Matthew 21

Matthew 21:1-46

THE CHRIST AND FAST- Matthew 21:1-46. BIBLE narratives are characterized by simplicity and directness. “And when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the Mount of Olives”. Certainly inspiration is the soul of brevity, and the record of Jesus’ movements is made with all the naturalness of dependable history.It is said of certain apocryphal books that purport to relate the infant life of Jesus, that they are full of extravagances of thought and statement; but all good students know that the New Testament Gospels are plain, straightforward reports of what seem, on their very faces, to be a series of facts.It would not be impossible to make a long chapter on the journey of Jesus to Jerusalem, with the incidents of His stopover at Bethphage, the Mount of Olives. Instead Matthew records it in a short sentence. This sentence, however, looks to an incident, as does each of four or five introductory sentences that characterize this 21st chapter and mark division points in its thought.THE CITY ENTERED. “Then sent Jesus two disciples, saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them and bring them unto Me. “And if any man say aught unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them: and straightway he will send them. “All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet, saying, “Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. “And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them. “And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set Him thereon. “And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strewed them in the way. “And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest. “And when He was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? “And the multitude said, This is Jesus the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee” (Matthew 21:2-11). This Scripture brings to the mind definite suggestions worthy of study.His entry was in deep humility. But yesterday, I stopped at a little hotel in a small town and I saw a man drive a horse hitched to an old-fashioned buggy up to an old-time hitching post, and climbing out of this antique conveyance, tether the animal, blanketing him against the falling snow, and walk away. Involuntarily, I laughed; and yet, for a present-day king to appear in public, conveyed by such a rig, eschewing all elegant and up-to-date automobiles, would not be more out of harmony with the common thought of kingship itself than was the conduct of Christ, who asked for no splendid span of steeds and no elegant chariot in which to enter Jerusalem as king, but rather called for an ass instead, the most homely and humble of conveying beasts, and subjected himself to the further ridicule of choosing one that was followed by a colt.If you ask why, the answer is at hand,“All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet, saying, “Tell ye the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass” (Matthew 21:4-5). The reference is plainly to that marvellous Old Testament Prophet, Zechariah—the man whose vision of the fact was clear, and whose comprehension of the Coming King and the Kingdom was never exceeded. He had said,“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass” (Zechariah 9:9). And, as if to show how the humble could conquer against the proud, he continued,“And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the battle bow shall be cut off: and He shall speak peace unto the heathen: and His dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the earth” (Zechariah 9:10). We may not see all the reasons God has for His conduct. We may not be able to explain the course of history in a way satisfactory to ourselves. We may often wonder why the lowly path is trodden when the elegant highway is near at hand. But let it be understood that the Divine reasons may be merely too deep for the shallow human brain. Again and again He is compelled to say to us, “What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter”. Time and time alone can take of the things of God and show them unto us.Twenty centuries have passed since Christ rode into Jerusalem on the foal of an ass. We are all glad now that He went that way. It is the way of humility.

It is the way possible to all men. Christ came not to the great alone. Christ came not alone to the high and to the mighty. Christ came to the humble as well; and the man who rides into town today upon the foal of an ass, need not be ashamed. The man who walks in the furrow today and follows an old-fashioned plow, need not be ashamed. The man who, by the honorable toil of carpenter work, earns his living, need not be ashamed.

He can remind the world that history has again attested the truth of it, both in Christ and in the instance of many another, that the humblest can have the kingly spirit, and the most lowly can be lifted even to the throne of the universe.His appearance was according to the prophecy. He “who thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but humbled Himself and took upon Himself the form of a man”, did not hesitate to humble Himself in riding the foal of an ass.

He was far more anxious to fulfil the Divine appointment than to meet the human expectation. Of Him it had been prophesied concerning His attitude to God, “Lo, I come to do Thy will”. He was not in the world to choose His own way. He was here to walk in the way divinely appointed. He was here to convert the prophecy regarding Him into history concerning Him.There are a great many people who are marking out grand paths for themselves. There are a great many people who are ambitious for high honors. There are a great many people who seek exalted stations. There are a great many people who are ambitious for crowns and thrones.

But the best crowned man the world knows is the man who walks to divinely appointed honors, however humble the way he may take.I was reading but yesterday the Current History of April 26th, and the rather remarkable article written by the greatest old man living in America today—Chauncey M. Depew—and I was profoundly impressed by what he had to say concerning Abraham Lincoln, whom he knew well in the flesh. Of him he wrote, “The election of Lincoln marked a definite period in American life. Most of our Presidents had been aristocrats. Lincoln was a commoner, almost unknown and wholly untried in the larger issues of government. He came into power when the destiny of the Union was gravely threatened, and from the first moment of his elevation he determined to preserve it against any peril.

That calm resolution spread to many of his countrymen. Men everywhere realized that a leader had arisen.”But when did any government ever exalt to its head so humble a man—humble in birth, humble in education, humble in his estimate of himself, humble in dress and manners, and yet, what a king!

When will men learn that all their grand ways and all their parades of style and all their professions of greatness are contemptible in the sight of God? When will men learn the Law of the Lord, “He that humbleth himself shall be exalted”, and whether they learn or not, they can never forget that Christ, who was a very God of very God, Creator of all things, King of Glory, came in humble mien, and even when His Kingship was declared and shouts of acclaim rang to the ears of Him who appeared with no outward show of pomp, with no symbols of glory, but as the plainest, simplest and poorest of men. Truly, here we anticipate the words of our next lesson.“He that is greatest among you shall be your servant. Whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted” (Matthew 23:11-12). Plain people are often privileged Divine secrets. The multitude saw in Jesus what proud Pharisees and Scribes could not even imagine, and as those multitudes went before Him and followed after Him, they voiced their faith by crying,“Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest. “And when He was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? “And the multitude said, This is Jesus the Prophet of Nazareth of Galilee”. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. THE TEMPLE . “And Jesus went into the Temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the Temple, and overthrew the tables of the money-changers, and the seats of them that sold doves, “And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. “And the blind and the lame came to Him in the Temple; and He healed them. “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying in the Temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, “And said unto Him, Hearest Thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; Have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise”? (Matthew 21:12-16). The report of this incident involves certain questions. There is an impression in the world that Christ had no right to exercise indignation, and there had always been an indisposition to accept the judgment of children as final concerning any matter or man.The record of these verses involved both subjects.We solemnly maintain that His indignation was justified. He not only objected to converting the Temple into an exchange counter, but with hot indignation, He overthrew the tables of money— changers and the seats of them that sold doves. We have another record to the effect that with cords He scourged these same from this sacred place. Long before the inspired pen of the Prophet Isaiah had written concerning converts to the way of the Lord, “Even them will I bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer” (Isaiah 56:7). To that end was His house appointed—a house of prayer; but He found that it had not only been made a house of barter—that was bad enough—but the rendevous of thieves infinitely worse, and a den of robbers.

Men may say that all days are sacred and so they are; but that is not to say that there is not a Sabbath a bit more sacred still. Men may say that all houses should be places of prayer, and such they should be; but that is not to say that the Temple of God was not specifically appointed to that end, and to that end alone.I want to remark in passing that the longer I live, and the more closely I observe, the more profoundly I am impressed with the fact that God’s house, the church building if you please, is to be kept holy unto the Lord.

There is not a day that I do not thank Him for having opened my own eyes in time to save this sanctuary from becoming a play-house, an athletic club, a swimming pool, and so on.There are men in the city who justify their course in converting portions of their sanctuaries into dance halls, and certain platforms of the church house into theatrical stages. It is my deliberate judgment, my profound and increasing conviction, that God’s house was never so intended, and that it is both a social mistake and a sacrifice to so use it. The church will never be able to provide a well-appointed dance hall as the world offers to all them who want that enticing and tempting exercise, and the church will never be able to compete in an essential sense with the modern stage. Its efforts in these directions are poor seconds of what the world is and does; and in my judgment those same efforts are nothing better than sacrilege. It is my candid conviction that the present Y. M.

C. A.’s of America, if they dropped the name Christian, now that they have ceased to hold evangelical meetings and are known as athletic and social clubs, it would be better for the cause of Christ, and would free them from any just criticism.

As such clubs they would perform a special and possibly desirable function, but with no soul-winning services, and with the Bible uniformly taught in their halls by destructive critics, they are performing no Christian service, and are rendering no special assistance to the True Church of God.We remark how His compassion excited sincere praise.“And the blind and the lame came to Him in the Temple; and He healed them. “And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying in the Temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased, “And said unto Him, Hearest Thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise” (Matthew 21:14-16). It is most amazing how man’s ideas survive the centuries. There are plenty of churches in America now that would be practically broken up if on this beautiful Sunday morning, the blind and the lame came unto them, even though they came to be healed. There are plenty of professed church men who don’t want to be bothered with the blind, who don’t want to have to sit in the same pew with the lame. They like to have their Sundays for quiet, intellectual pastime, and their pews, if not filled by the family, then with other fine folk, and their preachers to instruct them on the latest sensation of the day; and such are annoyed if children in any considerable numbers come into the Temple, and especially if those children are not well-behaved children. A crying baby in the average church can put a whole congregation to the bad. It is not difficult to imagine, therefore, the disgust the Scribes and Pharisees of old felt when a whole company of children broke forth into “Hosanna to the Son of David”, and bitterly inquired of Jesus, “Hearest Thou what these say”? and Jesus calmly answered, “Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise”?

Once more prophecy is fulfilled, for long ago the Psalmist with pen of inspiration, had said, “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast Thou ordained strength because of Thine enemies, that Thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger” (Psalms 8:2). There isn’t much passion in the present-day praises that go up to God. Modernism seeks to modify all things akin to a shout. The highest cultured music is now supposed to be expressed in the softest tone; but in spite of it all, genuine love is passionate still. All about the country there are men and women whose redemption from sin has been such a marvelous and unexpected experience that they will break forth in praises to God, in annoying “amens”, and will both “shout and sing”.THE FIG TREE CURSED. “And He left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and He lodged there. “Now in the morning as He returned into the city, He hungered. “And when He saw a fig tree in the way, He came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away! “And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away! “Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done. “And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive” (Matthew 20:17-22). This is the passage recently singled out by flaw searchers as confirming the lone sin of Christ. Professor Parmelee, whose book on “Criminology” was two years ago used as a text-book in the State University, says of this incident of Christ’s cursing the fig tree “This is like the child or savage who trips over a stone and then strikes it in anger because it hurt him.”Poor Professor! True it is that the “natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit” “neither indeed can he know them, they are foolishness unto him”.Of all the incidents recorded in the New Testament there is scarce one that more exalts the Christ and better instructs men than the incident of the cursed fig tree, the record of which is before us.Let us analyze the statement “In the morning as He returned into the city, He hungered”. How grateful we ought to be for those two words, “He hungered”. Christ was a man subject to like passions with us; He hungered as we hunger; He thirsted as we thirst; He was weary as we are weary; He was tempted in all points like as we are. Blessed be His Name!

He knoweth how to sympathize with us and how to succor us in all times of trial. Oh, the joy that Jesus felt my infirmities!

Men may debate as long as they please how far He felt them, but it is my enheartening conviction that He felt them to the uttermost. I can never be in any position, I can never pass through any experience, but He will understand. As old Joseph Parker said, “For one brief moment He was an atheist” even when He hung on the Cross and the sun hid its face from the sight of His suffering and the blackness of darkness wrapped Him about, He lost faith and cried, “My God! My God! why hast Thou forgotten Me”!Men and women are always imagining that their peculiar predicaments exceed any that anybody else ever had; that there is something in their case that did not exist before. How foolish! Men and women by the thousands have passed through the same experiences that you are passing through and endured the same darkness, entertained the same awful apprehensions, felt the intolerable depression that is upon your soul; and Christ, who had felt more deeply still, sustained them and strengthened them and brought them through.

He who hungered will be with you.But again, “When He saw the fig tree in the way He came to it, and found nothing thereon but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever, and presently the fig tree withered away”!Yet how kindly His speech! For a man to object to this curse upon the fig tree is to show himself a most superficial thinker.

What is a fig tree for? God made it to what end? Prof. Parmelee could never have read Genesis 2:9, “Out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food”. There are trees that God created for the vision of man. The beauty of the world is simply the expression of God’s esthetic nature; and the fruit of the earth of God’s provision for His own. God never blames the honeysuckle for not bearing fruit; it was appointed for beauty; it was intended to give pleasure to the eye and fragrance to the nostrils. But that was not the object of the fig trees; they were created for fruit.

What would Prof. Parmelee do if his automobile would not run, except to cast it away? What would he do with the air-plane that would not fly, except to contribute it to the junk-heap? And when he put away the automobile that would not run and cast to the junk-heap the air-plane that would not fly, what would he think of the men who would condemn him for so doing? He would dubb them childish! What else could he do with such junk? I suppose he would put his automobile in the middle of the road and leave his air-plane in the flying field, would he? Why keep in the way mere obstructions?

Why not be sensible and cast them aside, even as the text suggests? Why leave a fruitless tree to cumber the ground? A fruitless tree performs no useful service. Since it is unfeeling, its removal involves no suffering or even sentimental wrong. Prof. Parmelee’s sort are not scientific. They are merely over-sentimental. This may be the product of sedentary habits.

It certainly is not the demand of science nor the command of Scripture.But we pass on.There is a significance in this twenty-third verse not to be lightly regarded. It is in the question, “By what authority doest Thou these things”? If there was nothing else in Scripture to show the mental and spiritual size of a Scribe and Pharisee, that question would do it. We have never yet known a man to raise and discuss the question of authority who was other than a small man. Big men exercise it. They never declare it. Let men feel it. They always resent it when exercized by another and desire it for themselves.

In this instance, Christ treated that question with the contempt it always deserves. He answered it by putting to them a question they dare not answer, and then He went straight to two illustrations, or parables, of a man who had two sons and the householder who planted a vineyard. In the first parable—the man of two sons—a glib profession is contrasted with genuine repentance. The second son was like the fig tree. He made a fair profession. In answer to the command, “Son, go work to day in my vineyard”, the son answered, “I go, and went not”. There are people who agree with you whatever you require and promise you whatever you ask. On professions they are great, but in practice nil.

There are others who do better than they ever promised, for the first said, “I will not”, but afterward he repented and went. If there is anything that Christ abominated, it was a mere profession. If there was anything that Christ appreciated, it was genuine repentance. To this day, God’s attitude towards these is unchanged. Pharisees of His time were fair professors. He repudiated their pretenses and pronounced their condemnation. Publicans and harlots of His day gave little promise, but many of them repented, and in every instance were received, blessed and employed. You see your way.

God’s method, like God’s mind, changeth not. Hear another parable and see God’s grace contrasted by man’s ingratitude. The parable of the “householder who planted a vineyard, hedged it about, digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to a husbandman”, the Chief Priests and Pharisees perfectly understood. They perceived that He spake of them. They knew perfectly well that in this parable He had recited their personal history. From time immemorial, they had been the subjects of His favor, and yet, when He had sent His servants to get fruit from them, they had beaten some and killed others, and when at last He had sent unto them His son, they were ready to lay violent hands upon Him and put Him to death.

Anticipating that act, He told them of the judgment that awaited and hinted that the Kingdom would be taken from them and proffered to the Gentiles.But, Christ was doing more than cursing. Judgment is always a strange work.

Mercy is His nature. In this incident, He was teaching men—mercifully teaching men. He took an inanimate object, an unfeeling object, an object that could not suffer, and by cursing it, he instructed men against a kindred fruitlessness, knowing full well that fruitless men would suffer. Does anybody object when we take a tree, cut it down, hew its parts into the form of a cross and erect them at some sacred spot? Hardly! They stand as symbols of the Christ. They speak of a sacrifice for sin. They tell the story of redeeming love.

Does anybody object when we take grapes and squeeze the juice out of them and serve them at the Lord’s table, saying, that this is an unkindness toward the grapes? Hardly, since that holy ordinance tells men again and again that they were purchased with the precious Blood of the Son of God thereby symbolized. Many a man has proven himself fruitless, has found himself cast aside. What else can God do? If Prof. Parmelee is agreed by the conduct of Christ in making an insentient to instruct immortal men, what would he say to the conduct of God, the Father, in driving a prophetless king from his throne to dwell with the beasts of the field, to eat grass like an ox and to be wet with the dew of heaven? (Daniel 4:25.) It was to save God from such judgment that this symbol of judgment was used of Jesus.

Is it better that trees should perish and men learn by watching their withering leaves, or that men should continue in the folly of a fruitful profession? A four-year-old child should reason more clearly, and, in fact, does reason more clearly than a Prof.

Parmelee? Truly, if this is the best the world can bring against Christ, He stands exempt from the charge of sin.THE AND WICKED . This chapter concludes with two parables, but they hold a single objective, and at many points they are not parallel. See Matthew 21:23-46. Once more Jesus reminded them of prophecy: “The Stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner.” Aye, that’s the Stone that smote the kingdoms of the earth and ground them to powder; that’s the Stone that gushed living water in the desert; that’s the Stone that was a “Rock in the weary land”; and yet, that’s the Stone concerning which “whosoever shall fall on it shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder”. These chief priests and Pharisees were not ignorant men. They properly interpreted these parables and perceived that He spoke of them, but they repented not; in fact, their hearts hardened the more; anger rose within their breasts; their fingers clinched with desire to throttle; and only the fear of the multitude delayed their deadly desire. How terrific the lesson: The Gospel is the “savour of life unto life or of death unto death”. The men and women who hear me this morning will either be profited by it, repent in consequence of it, seek and find the favor of God, or you will go out from this house, hardened in heart, the more determined in your opposition, and the more certain of His judgment.