Matthew Twenty One
by Dr. Henry M. Morris
(taken from the Defender's Study Bible)
a colt with her. The parallel accounts in Mark 11:2 and Luke 19:30 only mention one donkey, but that does not mean they deny that two were involved. Also, Matthew is the only one who mentions that this incident was in fulfillment of the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9, but the others must have known this reference.
Matthew 21:4 All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying,
spoken by the prophet. See Zechariah 9:9. Here for the first time publicly, Christ presented Himself to the Jews as their promised Messiah and King.
Matthew 21:6 And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them,
the multitudes. These multitudes were unwittingly fulfilling Psalm 118:25-26 (“Hosanna” means “save now”). However, they only perceived Jesus as “the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee” (Matthew 21:11), and were evidently expecting Him somehow to defeat the Romans and restore the kingdom to Israel. People had frequently called Him “son of David,” evidently knowing about the genealogy of His (foster) father, and realizing He was the legal heir to David's throne (see note on Matthew 1:16).
However, just five days later, these same multitudesapparently disappointed by His meek submission to arrest and torture by the Jewish and Roman rulerswere calling for His crucifixion, preferring to release Barabbas who had led a rebellion against the Romans (Matthew 27:21-22).
Matthew 21:10 And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this?
Matthew 21:11 And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.
cast out all them. Jesus had similarly cleansed the temple near the very beginning of His earthly ministry (John 2:13-16), yet only a few years later the religious profiteers were at it again. This second purging, probably as much as anything else, caused the rulers to determine to have Him executed.
It is written. Jesus quoted here from two otherwise rather obscure passages, Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11. In His humanity alone, He had mastered the Scriptures, and applied them masterfully to specific situations and needs.
Matthew 21:14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.
have ye never read. Quoting Psalm 8:2, Christ rebuked “the chief priests and scribes” for rebuking the children crying in the temple (Matthew 21:15). Thus children mayand often dohave better spiritual insights than their elders.
Matthew 21:17 And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there.
Matthew 21:18 Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered.
leaves only. The Palestinian fig tree normally produces both leaves and small figs in early March, so that this tree should have borne figs along with its leaves. The heavy foliage of fig leaves, covering the nakedness of a barren fig tree, as it were, perhaps reminded the Lord of the “aprons” of fig leaves used by Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:7) in that far off day when He came to walk with them in the Garden of Eden. More immediately, of course, He would think of Judah and Jerusalem, outwardly prosperous and religious, but inwardly spiritually barren. Israel had often been symbolized in Scripture as a fig tree (Isaiah 34:4; Jeremiah 24:1-8; Hosea 9:10; Luke 13:6-9), and its religious leaders had rejected Him and were now intent on getting rid of Him. Accordingly He “cursed” the fig tree (Mark 11:21), just as He had cursed Adam and Eve and their whole dominion (Genesis 3:16-19), thus symbolizing the terrible fate awaiting the Jews because of their spiritual unfruitfulness.
Matthew 21:22 And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.
believing, ye shall receive. There are other conditions for answered prayer, of course (xTerm 5:14; James 4:3), but true belief would be founded upon all these.
The baptism of John. Jesus responded to the challenge of these religious leaders by reminding them of how they had ignored the teaching of John the Baptist. John had clearly, in the hearing of their delegates, stressed that the authority of Jesus had come from God (John 1:19, 29-34).
Matthew 21:26 But if we shall say, Of men; we fear the people; for all hold John as a prophet.
Matthew 21:29 He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went.
vineyard. In this parable and others, the vineyard, like the fig tree, often symbolizes Israel (Isaiah 5:7). The servants sent to collect the fruit represent the prophets, and finally the son of the householder represents Christall of them rejected and slain by the keepers of the vineyard.
Matthew 21:36 Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise.
Matthew 21:37 But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son.
Matthew 21:39 And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him.
Matthew 21:40 When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen?
the builders rejected. The Scripture cited here is Psalm 118:22-23the same psalm sung by the multitude as He was riding into Jerusalem (Matthew 21:9). In their very rejection of Christ, these builders were fulfilling His Word!
fall on this stone. It had been predicted that the Messiah would be “a stone of stumbling” to Israel (Isaiah 8:14), and that those who fall over it would “be broken” (Isaiah 8:15), for that same stone would become eventually “the head of the corner” (Matthew 21:42). Finally, the stone would be used to crush and grind to powder the Gentile nations that God would use as a rod to chastise Israel (Daniel 2:34-35, 45).