Matthew 21 - Jesus Christ, the Son of David

Zechariah’s prophecy was fulfilled when Jesus Christ asked His disciples into a village to take a donkey & a colt so that He can ride it into Jerusalem. Kings & officials ride on horses to symbolized strength, power & assertiveness but our Lord Jesus Christ ride on a donkey & a foal. However the crowd glorify Him by spreading their cloaks & branches from the trees with shouting of praise on the road when He entered.

This part is important to be in contrast as His authority was challenged by the chief priests and the elders of the people when He was teaching in the temple. The crowd recognized Him as they believed in Him & accepted Him whereas the chief priests & elders did not. Mostly their heart were envious of Jesus Christ but the most important part is that they cannot accept nor do they believe that when He was praise by the crowd “Hosanna to the Son of David”. It’s a term that are familiar with the house of Israel as it refers to the Messiah & their expectation of a saviour did not match. In that era of power struggle, they wanted a leader or a saviour with power & might rather than miracles of healing, casting out demons or teachings of love. It is understandable that people under oppression for a long time due to the consequences of sins from generations after generations to want deliverance from the powerlessness & hopelessness but most of the time the way of God is higher than the way of men.

The parables talks about a pattern of who exactly is the one that does the will of God. Those are the ones that produce the fruit that Jesus Christ was talking about from the fig tree. Fig tree represents Israel often times & their leaves & fruit usually grow at the same time or the fruit comes first, this time though the fig tree only produce leaves. Hence Jesus cursed it to wither. The other parables of the two sons & wicked tenants brings the same message of who actually did the will of God. Those who do the will of God is because they listened to Him & then believed in Him, their faith in Him was the motivator of doing the will of God. This is a hard saying for the chief priests & the elders as they truly believed that they were doing the will of God, they taught the law of Moses & tithed. They were the leaders of the synagogue & hold high positions that influenced the people of Israel. So when Jesus Christ called them out saying that they are not doing the will of God, they probably could not accept that all that they have done was futile.

It’s a reminder when God prompted us that we are going against His will, better to cut the losses & to turn back to the path He wants us to go, but this chapter’s key message is that our faith should also produce the fruit by doing the will of God & avoid doing only religious rites or practice regularly on the laws without relationship with God. The zeal for the laws & rites is not a bad thing but it will only be beneficial when it’s done in a relationship with God in faith by His grace thru the Lord Jesus Christ lest we puff up in arrogance…