(Luke Kephart)
Matthew 20:29–21:22 And as they went out of Jericho, a great crowd followed him. 30And behold, there were two blind men sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was passing by, they cried out, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” 31The crowd rebuked them, telling them to be silent, but they cried out all the more, “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” 32And stopping, Jesus called them and said, “What do you want me to do for you?” 33They said to him, “Lord, let our eyes be opened.” 34And Jesus in pity touched their eyes, and immediately they recovered their sight and followed him.
21 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” 4This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,
5 “Say to the daughter of Zion,
‘Behold, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”
6The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. 7They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. 8Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” 10And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” 11And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”
12And Jesus entered the temple 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. 13He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”
14And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 15But 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, 16and 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’?”
17And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.
18In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. 19And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.
20When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” 21And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. 22And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
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In today’s passage, we look at four scenes that pivot around Jesus as he enters Jerusalem for the last time. Each of these could be a devotion in themselves, but today we’ll look briefly at what each says about Jesus, and what Matthew is working to tell us from the whole section. As we walk through these four scenes, I want you to look at two things: What do they tell us about who Jesus is, and how do the people in view respond to him?
Scene 1 — The Blind Men and the Crowd (20:29–34)
The first scene shows Jesus traveling from Jericho toward Jerusalem, followed by a great crowd. Two blind men cry out to him, calling him “Son of David”—a clear messianic title. They persist even when the crowd rebukes them. They’ve heard of Jesus and they know that when the Messiah comes, the blind will see (Isa. 35:5; 42:7). They ask for what only the Messiah can give, and Jesus has compassion and restores their sight.
What’s striking is the contrast: the blind men see Jesus clearly, while the crowd—who has watched him heal and teach—misses the point and tries to silence them. If the crowd had truly understood him, they would have known that he would have compassion on the blind men, just as his acts have shown his compassion for them.
Scene 2 — The Following Crowd and the City Crowd (21:1–11)
The next scene is Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem, and Matthew shows it happening with deliberate precision. Jesus comes from Jericho, retracing Israel’s path into the promised land. He approaches from the Mount of Olives, the place Zechariah said the Lord would stand on the Day of the Lord (Zech. 14:4). He rides a donkey’s colt, fulfilling the prophecy of the humble King in Zechariah 9:9.
The crowd following him cries out “Hosanna to the Son of David!” and spreads cloaks and branches before him. They have seen his mighty works and know something out of the ordinary is happening and hope that he is the Messiah, so they embrace him that way – “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” They have been eyewitnesses to Jesus’ ministry, and that drives their excitement coming into Jerusalem. But as we will see later in Matthew, for many of them, their hope is short-lived when Jesus’ mission leads him to give himself for us. Their hope is based on what they want, not on who Jesus the Messiah is.
Their energetic entrance “stirs up” the city, and when the city asks, “Who is this?”, the crowd following Jesus answers, “This is the prophet from Nazareth.” The return of a true prophet had long been awaited, and being from Nazareth supports the prophecies concerning the Messiah, yet it seems that for most of the people in the city this disruption is not a welcome event.
Scene 3 — The Sellers/Leaders and the Children (21:12–17)
In the third scene, Jesus enters the temple and confronts corruption that has returned since his earlier cleansing of the temple as described in John 2. This time, he quotes Isaiah 56:7—“My house shall be called a house of prayer”—and Jeremiah 7:11—“but you have made it a den of robbers.” It’s worth noting that in the earlier instance, he called the temple his Father’s house; now the scriptures he references call it my house. Matthew wants us to see Jesus is the Lord of the temple.
After he drives out the sellers, the blind and lame come to him, and he heals them—continuing his ministry. Meanwhile, the children take up the cry from the triumphal entry: “Hosanna to the Son of David!”
The contrast is sharp: the leaders are indignant, offended by his authority, while the children instinctively praise him, fulfilling Psalm 8:2. The powerful resist him; the powerless recognize him.
Scene 4 — The Disciples and Israel (the Fig Tree) (21:18–22)
The final scene is quieter and more intimate. Early in the morning, as Jesus and the disciples return to the city, he approaches a fig tree with leaves but no fruit. In the prophets, the fig tree often symbolized Israel (Jer. 8:13; Hos. 9:10; Mic. 7:1). Jesus’ judgment on the tree is not irritation—it is a prophetic sign. Israel has leaves—activity, appearance, religion—but no fruit. Judgment is imminent.
The disciples are startled at how quickly the tree withers. They are still learning, still growing in faith. The contrast here is between those who follow him, who are slowly coming to understand, and those who should have recognized him, whose fruitlessness is exposed.
Conclusion
Matthew presents Jesus in a way that restates and reinforces his Messianic credentials as he enters Jerusalem. The Old Testament promised a greater Prophet, Priest, and King, and in these scenes Jesus fulfills each role:
- Prophet — Teaching with authority, confronting fruitless Israel, and pronouncing judgment
- Priest — Restoring the broken and guarding the holiness of God’s house
- King — Entering Jerusalem in fulfillment of Zechariah’s promise and receiving the honor and praise of his people
Yet in many ways, Jesus is not the Messiah they were looking for. Matthew shows the varied responses of his own people: the blind who see, the crowds who misunderstand, the leaders who resist, the children who praise, and the disciples who follow but do not fully understand. These responses reflect the different soils in the parable of the sower. The evidence that Jesus is the Messiah is unmistakable. The Kingdom is at hand. The question is not who Jesus is. The question is how we respond when he comes to us.
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An audio version of each devotion will be posted on our church podcast “Life Together at CRPC,” which is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.