didn t understand it at the time. And this faith will be needed if they, like Jesus, are to stand for truth before the world and the religious community. Neither of which will appreciate it. Our response to all of this should be an examination of what group we fall into, and what we should therefore be learning. Sadly there are many claiming the name of Christ who have always suffered from a lack of perspective. This means some have always used religion for making a buck. Then again for some that is their religion. And there is a straight line of this type of behavior from the Temple in Jerusalem the selling of miracle prayer cloths today and everywhere in between. Adam Clark give an example from his day. A very pious clergyman of my acquaintance, observing a woman keeping a public standing to sell nuts, gingerbread, etc., at the very porch of his Church, on the Lord s day, desired her to remove thence, and not defile the house of God, while she profaned the Sabbath of the Lord. She paid no attention to him. He warned her the next Sabbath, but still to no purpose. Going in one Lord s day to preach, and finding her still in the very entrance, with her stall, he overthrew the stall, and scattered the stuff into the street. He was shortly after summoned to appear before the royal court, which, to its eternal reproach, condemned the action, and fined the man of God in a considerable sum of money! 5 Today it is the Word of Faith movement which continues to sit in the Temple courtyard, selling their only view of God to those looking for something God really doesn t provide. You too can work miracles. Hagin states: According to the Bible, your physical, material, and financial prosperity depend on your spiritual prosperity. 3 JOHN 2 2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest PROSPER AND BE IN HEALTH [that s physical prosperity], EVEN AS THY SOUL PROSPERETH. When it comes to the realm of the natural, so many people don t see the truth that God wants them to prosper financially and walk in divine health. They think, God wants to bless us spiritually, all right. But we may have to go through life poverty-stricken and barely able to get by. But that s not true, and we see that fact over and over in the Word. Second Chronicles 26:5 says, And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God: AND AS LONG AS HE SOUGHT THE LORD, GOD MADE HIM TO PROSPER. If you ll read all of this account, you ll discover that God is talking about material and financial prosperity. 6 But the faith Jesus gives His disciples is faith in God who is faithful. And that faithfulness isn t what gives them prosperity, it is the faith that will get them through the crucifixion. It is the faith that will allow them to stand before God s enemies and tell the truth of the gospel. It is the faith that grows a church. And it is the faith that allows them to die for God s truth. 5 Clarke, Adam, Adam Clarke s Commentary on the New Testament, Public Domain. 6 &catid=55:finances&itemid=237. ) 588 (

7 Finally, it is that same truth that God provides to us today. This is the faith that will carry us through the Christian life, not matter what the cost, and into an eternity in God s presence. And isn t that a lot better than making a buck in the Temple courtyard, or simply a prosperous life, one that keeps us from growing in anything that matters? How sad to sell everything that matters for 30 pieces of silver. It seems many have missed the truth of the gospel, but as long as we keep to the truth of scripture we will experience all the blessings that come from a godly faith rather and a theological folly. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal (Matthew 6:19-20). My faith has found a resting place, Not in device nor creed; I trust the Ever-living One, His wounds for me shall plead. Refrain: I need no other argument, I need no other plea; It is enough that Jesus died, And that He died for me. Enough for me that Jesus saves, This ends my fear and doubt; A sinful soul I come to Him, He'll never cast me out. My heart is leaning on the Word, The written Word of God, Salvation by my Savior's name, Salvation through His blood. My great Physician heals the sick, The lost He came to save; For me His precious blood He shed, For me His life He gave. 7 7 Edmunds, Lidie H. The Hymnal for Worship & Celebration, My Faith Has Found a Resting Place, Word Music, Waco, TX, 1986, #405. ) 589 (

8 Matthew Matthew 21:12-22 The Perspective of the King X The Coming of the Kingdom 19:1-25:46 B. Jesus Enters Jerusalem 21:1-23:39 2. The Cleansing of the Temple Verses Children s Praise Verses The Cursing of the Fig Tree Verses Introduction: 2. The Cleansing of the Temple: (John 2:13-17; Isaiah 56:7; Jeremiah 7:11; Malachi 3:1-5) 3. Children s Praise: (Acts 3:2; Matthew 18:2-6; Psalm 8:2)

9 4. The Cursing of the Fig Tree: (Mark 11:13-14, 20-27) Conclusion: (Matthew 6:19-20). Personal Application: Have you ever experienced a situation in your life where there was no way you could handle it, and then you did? Are you living in the reality of being empowered to do whatever God calls you to do? If your answer is no go back and read Christ s promises to empower you. Prayer for the Week: Lord, I really do believe in Your faithfulness. But Lord, I don t always live as if I do. Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Amen.