Knowing The Word in Matthew 21:1-17

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

[This is a continuation of the planned symbolic actions as Jesus disrupts business as usual. It was a demonstration, a prophetic critique, a fulfillment event, and a sign of the future all combined by Jesus into one. Jewish Messianic expectation from Ezekiel 40-48 and Zechariah 6:12-13, was that the Messiah would renew and purify the temple. Jesus’ demonstration not only speaks to the current corruption of worship by the people of God but also to his Messianic authority.]

12 And Jesus entered the temple [the Court of the Gentiles] and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. [Jesus’ actions are not aimed at one particular group but at the whole system of sacrificial worship itself. Only the Messiah can make this claim against scriptural mandate, declaring the worship of God no longer acceptable in this acted out parable.] 13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer [Isaiah 56:7],’ but you make it a den of robbers [Jeremiah 7:11].” [The temple is supposed to be a place of unhindered worship and not a place of unhindered commerce.]

14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. [According to 2 Samuel 5:8, the lame and blind were excluded from the temple by David’s decree, but the Son of David welcomes them. This is the only record of Jesus healing in the temple, removing the barriers for the outpouring of God’s universal blessing.] 15 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, 16 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’?” [Psalm 8:2 LXX version]

17 And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.