SECTION 10: THE REJECTION OF THE KING
CHAPTER 48
THE ROYAL ENTRY
OR
CLEANSING THE TEMPLE AGAIN
Scripture To Consider:
“Now when they [Jesus and His disciples] drew near to Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, “The Lord has need of them,” and immediately he will send them.’“
“All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: ‘Tell the daughter of Zion, “Behold, your King is coming to you, lowly, and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.”‘ So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them, and set Jesus on them.”
“And a very great multitude spread their garments on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then the multitudes who went before, and those who followed, cried out, saying, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD! Hosanna in the highest!’ And when Jesus had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, ‘Who is this?’ So the multitudes said, ‘This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.'” Matthew 21.1-121
Something To Consider:
No incident in the life of our Lord is more in harmony with the purpose of Matthew than the royal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. Of course, it forms an essential part of the story of the gospels, but in none does it constitute a more definite climax or conform to a more evident design. Yes, Matthew is the gospel of the King, and here Jesus issues a royal command; He makes a royal progress; and He receives a royal acclaim.
To His command it is assumed that no refusal is possible. Therefore, He enters the city mounted and attended as a Mid-Eastern monarch. He is hailed by the multitude as the Son of David, the King, and as worthy of supreme homage and praise. But is that the case in our own lives in this 21st century generation? Does He receive the supreme homage and praise that is truly due unto Him from us? And if not, why not?
Matthew is also the gospel of fulfillment, and this snapshot is shown to correspond in great detail with the prophecy which is here quoted. However, Matthew also emphasizes the rejection of Jesus; and after the deadly hatred of His enemies has been revealed and after the predictions of His death have been repeated; and even while the multitudes shout with passing emotion, the silence of the rulers is ominous of tragedy.
Jesus is evidently offering Himself to the nation, but that nation is about to refuse Him and are rather to allow Him to be destroyed. By this temporary outburst of popular enthusiasm, no reader is for a moment deceived. Upon the bright picture there rests the shadow of both the cross and also of death. But it is what lies on just the other side of that silent tomb and those humanly terrifying three days, that will shock the world and those who instigated His death.
This royal entry was an acted upon parable. No one supposes Jesus meant the borrowed colt, or the comparisons of rustic garments, or the peasants who attended Him, were to be parts of the furnishings of a Mid-Eastern court. They were the symbols of royalty by which He presented Himself to His people as the promised Messiah.
Therefore, Jesus was making an appeal for the trust and obedience and homage of human hearts; but He was also warning the rulers that in rejecting Him they would be rejecting their King, and they would be defeating their highest hopes and aspirations for their Jewish nation.
Someday, however, Jesus is to, appear in glory, and that humble pageant which moves through the streets of old Jerusalem is but the faint symbol of the true coming of the King. Those who now accept Jesus and offer Him the willing homage of their hearts will then rejoice and will enter with gladness into the blessedness of His perfected kingdom.
More Scripture To Consider:
“Then 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 moneychangers and the seats of those who sold doves. And Jesus said to them, ‘It is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer,” but you have made it a den of thieves.’“
“Then the blind and the lame came to Jesus in the temple, and He healed them. But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that Jesus did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’ they were indignant and said to Jesus, ‘Do You hear what these are saying?’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Yes. Have you never read, “Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have perfected praise”?’ Then Jesus left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He lodged there.” Matthew 21.12-17
Something Else To Consider:
The abuse, which Jesus here rebukes, had risen from what was at a public convenience, namely, the sale of animals to pilgrims in the neighborhood of the temple, for sacrifices which they could not easily bring from their distant homes. Gradually the traffic had pressed nearer until the merchants had entered the temple area and were desecrating the sacred courts by their distracting noises, their greed, their evil extortions, and their fraud.
The act of our Lord in expelling these intruders from the sacred courts was not merely an example of power which one man, conscious of the right and justice of his cause, may exercise over those whose guilt of conscience makes weak and timid. Nor was this merely the work of a reformer who was correcting an evil custom. It was on the part of our Lord another acted upon parable. It was also a rebuke of the nation for the spiritual state of which was indicated by their apparent disregard of the sacredness of the house of God. It was a symbol and a warning of the judgment which was to be visited upon them because of their apostasy and unbelief.
Furthermore, this was a claim on the part of Jesus to be the real Lord of the temple. He identifies Himself with God whom He declared to be His own Father and He supports this claim by proceeding to perform miracles of healing within the temple courts. Jesus was thus making a public claim, as on the day before, to be the promised Messiah. He emphasized this claim by His reply to the rulers when they rebuked Him for allowing the people to hail Him with their “Hosannas.”
Jesus declared that they were justified in welcoming Him as the Son of David; and He further quoted, as applying to Himself, a psalm which speaks of the universal sovereignty predicted as belonging to man, a psalm, however, which was to be fulfilled by the Messiah. This psalm also pictured the unlimited rule which the Messiah would exercise as the appointed King. Jesus declared that such praises have the divine warrant and sanction of Scripture and are appropriate when bestowed upon Him.
Such claims were so obvious, the meaning of His symbolic actions was becoming so clear, that their rulers were filled with even more deadly hate. It was, therefore, not merely for the sake of rest but to avoid a more open conflict that Jesus withdrew for the night to lodge with His friends in Bethany, probably Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, of whom Jesus had raised from the dead, which is only recorded in the gospel of John.
Something More To Consider:
The royal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, with the multitudes crying out, “Hosanna, to the Son of David,” and “Hosanna in the highest;” was a far cry from the sobering scene at the death of Jesus upon an old rugged cross just outside the city limits. The royal entry of Jesus foreshadowed by the prophet Zechariah’s prediction in Zechariah 9.9, stated, “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
And so, at this stage of the grand gospel story, Jesus is hailed as the Messiah and treated as royalty. And yet, in His own mind and heart, the cruelty of the cross and the shame of the crucifixion was an ever-present reminder of His mission to mankind. In just a matter of days, Jesus would be experiencing anything but the royal treatment of a King, but rather the mistreatment of an undeserved wrongly convicted criminal.
A Few Final Words:
And even in the midst of such royal treatment and at the risk of loss of His royal following, Jesus once again, single handedly disrupts the criminal activity taking place in the temple, a place of prayer, and yet, transformed into a place of religious profit and carnal corruption. Jesus made no room for political correctness when an activity or mindset was in opposition to the Word of God and in opposition to the character of God.
Jesus chose, when necessary, to point out deception, corruption, and evil acts to attempt to put an end to hypocritical tradition when and wherever it reared its ugly religious appearing head. And so, the question arises, what would be Jesus’ reaction to the financial policies, promotions, and wealth amassing 21st century so-called church money collecting schemes? Would many of today’s so-called religious leaders be found guilty of covetousness?
The apostle Peter, writing in 2 Peter chapter 2, beginning in verse 1 declared, “But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you [true believers of future generations], who will secretly bring in destructive heresies. And many will follow their destructive [deceitful] ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed [spoken evil of]. By covetousness [greed] they will exploit you [take advantage through merchandising] with deceptive [insincere and untruthful] words.”
In Closing:
What Jesus was physically against taking place in the temple then, Peter warned against for future generations of church going true believers. We expect greed and the love of money and the excessive accumulation of wealth and possessions to be highly regarded among unbelievers. We are never fully prepared to come face to face with such corruption within the confines of the so-called Christian community. According to Jesus, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also!”
Let’s Pray:
Our Father in heaven, thank You for the written record of the predicted in detail royal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. And thank You for the reminder of religious hypocrisy and its needing to be dealt with by the two examples revealed in the Word of Jesus cleansing the temple. Search our hearts and minds for any need of physical and or spiritual cleansing that is required in our lives. Let us be found looking unto Jesus even unto the end of the age or our lives. In Him Always, Amen!
According to Jesus 