Matthew 21:14-17 (ESV) – And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?” And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there. [Jesus didn’t leave the Temple area after this, but stayed there. In the past, He would’ve gone away from the area to let things simmer down a bit, but this was His time. In a sense, He was giving a grand finale to all to prove He was the Messiah, or at least to give them all the proof they should’ve needed if their spiritual eyes were open and in tune with the things of God. He’d been doing that for three years, but now His teaching, miracles and actions couldn’t be missed by anyone, especially the Jewish leadership, as He did all this in their midst—the Temple. How do you think the blind and the lame got there? No doubt their friends and family took advantage of Jesus being in their midst. Can you blame them? There was not one person who came to Him that He didn’t heal. Certainly the crowds could see the power of God at work through Jesus. But the spiritually blind Pharisees saw none of it. They just saw a threat. The acclamation of the crowds continued. How could you fault them? They were seeing things they’ never seen before. Children (who’s more uninhibited than children?!) continued to shout praises to Jesus. Since Jesus was actually doing these things in the chief priests’ and teachers’ of the Law back yard so to speak, it appears many of them were witnesses to what Jesus was doing and teaching. But they weren’t awed by it (or didn’t allow themselves to be awed or persuaded by it). And listening to the children sing Jesus’ praises just incensed them. David Guzik has a great comment on this: “The hypocrisy of the religious leaders is evident. Greed and theft in the temple didn’t bother them, but praise to Jesus did.” studylight.org/com/guz/view.cgi?bk=mt&ch=21 They couldn’t believe Jesus allowed it to happen. They were indignant. But Jesus was in no mood to stop these children. If the religious leaders couldn’t (more like WOULDN’T) acknowledge who He was, these children were fulfilling the will of God. Notice Jesus’ reference to Scripture. Here He quotes Psalm 8:2. While this was a small detail of Scriptural fulfillment, it was just another in a long series of reasons the Jewish leadership had utterly no reason to not see who Jesus was. That ended Jesus’ day. He walked the two miles east to Bethany to maybe spend the night with Lazarus, Mary and Martha (or it could’ve been the home of Simon the Leper). That would’ve been a great way to end the day, enjoying the company of good friends in a peaceful setting. But where He and the disciples stayed is speculation.]
Posted on: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 10:31:15 +0000