Jesus built His case for claiming to be the Messiah, the Son of God. He had no doubts it would be rejected by the Jewish leaders. That in itself should have been an argument in His favor, but Jesus was not concerned with mere human perception. He proceeded on the basis of truth. He would do what the Word of God required to establish the testimony to His identity.
Having already accepted the public testimony of the two blind beggars in the previous chapter, we see Jesus going directly to His planned public announcement in Jerusalem. There is no need to see a miracle at every step of the way. The false piety of making miracles of mundane events is the same lie of Satan which makes of miracles nothing. The Gospel writers assumed the readers of their times would remember details not included in the narrative. Jesus had friends and supporters scattered throughout the area near Jerusalem. No doubt some were those He had healed, or relatives of the healed. It's not hard to imagine a standing invitation from wealthier supporters to stay as guests in their home during the Passover Feast. Nor is it outrageous to suppose another had already agreed to provide the beast of burden for His use. Jesus had planned this festive entry to Jerusalem. Not in the cynical sense of forcing the hands of His opponents, but in faithful obedience to the Word of God. Jesus declared Himself the Messiah according to what God had spoken through the prophets long before.
What so many seem to miss here is not how the Jewish leaders rejected their Messiah, but God was pronouncing His final rejection of the Nation of Israel. Matthew quotes Zechariah 9:9 regarding the Messianic prophecy of entering the city through the gate every king used in a symbolic parade, where the newly crowned king is conducted to His throne by the people. The ultimate King of Israel rode the most humble beast of burden possible. The same crowd which had accompanied Him from Galilee, now swollen many times larger, obeyed ancient custom by throwing their cloaks and leafy branches on the path under His mount. The phrase including hosanna is intentionally ambiguous, saying both "God save the King" and "O King, save us."
This huge crowd accompanying Jesus were folks from the countryside. The people of the city were a wholly different bunch, and asked what in the world these bumpkins were yelling about. The multitudes identified Him as a prophet whose name was already well known, even in Jerusalem. The crowd itself believed falsely Jesus was about to establish an earthly, political domain, sitting on the traditional throne of David. When it later became clear this is not Jesus' intent, they turned on Him. For now, it would be a heady atmosphere of hope and joy.
The Bazaars of the Sons of Annas were a monopoly service protected by the High Priest, Annas. Only the official Jewish shekel was permitted for payment of the Temple Tax, and Jews visiting from other lands had to pay an outrageous premium to exchange their native coins. Further, a very corrupt practice was to reject any sacrificial animal brought in from outside the city as not meeting priestly standards laid down by Moses. It didn't matter how perfect the animal was, it wasn't going to pass. Instead, animals bought from the Bazaars would always pass, regardless how imperfect they might be. Naturally, they were always sold at outrageous premium prices. Worst of all, these Bazaars were packed into the Court of the Gentiles, the portion of the Temple complex reserved for those not allowed to proceed further inside. This activity prevented Gentiles getting close enough to observe any of the rituals. Symbolically, it meant they were unwelcome before the God of Israel, the smug racial hostility the Jewish leadership was known to express often. There are indications it was common for reformers to drive these Bazaars out from time to time. It was a symbolic act, and the question Jesus faced from the Temple authorities was both a political issue -- "Who gave You authority to do this?" -- but implied they wanted to know what He was "selling" as His particular reform.
Jesus drove them out with a rough quotation of Isaiah 56:7, pointing out these Bazaars violated the clear command of Jehovah. The Nation of Israel was created in part to reveal God's Word to the nations, to be a kingdom of priests to the world. They had utterly failed this, and Jesus points that out. Then, with the Court of Gentiles cleared of obstruction, He proceeds to use the Temple as it should have been all along, to heal anyone who approached with a need. Instead of using the Temple as the refuge of thieves, implying the priesthood were just that, He showed what the priests should have been doing instead of making fat profits. The blind and lame were forbidden to enter the Temple courts, so Jesus healed them and made them fit to go inside, to draw near to God. The symbolic contrast is easily lost on us today: the priests had done all they could to prevent men coming to God; Jesus did all He could to bring them nigh.
That His cheering section made Him out to be the Messiah was blasphemous to the Sanhedrin's deaf ears. Noticing it is mostly young boys making the noise, Jesus quotes David's Psalm 8:2. Since the leaders refuse to hear from God, it falls to the most insignificant to do the work of God, to speak His revelation. The symbol of the Fig Tree carries this further. These give fruit some ten months of the year, and should at least have offered something a bit green with the leafy foliage. Israel had failed to produce the fruit God had intended, barren of all but show. Jesus cursed it, symbolic of the curse God had placed on Israel for their lack of spiritual fruit. In just forty years, the Nation of Israel would wither away, and cease to exist, just as the fig tree which had rejected God's purpose. When the Disciples marveled at the tree, but missed the symbolism, Jesus noted miracles such as that were tied up in commitment to God's purpose. He cites a rabbinical image: a teacher particularly deft at reconciling difficulties and unraveling paradoxes was called "an uprooter of mountains." It didn't matter that the task seemed utterly hopeless; a devotion to obeying God would result in the authority to do anything necessary for the task. If Mount Zion stood in the way of the Kingdom, Mount Zion would be removed. So it was, a few decades later, symbolically removing the last earthly vestige of Jewish ritual, and replacing it with the spiritual Kingdom of Heaven.
The Jewish leaders insist on Jesus declaring the authority to clear the Bazaars from the Court of Gentiles, just in case He had some valid warrant unknown to them. He refused to answer until they dealt with the question of John the Baptist. Was his authority from God or from humans? The whole point was to get them to confess their actions were more about politics than about truth. Refusing to answer was actually the answer. If they can't tell the difference between the works of God by His Word and the works of men in politics and hucksterism, they would hardly understand why Jesus did what He did. To press the point, Jesus gave them the parable of the Two Sons. The Jewish leaders were all show, but lacking any useful service to God. When John called for repentance, the Jewish leaders hardly noticed, aside from the political opportunity. Those the leaders had tagged as heathens, torn from the Nation, in coming to repentance showed they were the true Children of God.
Without mercy, Jesus drives ahead with another parable of indictment. The Parable of the Wicked Vineyard Keepers recalls an ancient reference to the Nation of Israel as God's vineyard. Typically, renters would send to the landlord some contracted percentage of the wine they produced. These greedy fools insisted on keeping the entire season's produce for themselves. The Jewish leadership had always been guilty of consuming God's largesse on themselves, excluding the world with snorting contempt. That this depicted the Sanhedrin as inheriting Israel's past rejection of the prophets was not lost on them. That He equated Himself with the landlord's son as the Son of God was also obvious. He backed them into a verbal corner, forcing them to pronounce their own doom. By rejecting the Messiah, they were bringing God's rejection upon their nation. When David wrote in Psalm 118:22-23 about the rejected stone, it was a note about Israel being rejected by all, but taken up by God as His own people. Jesus showed their place with God was in His hands. Given their complete failure to obey God's plan for them, that fell to Him to fulfill. Now, He was the Cornerstone of a New Israel.
Jesus makes His claim utterly clear: He was God's Son, the Messiah. He was the embodiment of God's will, the ultimate expression of Jehovah's revelation. They rejected His claim. Therefore, their place in God's divine administration was gone. The Kingdom of God was taken from them, and given to Jesus, who would build a new Kingdom. Anyone who encounters Him as Cornerstone would meet one of two fates. Some would be broken, reshaped and included in the building of the Kingdom. Others would refuse to be broken, refuse to repent of their sins, and so would be crushed into powder. They would become something so small and insignificant as to be carried away on the wind, dispersed and forgotten. This prophecy was fulfilled in full measure in 70 AD, with the destruction of the Temple. The Nation of Israel as it had been up to that point no longer had any meaning, no part in God's plans.
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Ed Hurst
08 December 2007
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