The New Testament with Commentary Matthew 21

The last week

The triumphal entry—Sunday, 03/31/30AD

1 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, opposite the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them: “Go into the village opposite you and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose her and bring them to me. 3 And if anyone says anything to you, just say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and immediately he will send them.” 4 Now all this happened so that what was spoken through the prophet should be fulfilled, namely:

5 “Say to the daughter of Zion,

‘Look, your King is coming to you,

humble and mounted on a donkey,

in fact, a young donkey,

foal of a beast of burden.’ ”*

6 So going and doing just as Jesus had commanded them, 7 the disciples brought the female donkey and the young donkey. And they placed their clothes on them and He sat down on them [the clothes].† 8 And the very large crowd spread their clothes on the road, while others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them on the road. 9 Then the crowds who went in front and those who followed kept crying out, saying:

“Hosanna to the Son of David!

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!‡

Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

10 So when He came into Jerusalem the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?”§ 11 And the crowds kept saying, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Natsareth of Galilee.”

The second cleansing of the temple*

12 Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all who were selling and buying in the temple, and He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold the doves. 13 And He says to them, “It is written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it ‘a cave of bandits’.”† 14 And the lame and the blind came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.

15 But seeing the wonders that He did, and the children calling out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” the chief priests and the scribes became indignant 16 and said to Him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” So Jesus says to them: “Yes. Have you never read that

‘Out of the mouth of babies and nursing infants

You have prepared praise for Yourself’?”‡

17 Leaving them behind He went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.

“If you have faith”—Monday, 04/01/30 AD

18 Now in the early morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry. 19 And seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He went up to it and found nothing on it, just leaves.§ And He says to it, “May you never again produce fruit!” And forthwith the fig tree started to wither.* 20 And seeing it the disciples marveled saying, “How quickly the fig tree became withered!”† 21 So in answer Jesus said to them: “Assuredly I say to you, if you (pl.) have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you should say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and be thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. 22 And anything whatever you may ask in the believing prayer, you will receive.”

About John's baptism—Tuesday, 04/02/30 AD

23 So He came into the temple, and as He was teaching the chief priests and the elders of the people approached Him saying, “By what kind of authority are you doing these things?” and “Who gave you this authority?” 24 But in answer Jesus said to them: “I also will ask you one question, which if you tell me, I also will tell you by what authority I do these things: 25 The baptism of John—where was it from; from heaven or from men?” So they reasoned among themselves saying: “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ 26 But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the crowd, for all consider John as a prophet.” 27 So in answer to Jesus they said, “We do not know.” So He said to them: “Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.

Two parables against the Pharisees

28 “But what do you think? A certain man had two sons, and going to the first he said, ‘Son, go work today in my vineyard.’ 29 But in answer he said, ‘I don't want to’ (but later he changed his mind and went). 30 And going to the other he said likewise. And in answer he said, ‘I go, Sir’; yet he did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of the father?” They say to Him, “The first.” Jesus says to them: “Assuredly I say to you that the tax collectors and the prostitutes will go into the kingdom of God before you do.‡ 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him, yet when you saw it you did not afterward repent, so as to believe him.

33 “Hear another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to farmers and went on a journey. 34 When vintage-time drew near he sent his servants to the farmers to receive his fruits. 35 But the farmers took his servants—one they beat, one they killed, one they stoned. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did to them likewise. 37 So finally he sent his son to them saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the farmers saw the son they said among themselves: ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and take possession of his inheritance.’ 39 And taking him they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?” 41 They say to Him: “He will miserably destroy those miserable men! And he will lease the vineyard to other farmers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.” 42 Jesus says to them: “Did you never read in the Scriptures:

‘A stone which the builders rejected,

this one became the cornerstone.

This was the Lord's doing,

and it is marvelous in our eyes’?§

43 Therefore I say to you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it.* 44 Also, whoever falls upon this stone will be broken to pieces; but upon whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.”†

45 As the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables they knew that He was speaking about them.‡ 46 And although they wanted to seize Him, they were afraid of the crowds, because they considered Him as a prophet.

*21:5 The quote is from Zechariah 9:9. Unfortunately the KJV (corrected by the NKJV) mistranslates both the Hebrew and the Greek, making it appear that Jesus rode both animals, which was not the case; He rode only the colt. For a more complete discussion, please see the Appendix: How many animals?

†21:7 It must have been a curious sight—no one had ever seen anything like it. Mark 11:2 and Luke 19:30 make clear that no one had ever ridden the colt. It was so young it was still staying close to ‘mother’, so if she was tied he was too. Jesus was going to expose the colt to a frightening experience—be ridden for the first time, by a stranger, someone perhaps heavier than the colt, and in the middle of a noisy crowd! So He has them bring the mother along as moral support. The disciples put clothes on both animals (the clothes would be very strange to the young donkey, but seeing his mother take it patiently would help his peace of mind), but Jesus rode only the colt—maybe He had to lift His feet so they didn't drag! It was probably comical, a strange way for a King to present Himself.

‡21:9 See Psalm 118:26.

§21:10 Really and truly: can't you just see the hubbub! The crowd with Jesus was not from Jerusalem (John 12:12), so the locals were taken by surprise.

*21:11 Mark and Luke have the correct sequence of events for that Sunday, Monday and Tuesday—Matthew rearranges the material for stylistic reasons (presumably). For the correct sequence of events, read Matthew 21:1-11, 18-19, 12-17, 20-22, 23-46. Chapters 22-26 are in sequence.

†21:13 See Isaiah 56:7 (Jeremiah 7:11).

‡21:16 See Psalm 8:2.

§21:19 As Mark points out (Mark 11:13), it was not fig season, but a tree with leaves might have some dried figs. Since dried figs are very good eating, any visible figs would have been eaten long since (the tree was near the road).

*21:19 The Text has ‘the sap was cut off’; the result would not be visible immediately.

†21:20 According to Mark this was 24 hours later.

‡21:31 The Lord's words were definitely not designed to make them happy! In effect, He goes on to show that their refusal to answer His question was duplicitous. They knew good and well that John's baptism was from heaven.

§21:42 See Psalm 118:22-23.

*21:43 That is what the Text says, ‘a nation’, which makes me wonder which ‘nation’ that might be. Since at any given time a nation is made up of the people alive at the moment, an Israel in the distant future would be a different ‘nation’. However, in 1 Peter 2:9 the Church is called “a holy nation”, so perhaps the reference is to the Church.

†21:44 Two Greek manuscripts (of inferior quality: D and 33—Codex D is possibly the worst copy in existence), against some 1700, omit verse 44. In consequence the so-called ‘critical’ text, UBS4/N-A27 (which reproduces the text of UBS3/N-A26), places the verse within brackets, thereby affirming that in their opinion the verse is not genuine. NIV informs us that “Some manuscripts do not have verse 44.” By “some” they mean two against 1700—is that not a dishonest use of the English language? To join Jesus means you have to be broken (so you can be remade), but to reject Him…

‡21:45 They understood, so they were warned; but they did not pay attention to the warning. They went to hell with their eyes open. They would rather go to hell than acknowledge Jesus as Messiah. Today it is the same way—many would rather go to hell than acknowledge Jesus as Creator and Savior.