Today, I am reading and commenting on Matthew 21-22.

When Jesus rode into Jerusalem riding on a donkey’s colt He was fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah concerning Jerusalem’s king riding in after victory over His foes. Jesus is declaring His victory at this point.  We tend to think of Jesus being victorious when He was crucified, or sometimes when He rose from the dead.  This passage makes me think that perhaps we are mistaken when we say that.  Perhaps we should see that Jesus victory as happening when He rode into Jerusalem at the beginning of this week, knowing that by doing so He was sealing the outcome of His crucifixion at the end of the week.  Whether that is true or not, Jesus was indeed declaring His victory by riding into Jerusalem.  By the following Sunday Jesus would demonstrate that He was more powerful than suffering and death, that those who bowed their knee and took Him as Lord need not fear those twin horrors because Jesus had overcome them.

Then, when Jesus drove those who were buying and selling in the temple courts out, the chief priests and elders were offended by the children praising Him and calling Him the son of David (which was probably understood to be proclaiming Him king of Israel…and perhaps God).  Of course, they couldn’t really complain about Him driving out the merchants because, by the time they got there, He was healing the blind and lame.

Finally, I want to touch on the lesson Jesus spells out for the Parable of the Tenants.  This provides yet another counter to those who want to say that Matthew 15:24 (where Jesus says, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”) means that Jesus ministry was only for the biological descendants of Jacob.  Here, after telling the Parable of the Tenants, Jesus says to the Jewish religious leaders, “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.”  Jesus is saying that the kingdom of God will be given to anyone, and everyone, who produces its fruit and gives God what is His.  A few verses later, after His enemies asked Him about paying taxes to Caesar, Jesus tells us what is God’s when He tells us to give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s (the coins which bear Caesar’s image), and unto God what is God’s (ourselves who bear God’s image).

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

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