The Coming King (19:12, 35-40) Jesus warns that the kingdom would not come all at once and told of a nobleman who went away to be appointed king. His subjects didn’t what him to be king, but he became king anyway. The king returns to reward his servants and judge his enemies. After this, Jesus sends two disciples to untie a colt that had never been ridden and bring it to him. Jesus then rode that colt into Jerusalem among the shouts of “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” Some Pharisees wanted Jesus to rebuke his disciples, but Jesus had carefully orchestrated his entrance into Jerusalem. Clearly, he was depicting both the coronation of King David’s son, Solomon, and the coming of Israel’s Messianic King (Zechariah 9:9, I Kings 1:33-34). So Jesus rides like Solomon on David’s mule into Jerusalem in fulfillment of Zechariah’s prophesy regarding the coming anointed king and the people are filled with hope and anticipation (Psalm 118:26).
Not this King (19:41-44) The crowd is shouting and praising God as Jesus processes into Jerusalem, but Jesus looks out upon Jerusalem and weeps! The crowd is rejoicing at the thought of Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, but Jesus weeps. Jesus had wept when his friend Lazarus died (John 11:35), while here he overlooks Jerusalem and is overwhelmed with sorrow. They are celebrating, but they are actually blind to Jesus’ way of peace. The crowd sees triumph and celebrates, but Jesus envisions their enemies encircling Jerusalem on every side only to sack the city and destroy the temple. Jesus weeps because Jerusalem would reject his way of peace. Moreover, he envisions their enemies dashing Jerusalem and the children within its walls to the ground and not leaving one stone upon another. Why the horror? It was because they did not recognize that God was visiting them.
The King's House (19:45-47, 20:1) So Jesus arrives in Jerusalem and enters the temple. Is this not what Malachi 3:1 and what John the Baptist had foretold? Malachi talked of God’s messenger going ahead and preparing the way for the Messiah. They longed for the Messiah and Malachi said that the Lord would return to his temple. All is good, until Jesus foresees the temple's destruction and then enters the temple only to drive out those selling there. Jesus says, “My house is a house of prayer,’ but you’ve made it a den of robbers.” (19:45-46) My house?
Matthew says
that Jesus overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those
selling doves (Matthew 21:12–17). Both Matthew and Luke tell us that Jesus referenced Isaiah 56:7 about
the temple being called a house of prayer, but that they had made it a ‘hideout
for bandits’. Jesus’ comment about a house of prayer was
from Isaiah 56; where Isaiah spoke of foreigners binding themselves to the Lord
in covenant and the temple being a house of prayer for all nations (Isaiah
56:6–8). Yet, the religious leaders of Jesus' day had turned the place
where Gentiles could approach Israel’s God into a marketplace. So Jesus
cleanses the temple, his house, of the misuse that excluded the Gentiles and he replaces it with his teaching and preaching of the gospel. The people are hanging on Jesus’ every word; but the religious leaders want
to destroy Jesus. The crowds are gathered because Jesus is in the temple teaching
and preaching the gospel. What is Jesus gospel? Well, Jesus’ gospel was God’s
gospel announced in advance to Abraham which Paul says was: “All nations will
be blessed through you.” (Galatians 3:8) All nations would be blessed through Jesus,
Abraham’s seed, the prophet like Moses, the greater son of David; God’s
anointed Davidic and Messianic King!
The King's Authority (20:1-8) So Jesus cleaned out his house, Lord’s house is Jesus’ house, and Jesus replaced the robbery with his kingdom teaching and gospel preaching. But the religious leaders question Jesus’ authority to do such things by asking Jesus, “by what authority you are doing these things,” and “who gave you this authority?” (Luke 20:2) Jesus responds by asking them a question and if they will answer Jesus’ question, then Jesus will answer their question. But if they answer Jesus’ question, then they will have actually answered their own question. Jesus asks them if John’s baptism was from heaven or man. Now these religious leaders who opposed Jesus find themselves in a bind. If they say ‘heaven’ then Jesus will ask why they didn’t believe John. But if they say ‘man’ then crowd will revolt because the crowds were convinced that John the Baptist was a true prophet. Remember that John introduced Jesus as the ‘one coming after him’ (Luke 3:15-17) The people thought John might be the Christ, but John’s answer was that a more powerful one would come after John who would baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The ‘one greater than John’ would come and gather God’s harvest and burn the chaff with unquenchable fire. Moreover, the Spirit had anointed Jesus as God’s Messiah (anointed) and the voice from heaven had confirmed that Jesus was God’s Son (2 Sam.7:14).
The passage makes it clear that there can be no
Messianic celebration apart from the crucifixion. Jesus would go off to a ‘far
country’ and be appointed King (cross, resurrection, ascension) and then he would return to reward his servants
and judge his enemies. God so loved the world that he sent his one and only unique son, Jesus, but those who reject King Jesus will face the severity of God. Jesus is the true temple; the very embodiment of Israel's God. They rejected Jesus and the Romans came and destroyed their temple which was being rendered obsolete. The question remain for us even today? Do we want Jesus to rule over
us? Are we blinded by our own expectations about Messiah as Jerusalem was in
Jesus’ day? The question remains for us; ‘by what authority did Jesus do these
things? God or man?
