Saturday, September 8- by Pamela

Today's passage from the Chronological Bible In a Year Reading Plan is Ezekiel 38-39

Today's scripture focus is Matthew 21:1-17

Jesus Comes to Jerusalem as King

21 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, ² saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. ³ If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”

⁴ This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

⁵ “Say to Daughter Zion,
    ‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
    and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”

⁶ The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. ⁷ They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. ⁸ A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.⁹ The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

“Hosanna to the Son of David!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

¹⁰ When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”

¹¹ The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Jesus at the Temple

¹² Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. ¹³ “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”

¹⁴ The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. ¹⁵ But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.

¹⁶ “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him.

“Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read,

“‘From the lips of children and infants
    you, Lord, have called forth your praise’?”

¹⁷ And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.

In my lifetime, I've heard and read the story of the Triumphant Entry many times. It alway strikes me that the disciples just did what Jesus told them to do. When he asked them to go steal...er borrow a donkey...they just did. No questions asked. Did they wonder why Jesus needed a donkey? Were they worried someone would ask why they were taking a donkey that belonged to someone else? Did they even get questioned? Did they untie the donkey and run like crazy in case someone tried to take it back? Or even...did they question how Jesus knew there was going to be a donkey there (with her colt) in the first place?

When Matthew mentions "a very large crowd" gathered to see Jesus on the donkey, it was in fact a VERY large crowd according to this commentary:

Given the laws of Deut 16, Passover crowds were predictably huge. Jews streamed into Jerusalem from all over Palestine and from foreign lands as well (Acts 2:5-11 speaks of "Jews from every nation under heaven" gathered in Jerusalem for Pentecost, another of the festivals required in Deut 16). Jeremias writes that "the influx of pilgrims at Passover time from all over the world was immense, and amounted to several times the population of Jerusalem" (Jerusalem in the Time of Jesus, 84). He estimates that during a Passover in Jesus' day, there might be as many as 150,000 persons in Jerusalem, 25-30,000 of these being inhabitants of the city. Josephus speaks (in doubtless exaggerated terms) of a crowd numbering 2,700,000 (ibid., 78; see further 77-84). This situation helps to explain the size of the crowds that accompanied Jesus from Galilee and into Jerusalem, Mt 19:1-2; 21:8.

The fickleness of this "very large crowd" is quickly realized as the week progresses but in this passage it is clear that even though Jesus arrives in such a humble way, he stirs the crowd to action. I thought this commentary said it well:

The King enters Jerusalem. He has no tank or limousine. He rides a rental donkey. There’s not well-placed tickertape or regalia. The crowd’s reaction is spontaneous and spur of the moment. They grab palms, a symbol of victory, and strew the road with their own garments.

It is hard not to imagine the Apostles’ chests puffing up a bit, their chin held a little higher than normal, as they could say to those they met, “I’m with Him.” This was the day they had been waiting for. This was the pay off for trudging around Israel with Jesus. Now they were going to be superstars.

But you know what happened. But a few days later their puffed up chests were deflated like a balloon, popped by the nails that pierced their Master’s hands and feet. This was not the coronation they expected, as their King was crowned with thorns. This was not the throne they expected, as He ascended the cross. And when Peter faced that crucial moment, faced it three times, he answered, no longer in pride but now in fear, “I’m not with Him.”

Palm Sunday is an odd mixture of sentiments for the Christian. We are happy for Jesus. He is finally getting the praise He deserves. We swell with pride as our King enters Jerusalem as a King, welcomed for once, welcomed with such excitement that the whole city was astir, asking “Who is this Jesus?” And for once the crowds get it right. “He is the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Crowd mentality is a dangerous thing. It is so easy to get caught up in the hype of a crowd, weather it be good or bad. There's power in numbers and the sense of anonymity makes it possible to for things to happen that wouldn't in smaller numbers. (On a side note of that, I think of gossip and "ganging up" in a crowd. A few years ago, a group of parents at my school, decided one of our students in a class was "bad news" and they gossiped and spread stories and circumstances morphed out of control as stories were exaggerated and it became sour really quickly. It was terrible. Is that what happened in the week before Jesus was crucified? Did some rumours and gossip start and then spread out of control without anyone being able to stop it?)

The second part of Today's reading focuses on Jesus in the Temple and how he cleanses the Temple. The Temple has changed to something other than its purpose: Again from this commentary:

Upon his entry into the temple, Jesus finds persons "buying and selling" (21:12). The scene is the Court of the Gentiles (see the ground plan of Herod's Temple in NBD, 1246). The merchants in question first buy the requisites for sacrifice (animals, wine, oil, salt, etc.) and then sell them to the worshippers (most of whom, having travelled from afar, could not bring their offerings with them). Of the animals, Mt and Mk mention only doves, Jn "cattle, sheep and doves," and Lk none. Given the laws of Deut 16, the number of sacrificial victims for a Passover in Jesus' day "ran into many thousands" (Jeremias, Jerusalem, 57; see ibid., 48-49, 56-57). We can easily imagine how lucrative the business would be for those engaged in buying and selling the required merchandise. (Cf. American commerce at Christmastime.) And there was doubtless the temptation especially with many worshippers at the merchants' mercy - to charge exorbitant prices for the needed sacrifices (think of the cost of food at a football game or an airport).

Mt 21:12 speaks also of "the money-changers [kollybistai]." In the Palestine of Jesus' day the circulating currency consisted primarily of Roman money; but all money for the Jewish temple (notably the annual temple tax, 17:24) had to be paid in Tyrian coinage, "since the Tyrian shekel was the closest available equivalent to the old Hebrew shekel" (Lane, Mark, 405) (The reason for this stipulation was therefore not that Roman coins bore "heathen embellishments," such as the emperor's image; for Tyrian coins bore heathen symbols too. See Morris, John, 193-94, following Israel Abrahams.) The task of the kollybistai was to exchange Roman currency for Tyrian. The stipulated surcharge was minimal (1/24th of a shekel); but - or therefore - one might charge an exorbitant rate of exchange for foreign currency, or perhaps "short change" an unsuspecting foreigner. During Passover, money-changing might prove to be as lucrative as merchandising (cf. Morris, John, 193, n. 59).

Jesus makes His presence and His intentions very clear. This would have been very unpopular to the ones getting rich on the misuse of the Temple. It was probably even more of a blow when these people heard the cries of praise from the children. Do you know how painfully honest kids are? They have little or no restraint and they tell it like it is... (During a "meet and greet" meeting with one of my new Grade 1 friends this week, when asked about his summer, proceeded to tell me a detailed story about his penis...much to the horror of his parents!)...and the children were shouting and praising! The children were honest and real and not afraid to show it. Are we?

Matthew 18:3 says:
                            And he said: "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little
                                       children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Can we do that? Can we become like children and shout and praise and not be swayed by protocol or gossip or greed or circumstances?

Tomorrow's scripture focus: Matthew 21:18-27

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: Ezekiel 40-41