MATTHEW 21
JESUS ENTERS JERUSALEM + CONTINUES TEACHING
After His teaching and healing, Jesus continues towards Jerusalem. While He is in Bethany near the Mount of Olives, He sends two of the disciples to bring him a colt or young donkey. The disciples place their cloaks on the donkey, and Jesus rides the donkey down the Mount of Olives. When He does this, He fulfills the prophecy of Zechariah, who claimed that the Savior would enter Jerusalem with humility, mounted on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9).
The crowd places branches and cloaks along the road, paving the way for His entrance. As Jesus drew near, the people rejoiced and praised Jesus, saying “Hosanna,” a plea for salvation meaning “Save us.”
After entering the temple, Jesus drives out the people who are selling items for sacrifice. Jesus is protective over this holy place, desiring for it to be a place of prayer and teaching. In righteous anger, Jesus flips over the tables of those who were selling animals inside the temple. Jesus condemns them, saying that the house of prayer has been turned into a den of robbers.
While Jesus is traveling with the disciples, they come across a fig tree that provides no fruit for them to eat. Jesus curses the tree, saying that the fig tree will never grow fruit again. After this, the fig tree withers immediately. Jesus encouraged the disciples who marvel at what they just witnessed to have faith, so they do not wither like the fig tree. Jesus tells the disciples that faith will provide them whatever they ask for in prayer. The prophets Jeremiah and Micah prophesied this fruitlessness of the Israelites, saying that they will be like fig trees that do not grow fruit (Jeremiah 8:13, Micah 7:1).
Jesus tells a parable of two sons, both of whom are instructed to go out to the vineyard to work. The first son resists, but eventually changes his mind and gets to work. The second quickly agrees to work, but does not work. Jesus tells this parable to show how those who eventually believe are better than those who pretend to obey, but do not have genuine faith.
Jesus shares another parable set in a vineyard. In this parable, the people tending the vineyard kill many of the vineyard owner’s servants. Confident they will not kill his son, the owner sends him to the people tending the vineyard. These violent men want the son’s inheritance and end up killing him as they had the others.
Jesus uses this story to show how He will become the rejected cornerstone of the faith, quoting Psalm 118. In this story, Jesus is the Son who was killed to provide an inheritance. After saying this, the Pharisees want to arrest Jesus, but are afraid of how the crowds would respond.
