Matthew 21:18 Rather then trying to unravel the mystery of the fig tree, let us observe what is easily to be understood from this event. Here in this verse we can learn something of Jesus’ practices. And they reveal that he indeed practiced what he preached. Rather than being concerned first with his hunger, he…
Matthew 21:17 The wisdom of Christ is always amazing to me. Bethany was his refuge. It was his place of rest. It was a temporary headquarters while away from Galilee. He is the Sovereign Lord of all, who has every place at his disposal, and yet he knows the need for a place of refuge.…
Matthew 21:16 As in many cases in the New Testament, if you look up the verse that Jesus refers to here, Psalm 8:2, in the Old Testament it will not say exactly the same thing. This kind of thing could be the source of confusion, and offense, to those who are weak in their faith.…
Matthew 21:15 These wonderful things he did were the healing of the lame and blind and the cleansing of the temple by driving away those who bought and sold. The children were repeating what they had heard outside, but the adults did not dare to say it for fear of the chief priests and scribes.…
Matthew 21:14 Those who want to look for reasons to ridicule God’s Word will find opportunities if they look hard enough. Blind and lame people, walking to Christ, how could that be? Obviously, the blind and the lame mentioned in this verse were assisted by others. However, what Matthew is trying to highlight here is…
Matthew 21:13 This is quite interesting in that Jesus is quoting a prophecy. Isaiah 56:7 is the verse he is referring to. Although prophecy is true, and will be fulfilled, Jesus faults them for not being consistent with the Scriptures. In other words, for the Jewish leadership to think that God’s house would be a…
Matthew 21:12 Jesus comes to the temple to, for the second time, clean it up. The Jewish leaders were so interested in materialistic things that allowing the temple to be filled with merchandising was no issue for them. When considering the profit to themselves, they were very loose in their understanding of what was allowable…
Matthew 21:11 This is a faithless answer. Though it recognizes Jesus as a prophet, it does not contain any affirmation of his being the Messiah. It is a sad reminder that his own received him not. Many have said that this was actually an affirmation because they were saying he was ‘The Prophet’ which Moses…
Matthew 21:10 It is important to understand exactly what happened here. The word translated ‘moved’ here means just what it says. It literally means that all of the city was agitated, set in motion, shook up, etc. by his arrival. Why was there such a response? For at least a couple of reasons. First, many…
Matthew 21:9 The Triumphal Entry, as we call this event, has led to some confusion I think because we fail to understand what was missing. This verse shows that the crowd of persons following Jesus understood he was the Messiah. They asked him to ‘Hosanna’ or ‘Save now!’ and this desire was surely genuine. Why…