Time for a grand entrance. Jesus sends two guys off to grab a pair of donkeys that are needed to fulfill a prophecy. Other places in the Bible make it sound like He might’ve arranged for them to be available, otherwise Matthew makes it sound like He had supernatural awareness that they’d be where He sent them, which is equally possible. We’ve made it this far, I don’t think anyone’s faith is going to be shaken by Him arranging His donkey Uber instead of using omnipotence, right? The imagery of a donkey is important because being seen coming in on a horse is the thing that conquerors would do, but a donkey is an animal reserved for work. His appearance as the foretold Messiah is NOT to overthrow the Romans. If anyone asks them about it, they are to say “the Lord needs them”. Do NOT try this at Target. Note that He refers to Himself as Lord. All the pretense is dropped. He’s not telling people to keep it quiet. He’s coming in waving the banner now. He enters in expressing humility atop a donkey, but by following the prophecy He spells out, He is no less declaring His claim as Messiah and king.

As He enters, people are throwing their cloaks and shouting words of praise. Some will point out that when Jesus arrived it was Passover season and these shouts were normal for the time, but they’re being directed towards Jesus and actively participating in a procession. The very next verse says “the whole city was stirred up saying who is this” so I’m not sure how you’d come away thinking this was a normal day for them save for someone riding a donkey around. “This is the prophet Jesus” ….Uh… Bro.

Okay here we go, another one of those parts of the Bible that sometimes represents the WHOLE of their knowledge. This time it’s the RW antisemite club who knows Jesus drove out moneychangers, brood of vipers, and little else. Except……..this isn’t that. Yeah, this is the second time He does it. We hear about the first in John. So, why does He do this? Business needed to be done for temple worship and people came from all over to do this, including places with foreign money, which the temple couldn’t accept. So money changers and exchanges and the selling of animals for sacrifice was all necessary. So given that the services Jesus flipped the tables of were needed to fulfill the demands of the law, something else had to be going on. “Turning house of prayer into den of robbers”. So this is either they were doing this too close to a prayer space (imagine going it in the pews while the sermon is going on rather than in the hall or outside the door, to make a modern comparison) or they were price gouging travelers who were stuck for options now that they’re far from home. And that’s it. No lengthy sermon, no parables, He just bulldozes their operation, yells at them, and people come in for healing. Except that’s not it, there’s other things going on. By driving out the people doing business and inviting in people to be healed, He’s demonstrating AUTHORITY over the temple. In JERUSALEM. Big deal. There’s also symbolic value here. People wanted in but they were blind and broken, or they needed money and transactions for rituals. Jesus demolishes everything and clears a path STRAIGHT to HIM. This is the whole point of the cross. None of this traveling a thousand miles by foot to trade your currency to buy a dove to burn so a Pharisee can tell you that you’re still not good enough to pray. Jesus says “I’m right here, come on over”.

Speaking of bitter Jewish authority, here they are now. Jesus has taken command of the temple and people are celebrating Him as the Son of David. Specifically, “Hosanna” is solely meant to be used when worshipping God and for nothing else, so it would be pretty clear what was happening here. They approach Him asking “Do you hear what these children are saying???” so Jesus can make them stop this blasphemy. Jesus gives an answer that amounts to “Of course I do, I’m God.” If you think Jesus isn’t a badass, you’ve never read the Bible.

Jesus lodges and returns to the city in the morning when He gets hungry. Lest you be so impressed by His divinity you forget His humanity, yes, He got hungry and tired. He clipped His toenails and His back got itchy sometimes because to not have the full human experience is to reduce the meaning of His sacrifice. He gets a craving for a fig like we all do and goes to a tree to pick one and when it’s bare, He curses it and the tree dies instantly. There’s explanations for this that involve the power of faith, the tree being representative of Israel, and hypocrites. I would point out that something having symbolic value doesn’t mean it can’t be literally true as well. These are not mutually exclusive. This is God we’re talking about, He can set up real world events to have symbolic value. In particular, this can be read as a WARNING to Israel because they should have an unripe faith at minimum, but instead they have bare branches. He tells the disciples that with faith, they could do that too. If they have faith when they ask something of God, it can be done. But even the holiest request asked from extreme doubt or disbelief may not be answered because of your relationship with God. This isn’t to say that if you cross your fingers and pray with all your heart that now God is trapped into providing you a pony. He’s still not your personal genie servant. He wanted to empower His disciples because they’re taking the wheel once He returns to the Father and they need to be able to handle what comes next. As long as their will aligns with the Lord’s and they ask in faith, they will be given what’s needed to perform the job. You’ll note in later chapters, there’s not big fancy miracles taking place from the apostles despite them describing having received the power to do so while God walked among them.

He goes back to the temple to teach and the priests and elders ask Him by what authority He does this. Jesus initiates a debate with the rabbis, which was the style at the time. Challenging each other by answering questions with questions was the norm. This is a deadly serious moment though and if it was anyone else, I’d wonder if they knew they were gambling with their life, since the priests are here to entrap Him and get him turned over to the Romans. “From where did John’s baptism come, heaven or man?” They needed to publicly declare a position on John the Baptist: was he a legitimate prophet of God or a fraud?" John had proclaimed the coming of Christ. Not “a” Christ. Jesus. The one right in front of them. So if John was sent by God, then why are the rabbis ignoring him and trying to harass Jesus? If they said he was a fraud, then they’d have grounds to ignore him and go after Jesus but the people would hate it and it would be transparent they were protecting themselves. They’re stuck. One question and they’re stuck. To be clear, they didn’t think John was a prophet but they were too cowardly to speak what they thought was the truth and upset the people, so their weakness led them here. So even right now they have an opportunity to hold to SOME principle and say “no we don’t think you’re God because we don’t believe John the Baptist either”. They say they don’t know so Jesus dismisses them. Worthless leadership.

Parable time. Man and his two sons and needs them to work the field. One refuses but says “actually yeah I’ll go do it”. The other agrees but doesn’t follow through. The rabbis agree that the stubborn one who eventually obeyed has followed the will of the father more than the one who obeyed with his mouth but not with his actions. Jesus’s response merits being typed in full: “Truly I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you”. For a status driven people, to be told that the untouchables of society were closer to heaven than they–the chief priests and elders–must’ve hit like a punch in the throat.

Parable time. Yes, He’s taking these guys to school today. A guy builds a property and goes to another country after leasing it to people to work. Landowner: God Vineyard: Israel Tenants: Israel’s religious leadership. The rabbis are responsible for tending the people while God is not actively walking among them. The owner sends servants to claim his percentage of the fruits and are killed by the tenants. Servants: Prophets, usually killed by the Jewish leaders or people The owner sends his son, since the son should command more respect than the servants. Jesus, the son is Jesus. They think by killing the son, they will finally claim ownership of the fields. So He asks the rabbis, when the owner comes, what will he do to the tenants? The rabbis answer that the tenants will be killed and the land will be put in the care of obedient and trustworthy tenants. Jesus tells them that exactly that outcome will befall these untrustworthy tenants. The chapter concludes by acknowledging there was no confusion about what the parables are driving at. The rabbis understood He was speaking about them falling out of favor. All the more reason, in their eyes, to stop his teaching.