Matthew 21:1-17

21:1-3 | The time had arrived for Jesus to be presented to Israel as the Messiah. Jesus chose to act out this truth in a public and memorable way, especially for the two disciples who had the task of bringing Him the lowly animal He would ride into Jerusalem. His instructions to them could come only from one with supernatural knowledge.

21:4-7 | Matthew quotes two OT texts (Isa. 62:11; Zech. 9:9). These refer to only one animal, not two, and the original poetry identifies the donkey as a colt. Perhaps Matthew mentions two animals (although only one ridden) to show that the colt was so young no one had ever ridden it (Mark 11:2). Yet it calmly bore the Prince of Peace.

21:6-9 | The people showed that they were receiving Christ as royalty by spreading their clothes and palm branches on the road before Him and shouting words meant only for the Messiah (Ps. 118:2).

21:9-11 | As the crowd entered the city gates during Jesus’ Triumphal Entry, their zeal grabbed the attention of all of Jerusalem’s citizens. When Matthew writes tha tthe city was moved, he uses a Greek term (seio) related to the English word seismic.

21:12-13 | For the second time Jesus cleared the temple (the first time described in John 2:13-17). The merchants and money changers set up shop in the temple to offer animals for sacrifice and exchange currency for temple coins, but they did so at high rates of exchange and thus cheated worshipers. God’s house was profaned by the greed of these people, and it rightly angered Jesus (Isa. 56:7; Jer. 7:11; Mal. 3:1).

12:14-16 | The indignation of the cheif priests and scribes had less to do with the wonderful things Jesus did than with the children’s cries of Hosanna to the Son of David! Although the children may not have known the significance of the chant, the religious leaders instantly recognized that these words pointed to the arrival of the Messiah (Ps. 8:2). The religious leaders should have recognized Jesus as the Messiah first, for they had awaited Him and pointed others to Him. Yet they stubbornly refused to believe Jesus was the Annointed One.