Fear No Fear

(All scripture from Lexham English Bible, Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software)

“The king said to them, “Take with you all the servants of your lord, and let them make Solomon my son ride on my mule, and bring him down to Gihon.” (1 Kings 1:33)

Chapter twenty-one opens with the triumphal entry. Jesus comes into Jerusalem riding on a donkey and being praised as the Son of David, the Messiah. Jesus came on a donkey to fulfill prophecy (Isaiah 62:11; Zechariah 9:9). He came on a humble animal, not a war horse as a king. But in ancient times, the donkey was the royal animal and used for coronations. Jesus was a king coming to be crowned, but not a king coming to war for a natural kingdom. He came to the temple, saw all the money changers (again) and for the second time cleared out the Temple area they were using to cheat the people and turn their worship into profit. He didn’t stay in the city, but stayed in nearby Bethany. In the morning, He was coming back and saw a leafing fig tree. When a fig tree produces leaves, it has fruit ready. Hungry, Jesus went to it for fruit. There was none. It was falsely declaring it had fruit. He cursed it and it withered (Matthew 7:21-23). When He came to the Temple, they challenged His authority to do these things (miracles, clearing the Temple, accepting praise, teaching and performing miracles). Jesus told some parables. He talked about two sons asked by their Father to work. One said no, but changed his mind. The other said yes, but didn’t go. Then He told a parable of a man who set up a vineyard and rented it out. But when he came for his share of the harvest they killed messengers and then even his son. Everyone hearing it knew the owner would destroy those men and rent the vineyard to someone else. The Pharisees and chief priests knew Jesus was telling parables about them and they were furious. They would have seized Him right there, but they didn’t want a riot.

In chapter twenty-two Jesus continues to teach. He teaches about a wedding banquet were many were invited, but they all rejected the invitation. The man then gathered others to the feast, but not everyone was willing to wear the provided clothes. They had come in but were not truly participating. They were cast out. Jesus said the Kingdom was like this. The Pharisees sent students to trip Jesus up about taxes, but Jesus avoided their trap and told them to give to the Lord what was the Lord’s rightful things and to the government what was their rightful things. The Sadducees came to trip Jesus up about the resurrection – which they did not believe in. But Jesus told them they didn’t even understand the issue they were trying to trip Him up about. The Pharisees came themselves and tried to trip Jesus up about the Law, but Jesus told them that if they sought God with all their hearts and loved their neighbours like they loved themselves, they would keep all the Law. So they asked Jesus about Messiah and whose son he would be. Jesus told them the Son of David BUT David also called Messiah Lord, so there was a greater parentage there as well (the Son of God). No one could catch Jesus in a lie, or a verbal trap of human wisdom. They stopped asking Him questions in public from that day.

Summary

Key Players: God, Jesus, Disciples, Pharisees, Sadducees, Jews

Key Verse(s): Matthew 21:23-27; 22:1-14