Biblestudy: Matthew (Part Twenty-Six)

Matthew 20:19 - 21:11
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John W. Ritenbaugh (1932-2023)
Given 14-Jul-82; 84 minutes

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We got up to the end of verse 19 of chapter 20 and now we are in Matthew 20 a little bit past halfway through the chapter. You will recall that at the time we ended the study Jesus had been walking ahead of His followers. They were on their way toward the general vicinity of Jerusalem. And when we put the three accounts together—Matthew, Mark, and Luke—we find that each one of them adds a little bit to the story; gives us some insight as to what was going on. And we find that Jesus was walking ahead of the group, rather than being with them. He was off by Himself and He was very deep in thought.

And then finally, apparently, after walking that way for quite a period of time, we find what it was that He was thinking about. They were, it shows here in Matthew, a little bit concerned about asking Him a question, because it was so apparent that He was deep in thought. He did not want to be disturbed. When He finally did, we found out what He was thinking about. And that was His choices, I guess you might say, or I should say the prophecies that led up to His choice.

He had come to the time when He knew that He was on a direct collision course with the authorities there in Jerusalem. And I am sure that He could have, if He chose, stayed away, and just kind of blended into the woodwork for quite a period of time. He could have preserved His life.

We find that He was thinking about several things and I gave you just six of them. I gave you some prophecies that are shown in the Old Testament. Things that He was no doubt thinking about, such as Psalm 55 where it said that He was going to be betrayed by a friend; Psalm 88, it showed that He was going to have to suffer the disloyalty of all of His disciples, that all of them were going to flee from Him, and to leave Him alone. I showed you that Jesus Christ, the innocent One, was going to have to suffer the injustice of being accused of things that He did not do. And then of course, He was going to have to be put to death as a result of that.

Several psalms showed that He was going to be mocked; deliberate humiliation. We did not go into it too much, but it even showed that He was going to be spit upon. The prophecies also showed that He was going to be scourged, a very horrible torture (Psalm 22:17); Isaiah 52, a tremendous amount of physical pain; and finally He was going to be crucified. That was all on His mind.

And then He made the choice, and He told them that He was going to go into Jerusalem, and that He was going to have to suffer death.

Now, that is a very interesting prelude for what follows. It gives us some keen insight into the disciples. It shows how carnal they were. It very definitely shows that they were not converted, because if this was an example of a converted mind, then a converted mind is a very weak mind.

But these men were not converted, we know from other scriptures. And what they said, their reaction is very interesting.

So let us begin in verse 20. I am going to read all the way through verse 28:

Matthew 20:20-28 Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Him with her sons, kneeling down and asking something from Him. And He said to her, "What do you wish?" She said to Him, "Grant that these two sons of mine may sit, one on Your right hand and the other on the left, in Your kingdom." But Jesus answered and said, "You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?" They said to Him, "We are able." So He said to them, "You will indeed drink My cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with; but to sit on My right hand and on My left is not Mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared by My Father." And when the ten heard it, they were greatly displeased with the two brothers. But Jesus called them to Himself and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

Now, to lend a little bit of flavor to what was going on, we are going to compare something that is said here with three other scriptures. Though this is really not all that important, I think that it is very interesting.

First of all, let us go to Matthew 27, verse 56. Here we have the crucifixion scene. Jesus is hanging there, and it says that,

Matthew 27:56 Among whom were [notice these names] Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee's sons.

We just read about Zebedee's children, James and John, and they, together with their mother, went to see Jesus about the chief seats.

Now let us go back to Mark's account of the same thing.

Mark 15:40 There were also women looking on from afar, among whom were Mary Magdalene [clearly identified again], Mary the mother of James the Less and of Joses [a slight change in the wording], and Salome.

Mary Magdalene clearly identified again. And Mary, the mother of James the Less and of Joses. There is a slight change in the wording there. In Matthew it said James the Younger. Here, it says James the Less and Joses. And then Salome. Now, instead of saying the mother of Zebedee’s children, it says Salome.

Let us go to John's account.

John 19:25 Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.

Here in this third account. Again, Mary Magdalene is clearly identified. We have also clearly identified there Jesus’ mother. So there were three Marys there. This time it identifies Mary, the wife of Cleopas, and this fourth person Jesus’ mother's sister.

Let us put these all together. There are obviously four people there. Mary Magdalene. Mary the mother of Jesus. Then there was this (other) Mary, who was called the mother of James the Younger and Joses, while in another place, she was called the mother of James the Less, and Joses. In John's account, she is called Mary, the wife of Cleopas.

Now that leaves one, a fourth person, Salome. Who is Salome? Salome was Jesus’ aunt. Salome was his mother's sister. Therefore, James and John, the Sons of Thunder, were Jesus’ first cousins.

What do we have here? We have got a family affair going. Two of the apostles were the cousins of Jesus. And so He undoubtedly knew them all His life. He was very acquainted with them. It gives you a bit of understanding why they were so quick to drop what they were doing and follow Him. They knew Him from the time that He was a boy.

Now, what else do we have going here? Well, we have got a bit of an attempt at a bit of nepotism. “Jesus, since you are going to have this Kingdom, let’s keep it in the family. Let’s not spread it around. Let’s keep it in the family.”

But Jesus really showed His character here. First of all, by not stepping out and claiming that He had the right to give this position, or these positions away. I think that carnally He would have liked to have done that. But you see, He allowed His Father who was the real Boss to be the one who appointed who was going to sit on Jesus’ right hand and on His left. Most of us would be very tempted to want to give that away. There would be a natural inclination to give it to someone with whom you were very familiar, maybe trusted, that you had known all your life, or whatever. But He did not do that. So He did not step beyond His bounds, and take that into His own hands.

Now, naturally, the cousins thought that they should get special consideration because they were related. But again, it shows the character of Jesus. He was more interested in whether they were qualified than whether He liked them. I will tell you, that is a hard thing to overcome, because we have a very strong tendency to associate ourselves with people we like, rather than people who might do the job better even though we do not like them. That is real executive ability to make a decision based upon performance, rather than whether or not we like the person.

Now, this sheds a lot of light, as I said, on the disciples and on Jesus as well.

The first thing we have to see here is that they were still thinking of an earthly, worldly kingdom and their worldly ambition. There is no doubt about that. They had just been told that He was going to die. He had just got done saying that. They missed it entirely. They did not get it.

Now, that is not too surprising when we examine other scriptures. They did not get it even after He was crucified. They did not get it even after He was resurrected. Remember when Mary Magdalene went to the garden, she still had not got it. She thought that somebody else had rolled the stone aside. She thought that the person that she saw was the gardener, and it was not until Jesus spoke that she recognized His voice. Then she ran and got Peter and John, who in turn ran and looked in the tomb. They still did not get it. They thought His body had been stolen.

The rest of them did not get it either, because that night they were cowering in fear in that upper room, when Jesus walked through the wall or walked through the door (whatever He did). Then Thomas topped it all off, because he was not there. He said I will not believe it until I see it.

They did not really have any faith. They were typical of Christians today. By Christians, I am talking about worldly Christians. You have got to watch yourself in this area too. Mr. Armstrong explains it so simply. He says it this way: People believe in God. But they do not believe God. There is a vast difference, a yawning chasm of difference, between believing in God, and believing God.

Now, there are people who believe that God exists, and these are the people James said, “Even the demons believe in God and tremble.” But to believe God is something else. And the disciples did not believe God. They did not believe what Jesus said. They saw what He did; they were witness to His miracles; they had been taught and preached to for three and a half years, but they still did not get it.

This is something that is extremely important for you and me. We have been very greatly influenced by Protestantism. It is so great, I do not believe we recognize yet how great Protestantism's influence is on us, but it is permeating our thinking in this area. Sometimes it ravages us and devastates us in our attitude toward God, because we do not take Him at His word. Instead, we tend to reason around what He says, thinking He really does not mean that—like He really does not mean that He will heal us. Oh yes, He does mean that He will heal us! He is not kidding when He says that.

He even shows very plainly in the Old Testament that when somebody went to the doctor, He said, I am not going to heal you, because you went to the doctor. When one guy went to the false ministers to be healed (that was Asa by the way) that He said, you are not going to be healed because you went to the physician. Asa should have known better. He knew God said that He would heal him.

In another place, God sent Elijah. And Elijah said to the guy, “What’s the matter? Is there no God in Israel?” See, they did not believe him. Instead, they used the priests of Baal and committed idolatry.

This same principle that I am talking about is part and parcel of Protestantism. They believe there is a God, but they do not really believe what He says. Well, these fellows did not believe it either. And you know, nothing much has changed in the world, and they did not change until they were converted. And then they underwent a very dramatic change.

Let us look at two things that are very important to you and me. I mean, even apart from this one. They were still thinking of their worldly ambition. They were thinking in terms of distinction and success—of personal reward without personal sacrifice.

Now, if they believed that Jesus was God, they might have believed that intellectually. They wanted God to give them success, distinction, and reward without having to do anything for it. See, they had not done anything yet. They followed Jesus all over the country. You see, they wanted to be given power and authority. They did not want to go through any personal sacrifice to get it. They did not want to have to prove themselves. They did not want to have to learn anything in the process. They did not want to have to be prepared for receiving the position. They just wanted it.

You know, even in this world, success by and large is based upon performance. Those who perform best get the most, whether it is in athletics, entertainment, or the business world.

I know there are some exceptions: There are those who are born into wealth as an accident of birth, or whatever. They are born into a family that provides very well for them. The old man made the money, and they just come into it, and they inherit a great deal of distinction, success, power, and authority.

But by and large, those who achieve success pay for it through tremendous sacrifice. They put in long hard hours of practice. They work, work, work. They do things that others are unwilling to do in order to have the success.

The same principle is at work in regard to the Kingdom of God. Along with this, there is a very important change. In this example, Matthew shows that Jesus completely revised the standard of success. What is success? Success, again, as far as the world is concerned, is to achieve dominance, and you do it either through money or position. Usually, you achieve dominance.

Now, what Jesus is saying here is that true greatness lies not in dominance, but in service; that is 180 degrees different than the world accepts as truth.

You see, the Kingdom of God is coming. It is our responsibility to prepare for it. God wants to make us great, but we have got to learn the way He thinks. And to Him, greatness is not measured in dominance. Greatness is measured in service. Man wants to dominate by having the most money, or the most power.

Now, how does one become a great servant? By sacrificing! That is something that the disciples had not learned yet. He that denies himself finds himself. It is a principle that runs through the teachings of Jesus Christ from beginning to the end. Love is sacrificial in nature. It is outgoing concern for the other equal to concern for the self, or even greater than concern for the self, equal to or greater than concern for the self.

It takes humility to sacrifice oneself in order to love. This is why divorces occur, because nobody is willing to sacrifice. Each wants to dominate. Each is unwilling to give up their carnality.

I might just remind you of something. If you know anything at all about the construction of the book of Romans, Paul begins with why the world is the way it is; that man refused to acknowledge God, God in turn gave man over to a reprobate mind—over to his own reasoning. And the result was the chaos in society, which he shows at the end of chapter 1.

In chapter 2, he shows that even the Jews who had God revealed to them, were no better off because though they had knowledge of God far greater than anybody else on the earth, they were not doing the things that God commanded; even though they demanded it of others, they were not doing it themselves.

In chapter 3, Paul makes very sure that everybody knows that they have to repent.

In chapter 4, he talks about faith.

In chapter 5, he talks about the part that Jesus Christ plays in this.

In chapter 6 he talks about baptism and obedience to God after baptism.

In chapter 7, he talks about the place of the law in God's plan of salvation.

In chapter 8, he talks about the Holy Spirit. If you do not have the Holy Spirit, you are not a child of God.

In chapter 9, he digresses because by this time answers need to be given regarding the place of Israel in God's plan of salvation. He spends three chapters on that.

When he gets to chapter 12, he is finally going to show us practical applications of all of the theology that he has given before.

Now, who knows what the first verse of chapter 12 says? You have got to present your body a living sacrifice. The first thing that a person has to do, if God's plan, if His purpose is going to be worked out in a person's life, he is got to be willing to sacrifice himself—himself, you see. That is the secret of success. God's plan is for a person to sacrifice himself. That ought to be so easy to understand. It is so easy to see that Jesus Christ set the example. He sacrificed being God to become a man, so that man would have a Savior; so that God's plan could be carried through.

Sacrifice is the essence of love. Sacrifice is the essence of success. If you want your family life to be successful, you are going to have to sacrifice yourselves for one another, and not be so stubborn about insisting on your own way. Counsel with one another. Submit to one another. Give yourself to one another. Quit trying to dominate one another. Serve one another and your marriage will be a smashing success. That is the cause of all divorce. Divorce is the result of a war. War is caused by lust. It is the lust that dominates.

Back to Matthew 20.

Point number 1: Greatness lies not in dominance but in service; service or success comes through personal sacrifice.

Number 2: In order to understand this second point and to really apply the first one, we have got to understand what the cup is, because that is what He came back with. “Are you willing to be baptized with the baptism that I have? So, are you willing to drink of My cup?”

What is the cup? Now, cup is a term that Hebrews used that meant “allotted portion.” Are you willing to drink your allotted portion?

Now, James and John were brothers. And yet they had very vastly different lives while they were Christians. They had apparently, up until that time, shared life together, even in the fishing business together. And I am sure they probably lived close together.

But when the time came to serve God, the outcome of James's life was entirely different than the outcome of John's life, because in Acts 12:2, we find that James was put to death.

Now, according to the scholars, that took place probably about 44 AD. About 13 years after Christ’s crucifixion, James becomes the first apostle to suffer martyrdom.

So his life as a Christian was far shorter than mine. Now, he died. If we can trust the writings of Josephus, and if I recall it correctly, he was thrown off the Temple wall; put to death; just pushed off; fell to the pavement below and died. Pretty gruesome.

John, on the other hand, apparently lived to be about 100 years old or very close to it. He died a peaceful death. And so his life as a Christian was one of constant pressure, of constantly having to discipline himself against the pulls of the flesh, and of the mind.

So his was a lifelong struggle, whereas James' was a brief flash, and it was over.

You see, we have here is two extremes. The Romans understood this. At one time they printed a silver coin. And on the one side it had a picture of an ox. The ox was facing two different objects. On the one side, there was an altar, and on the other side was a plow. The inscription underneath it said, “Ready for either.”

Now, that is exactly what Jesus was talking about and it was really the application for you and me. We are the ox. Are we prepared to serve Christ in a brief flash of martyrdom? Or are we also willing like John to go through the constant discipline, the pressure of living within God's law all of one's life? That is the cup. And so the cup really represents our commitment to follow Christ, wherever He might lead in any kind of a situation, to act as He would act. Now, that is what we have to do. Are we going to be a supreme sacrifice, or a lifetime of hard labor?

Well, I think that their reply was interesting, and it shows you again a little bit more about their thinking. Boy, they were not hesitant at all! He said, “Are you ready to drink this cup?” And they said, “We are able!” That is the way a person new to the faith is. They do not know what is coming. And I will tell you, it is an awfully good thing that we get baptized before we know any of those things. We are supposed to count the cost, but there is no way that a minister can convey to you what lies ahead. Our minds just cannot seem to visualize it. If it would, we would get short circuited. But at any rate, we get baptized when we are babes.

So, I think there is something interesting about a baby getting circumcised before he knows what is going on. That is a good time to do it. Otherwise, he might not want to get circumcised. Circumcision has something to do with Christian life as well.

Let us go on a little bit further. You see, they had a great deal of confidence in themselves. Later on, they had to learn how to be confident in God.

This also illustrates something about Jesus’ character too. He had just undergone a great deal of deep thinking. I am sure there were some heavy thoughts going through His mind. And even after coming to this decision, and knowing that He was going to die, understanding what He was committing Himself to, here comes His closest friend, the one that He loved, asking Him for something really quite frivolous. Now, He could have been very easily irritated by that; annoyed. He could have snapped back, “Don’t you understand what I am going to go through? Are you only thinking of yourself at this time?” And maybe the thoughts flashed through His mind, but it never came out of His mouth. He did not strike out at them, but He very patiently taught them.

Let us go on to something else here.

Matthew 20:26-27 “Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave.”

He did not say the same thing in both of those cases. He is actually showing two different attitudes there. The word “minister” is the Greek, diakonos. It is a word that is normally translated in the New Testament as “deacon.” So He says, if you want to be great, be a deacon. A deacon simply means somebody who serves others. So, He said if you really want to be great, if you want to be chief, if you really want to succeed, be a slave. He used the word doulos, which means a slave. It is a person who has no will of his own. He is at the beck and call of his master.

Now, a deacon ought to be at the beck and call of his Master, Christ. But Jesus is showing a subtle difference here. And that is, even a deacon has a certain amount of notoriety. That is the wrong word; importance? Position? Maybe even a bit of authority? or whatever. He has recognition. That is the word I am looking for—recognition. A deacon is recognized for what he does. And people know that he is a deacon.

He says, if you really want to be great, you be a slave. You see, nobody recognizes a slave. A slave just goes about and does his work without any thought of any recognition. He is showing us what the right approach is to service. You see, service not only involves sacrifice, but he is refining it and showing us that our attitude in service ought to be as a slave. That is, being a deacon is acceptable, but to be a slave is better, without any thought of recognition.

So there is actually a gradation there as He is showing us. And it hinges upon the approach that we take to those things that we do.

Now, Jesus did this. And it says that in Philippians 2 that the thought of being God was nothing to be grasped at, that is, He did not try to hang on to it. But it says that He made Himself of no repute. He became a slave in order that mankind might be served and redeemed.

Let us consider Luke 1:30 where it talks about Mary finding favor with God, and that Jesus was going to be King. Now, here was the one who was going to be great, who was the Son of the Highest, the one who was going to save mankind. And yet He took on Himself the form of a servant, a slave. So here was the King as a slave.

Let us go on to verse 28 in Matthew 20.

Matthew 20:28 “Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

A ransom is a sum of money paid to liberate someone from a bondage he is unable to liberate himself from. That is what Christ did. Now to whom was the ransom paid? This is just an interesting theological question. And the scholars go round and round on this. But it has to be that it was paid to God, because that is the One to whom man is indebted. God is our Creator. It is His law that we have broken. But there are some Protestant theologians who insist that the ransom was paid to Satan, because we were held in bondage to him. Well, yes, we were held in bondage to him. But God is the one that needs to be paid because it was His law. Satan is only the instigator. That is all. He is the one who influences us to evil. And so we have been his slave. But really the ransom had to be paid to God, because the wages of sin is death, and it was God's law that was broken.

But Christ is the payment, and we are set free as a result of the sacrifice that was made to God in our behalf.

On to verse 29.

Matthew 20:29-34 Now as they went out of Jericho, a great multitude followed Him. And behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out, saying, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!" Then the multitude warned them that they should be quiet; but they cried out all the more, saying, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!" So Jesus stood still and called them, and said, "What do you want Me to do for you?" They said to Him, "Lord, that our eyes may be opened." So Jesus had compassion and touched their eyes. And immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him.

Now this is in here for a very good reason. It is in here because it has instruction that is essential to what preceded it. Now, what just preceded it? It was the illustration on how to be a success. The way to be a success is to sacrifice yourself and serve in the attitude of a slave. Now, this has something to do about how to further enhance yourself toward being a success. These teachings are not isolated. They were grouped by Matthew because they are related one to the other.

We have two blind men. There might be a bit of symbolism here, because when we come out of the world, we are blind spiritually. We still do not see a great deal. Our spiritual eyesight is being improved because we are learning. But when we came out of the world, we were blind.

Notice what these men did, because there is valuable instruction. It is quite possible that these men had heard others speaking about Jesus, because He was fairly well known. People were talking no doubt about the miracles that He did. I am sure that some were talking about the way that He preached.

Now, when He came by, they were somehow made aware that Jesus was passing by. They could not see Him. But it was the way of rabbis to generally teach their disciples by walking. And while they were walking, the disciples were walking around with them, and they were asking questions, and the rabbi would teach. That was simply their way of doing things. The Greeks had a different form, they believed in classroom style education. And we seem to have followed that. But the Hebrew people did not do that. They tended to do a great deal of their teaching in the out of doors while they were walking along.

Naturally their voices would carry somewhat. Well, when these two became aware that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by, they seized the opportunity. That is the first thing that you can learn from these men: When the opportunity comes to serve, when the opportunity comes to learn, to enhance your chances of success, take advantage of it! There are some things that have to be done immediately. They cannot wait. Certainly, this was one of them. And so they seized it, they seized the opportunity that was being presented to them.

Now, the second thing that we could learn: They could not be put off in their quest. For them, it was a matter of seeing—having their blindness removed. For you and me, the problem may be different. But they were persistent, even though people tried to shout them down, they continued to yell, they wanted to be heard. We are talking here about prayer, and about coming before God and being persistent about it. I do not mean demanding, but not giving up! Do not give up! Do not get discouraged! Keep on keeping on!

The third thing: They did not have perfect understanding. That is illustrated by what they called Him. They called him the son of David, which is a Messianic term. They were not appealing to him as God or Savior. They did not fully understand who Jesus was. They understood far less than the apostles did, but they used what they had.

So often we get the idea that somehow we are not prepared to serve. We are not talented enough; God did not give us any gifts. We do not have enough money; we do not have enough education. We can come up with hundreds of reasons. But you see, God is showing us that when an opportunity presented itself to these men, they acted on what they did have.

The fourth thing: They were not afraid to make a bold request. I mean, having your sight restored is a big deal! So often we are timid about going to God. But rather, think big!

One of the questions that we had on one of the tests that we give the men in leadership training class involved what our attitude should be in prayer. And one of the answers that we wanted on that test was to be bold, to think big. Jesus said, “Let your request be made known to God.” Paul said to come before the throne of God boldly.

There is a beautiful illustration back in the Old Testament, when one of the kings of Israel, I think it was Abijah, I am not real sure of that, but this was one of the kings of the northern 10 tribes after they had split. And the northern 10 tribes never did have a real good king. But this Abijah (I think that was his name), he was probably the best one they had. And so God was looking down from heaven, and He decided, “Well, I’m going to reward this guy. Because he is been the best king they have had, We are going to do something for him.” And so He sent Elisha, (I think it was) to him. And Elisha said to the king, “Grab hold of these arrows that I have, and strike the ground.” And so Abijah took the arrows, and he hit the ground three times. And Elisha says, “You dummkopf!” He says (I am paraphrasing), “Why didn’t you hit the ground about 20 times? If you had done that, God would have liberated Israel from all their enemies. Now, because you only hit the ground three times, you are going to have three victories over the Syrians, and that’s going to be it.”

See what he was teaching there? Think big!

Now, do not be demanding. Use your mind, and make sure that your requests are within the Word of God. Think big! Well, if you are asking God for an increase for the work, do not ask him for an increase. Ask him for 50%, 75%, 100%; think big. We have to do a big work. We have got a lot of work to do. Do not just ask Him to extend Mr. Armstrong's life. Ask Him to give him 150 years if he needs it; be bold in asking God, because it shows a great deal about your attitude.

You know, we are going to rule nations, and eventually God is going to give us rule over the universe, all of His creation. He does not want people who are all bound up in detail. He wants people who have big minds; are creative; expansive in their thinking. He wants you to think beyond this world, and to orient your thinking to what He is, and the way He thinks. You can tell by what He created that He thinks big. Those distances are so vast, they are incomprehensible to us. That is the way He thinks. He is a big thinker.

He does not think about losing you. He knows He can save you. You do not want to think about failure. You want to think about success and go on at it that way.

One final thing: They were grateful. It says they followed Him. It was not like others that Jesus healed, and then went off their own way. If we can just summarize this, when an opportunity presents itself to serve, to help, take advantage of it. Start out using what you have and go in that direction. And even though you have imperfect understanding, be determined and go on.

So do not be afraid to make a great request of God, and be thankful for however it is, that He responds to you.

Chapter 21. I am going to be reading here the first 11 verses.

Matthew 21:1-11 Now when they drew near Jerusalem, and came to Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me. And if anyone says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord has need of them,' and immediately he will send them." All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: "Tell the daughter of Zion, 'Behold, your King is coming to you, lowly, and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.'" So the disciples went and did as Jesus commanded them. They brought the donkey and the colt, laid their clothes on them, and set Him on them. And a very great multitude spread their clothes on the road; others cut down branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then the multitudes who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: "Hosanna to the Son of David! 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!' Hosanna in the highest!" And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, "Who is this?" So the multitudes said, "This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee."

Now we are going to see, here, that God is not against doing something dramatic every once in a while. And this was quite dramatic. If the whole city was moved to wonder what all this racket was about, it was pretty dramatic. It effectively got the attention that He desired.

In order to understand a little bit more about how dramatic this was, we have to look into the background a bit. First of all, what time of the year was it? It was Passover, Jesus was on His way to be crucified. And so we are in the beginning days of what would correspond to April, 31 AD, and it was Passover time. Jews were coming into the area of Palestine from all over the Mediterranean area.

Now, how many people showed up? Well, I think you are going to be surprised. In about 60 AD the then Roman governor ordered that a census of the number of lambs that were killed during the Passover of that year, be counted. With that in mind, let us go back to Exodus 12.

Exodus 12:3-4 “Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: 'On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man's need you shall make your count for the lamb.’

God is economical in the things that He orders, making the very best use, and He did not want any of the lambs to be wasted. God does not profligate that way at all. He might be very generous, but when it comes to us using our things, He is very careful. Now, He does not say there how many people we are supposed to eat of each lamb, but He wanted the whole lamb to be eaten. And if there did happen to be any left over, then it was to be burned and He did not want these people burning large portions of lamb.

Well, you know how the Jews are, they like to get everything right that way. And so they decided that the optimum number of people per lamb was 10. Now, when we put this together with the census of the lambs that were killed, it gives us a very good idea of the number of people who were in Jerusalem when Jesus made His entry into the city. Now, He did this six days before He was crucified. The Romans counted 250,000 lambs killed on that Passover. A quarter of a million! That is more lambs than there are people in Columbia. Times 10. That gives us a rough estimate. 2.5 million people were in the city at that time.

You see, what Jesus did attracted a great deal of attention, and it also explains why the people were saying, “Who is this?” Those 2.5 million people, most of them, were visitors, and they did not know anything about Jesus, or very little about Him at best. If someone had taken one of the visitors aside since they arrived there, then they knew a little wee bit. But this great commotion got the attention of roughly 2.5 million people.

Again, according to what I have read, the estimates are that normally the population of Jerusalem was roughly about 200,000 people in the city and its suburbs. So you see the population was swelled by about 10 times whenever the holy days came around.

Now for the Jews, the big time of the year was Passover. For us, the big time of the year is Tabernacles. You see how the population swells in the areas whenever the feast is held. Why we double or triple the population of some small areas like Lake of the Ozarks or Wisconsin Dells. We really fill the places up. We might get swallowed up in Norfolk or Los Angeles. But in those other areas, we really swell the population.

There is at least an indication that this event had been planned. It was not something that was done on the spur of the moment. Unfortunately, the Bible does not give us all of the details behind these events, but the indication is that it had already been arranged with the owner of the ass and her colt, so that he was well aware that some representative of Jesus was going to come and ask him for that. That indicates advanced preparation. There is a tendency maybe to think of it as being something that was miraculously arranged. And I do not want to say that did not occur. But just understanding the way God works through this work, and all of the planning that goes into the things that we do, and the fact that Jesus understood the prophecies very well. And what we are seeing here is really the fulfillment of a prophecy written in Zechariah 9:9. We will get to that in just a little bit. It tends to indicate that Jesus had made arrangements beforehand to make sure that that prophecy was fulfilled. Now, we are going to see that there are other things that indicate this as well.

The people responded in a way that almost seems to be inspired, because they received Him as a king. Why they did that? I do not know, but that is the way they acclaimed Him. They said Hosanna to the son of David.

As I said earlier in chapter 20 that is a Messianic term. It is a title. What they were saying there was, “save now.” That is what the word hosanna means. It means “save now,” “come to our aid,” “deliver us from bondage, you son of David.” You see? That means they were acclaiming Him as their king, and they wanted Him to save them from their bondage. They were in bondage to the Romans.

Go back with me to Psalm 118, verse 25 Here, we have this phrase, “Save now,” or “Hosanna.” And you will see that it is very clearly a cry for deliverance.

Psalm 118:25 Save now.

“Save now!” You see, that is a literal translation of hosanna. In the Hebrew, that is the word that appears there, “hosanna.”

In Matthew 21 they left it untranslated. They just gave you the word “hosanna.”

Psalm 118:25 I pray, O LORD; O LORD, I pray, send now prosperity.

It is very intense. “I beseech you! Send now prosperity!” Or “deliverance.”

Back to Matthew 21.

Now, why did God do this in such a dramatic way? Well, there is no doubt that He wanted to make a witness before the people. They were in effect selecting the lamb who was going to be sacrificed. And that lamb was the very one that they proclaimed to be king, the son of David, the Messiah. They were singling Him out.

If you go through the instruction that is given in Exodus 12, you find here the literal fulfillment of that, because on the 10th day of the first month was the time that Jesus came into Jerusalem. And the people acclaimed Him king and chose Him as the Lamb of God, the one who was going to be sacrificed.

So whenever there is blindness or hardness in the people, God is not against doing something dramatic to get their attention to see if maybe He might be able to penetrate the blindness, or the deception that is there. God does not do this all that infrequently. If you know anything at all about the lives of the prophets, you will see this.

Let us go through a couple of them. We have a few minutes. Let us go back to I Kings 11:29. A little bit of background might help here.

This is just before Solomon died. It is 40 years after the very just and good reign of David. Solomon started out like David, but he was not finishing up like David. And really the country was terribly torn internally where divisions are rising all over the place; a great deal of dissatisfaction; a rebellious mood was developing primarily because all of the construction projects of Solomon were causing the people to be taxed very heavily.

God, because of Solomon's sin, not because of the taxation, but because of Solomon’s sins, determined that there was going to be a division, that Israel was going to separate from Judah, and that one tribe besides Judah would remain with Solomon's son Rehoboam for David's sake. God chose Jeroboam to be the man who would lead the rebellion, who would lead Israel into a separate statehood away from Judah.

Now, apparently Jeroboam was having a hard time getting the point. And so God sent a prophet by the name of Ahijah to really impress this on Jeroboam's mind as to what God wanted Jeroboam to do.

I Kings 11:29 Now it happened at that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite met him on the way; and he [Jeroboam] had clothed himself with a new garment, and the two were alone in the field. Then Ahijah took hold of the new garment that was on him, and tore it into twelve pieces.

Now, I can just imagine me walking down in Columbia. And somebody takes me aside and I have got this new Hart, Schaffner, and Marx suit on that I just paid a couple hundred bucks for. And he starts tearing the thing into 12 pieces. And then after he is done tearing them, he hands 10 pieces back to me. Here, these are yours, and then walks off with two sleeves or something.

That is what Ahijah did.

I Kings 11:31 And he said to Jeroboam, "Take for yourself ten pieces, for thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: 'Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and will give ten tribes to you.”

We find that literally occurred.

I Kings 11:40 Solomon therefore sought to kill Jeroboam. But Jeroboam arose and fled to Egypt.

There is another one back in the book of Jeremiah. I will just give you the reference. Jeremiah 27:1-6 where God told Jeremiah, “Hey, I want you to make a yoke and I want you to put that yoke around your neck and not only that, I want you to make a yoke for the king of Edom, the king of Moab, and several other kings besides. And I want you to send those yokes by the hand of the messengers that leave King Jehoiakim to go to those countries (in other words, the ambassadors). Those kings did not have to wear their yokes, but Jeremiah did have to wear his yoke around his neck.

How long he wore that thing, I do not know, but he wore it to symbolize that God's prophecies were going to be fulfilled. And Judah was going to go into captivity, into slavery, to the hand of Nebuchadnezzar.

I will tell you, if you saw somebody on Main Street in downtown Columbia walking around with a yoke on his neck, you would think he was nuts. And it would get your attention. Here he comes down the street, and everybody's eyes are following the guy along, everybody is scratching their head, you know, ding-a-ling.

I will tell you what was even more startling. In Isaiah the 20^th chapter God told Isaiah, “I want you to take off your clothes and go naked.” Boy, that would really get people's attention. Isaiah would end up in the clink. He would be in the loony bin. He would be a streaker in slow motion, because I do not think he ran. He walked around, and everybody saw it.

I have tried to look that thing up. The commentators are embarrassed by that, but they admit that word naked means naked; that in the Scriptures, the way the Holy Spirit inspired it to be used, it means naked. I hope God does not ask me to do that. I will tell you, that would make an impression on me. Yeah, that would be dramatic as far as I am concerned.

And then there was Hosea. God made him marry a prostitute, and not only that, he had to have children by that woman, and then she left him, and then God apparently inspired him, told him to go out and find her, and she was probably plying her trade, and to bring her back into the house, and have another kid by her. That made an impression on Hosea. Can you imagine a young man, let us say he was 25-30 years old, and he would have the kind of dreams that any virile young man would have. I am sure he wanted to marry a nice pure girl, and he wanted to rear a family, and have children that he could bounce on his knee, and later on have grandchildren.

And the Boss says, “Hey! You know, so and so over there that plies her trade on the corner of such and such, I want you to marry her.” That would get your attention.

God split the Red Sea.

He is not against doing something dramatic. Every once in a while, He will do something that will get people's attention. And that is what He was doing here with Jesus. He got the attention of the whole city. Everybody was moved to say, “Who is this? What’s going on? How come everybody is making this big commotion? How come they are yelling, ‘Save now, you son of David.’”? All of the attention was being focused on Jesus, so that when He was crucified, those same people whose attention was gotten on the 10th day of the first month, knew that this was the same man who was crucified. I will tell you, that is going to be a dramatic witness to those people when they are resurrected, because they will have seen it with their own eyes.

Now, there are two things more that I want to get out of this. Jesus was here making a deliberate Messianic claim. It is the first time that He openly claimed before the entire city that yes indeed, He is the Messiah. He was challenging them, He was throwing the gauntlet down before them, and was saying to them, what are you going to do about it?

Now, before this time, He had soft pedaled things. If somebody asked Him a direct question, He would generally answer it directly regarding whether He was the Messiah or whatever. They did not get it but now He was making it very obvious that yes indeed, He is the Messiah.

It shows a great deal about His courage that, once He resolved in His mind what He was going to do, He committed himself wholly to it. He did not hold back but went and confronted the enemy right in their own den.

Now, He could have gone off somewhere and hid in a corner, but He did not do that. It says back in I Peter that He committed Himself to Him who judges righteously, that is, to God, and set His will to do what had to be done.

There is something else here that is kind of oblique, but I think that it means a great deal to you and me, and we need to get the lesson from it. If we miss it, we have missed a very sobering teaching. The thing that Jesus was going through had actually been done before. It had been done a little over 150 years before by Judas Maccabeus. Judas Maccabeus was the man who led the revolt that succeeded in overthrowing the Greek cultured Syrians. In 168 BC Antiochus Epiphanes, who is, I think without a doubt, a type of the beast, desecrated the Temple, had a pig sacrificed on the altar, and then eventually used the Temple as a brothel. He then left the city and tried to impress the Greek form of religion on the Jews.

Well, the people eventually revolted under the Maccabees. The Maccabees is actually a nickname which means the Hammer. The family name was actually Hasmonea. It was the Hasmonea family. There were five brothers, and Judas was one of them. He became the military leader after their father was killed, because he refused to bow down to a statue of Minerva. And the brothers revolted and eventually they gathered a little guerilla band about them. They began hammering away at the Syrians, and little by little their group grew, and the Syrian power weakened, and eventually they confronted them in an open battle. And the Hasmonean brothers won the battle.

When the time came to rededicate and cleanse the Temple, Judas Maccabeus was received as a king, and the people hailed him as a king, and they actually did throw straw before him as he came into the city.

Now, Jesus was actually repeating this, only this was a real fulfillment. But I want you to notice another parallel that is very important. When Judas Maccabeus came into the city, what did they do? They cleansed the Temple. That was the first order of business—to clean it up, and to rededicate it. And it was from this rededication that the Jews began to keep the festival of dedication. What is it called now? Yes, the festival of lights—Hanukkah. We call it Hanukkah now.

What was the first thing that Jesus did after He came into the city? He went to the Temple, and He cast out the money changers. He only did that. It was just a symbolic gesture. But what He was saying is that now (symbolically) begins the cleansing of the Temple, because He was being chosen as the Lamb of God, and He was going to be the sacrifice that was going to cleanse the real Temple.

Now, here is where it begins to become very important to you and me. Who is the Temple? We are. I Corinthians 3:16 says that we are the Temple of God. There is a very important prophecy in the book of Revelation, chapter 11.

Revelation 11:1 Then I was given a reed like a measuring rod. And the angel stood, saying, "Rise and measure the temple of God, the altar, and those who worship there.”

John is the apostle. John is seeing this in vision. Now remember, the vision is of the end time. He is talking about the church that exists, the Temple of God that exists at the time just prior to the return of Jesus Christ. The apostle is told to measure the Temple. John was a type; the Temple was a type. John was a type of the apostle at the end time; the Temple was a type of the church at the end time. The apostle was told to measure the Temple. I do not have the time to go into it, but all you have to do is look around the New Testament to see the way that Greek word “measure” is used. It is used in two ways. But the one that we are interested in is exceedingly important: It means to compare against a standard.

You know where Paul said in II Corinthians 12 those who compare themselves among themselves are not wise. You use that word measure there. Those who measure themselves against themselves are unwise.

What has God's apostle been doing these last three years? He has been measuring the Temple. You are participating in the fulfillment of a prophecy. God's apostle has put it this way: We are getting the church back on the track. He is saying for the last four years now, we are cleaning up the church. You see, the Temple is being cleansed just before the King comes. The bride is being prepared. Bet you did not know that you were fulfilling prophecy, but you are.

He says, begin at the altar. Now, what does that represent? That represents the ministry. But he said, do not leave the people out either and those who worship there. That is, you.

So God's apostle has been measuring the church comparing it to the standard. The standard is Christ. We are being compared against that standard, and you and I have our part in it. It is our responsibility to compare ourselves to Christ so that we can participate in the cleansing, because the Temple became defiled during that period beginning in the late sixties and continuing on up into about 1978.

But you know, he says, do not bother about the courtyard, because that is being held for the Gentiles. You know what I think that means? Do not be overly concerned about those who have left the Temple and gone outside, because I am going to judge them by the Gentiles. He is talking about going through the Tribulation. They are going to be cleansed by that means, but God's apostle is not responsible for them. Very interesting scripture.

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