15 But seeing the wonders that He did, and the children calling out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” the chief priests and the scribes became indignant 16 and said to Him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” So Jesus says to them: “Yes. Have you never read that
33 “Hear another parable: There was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard and set a hedge around it, dug a winepress in it and built a tower. And he leased it to farmers and went on a journey. 34 When vintage-time drew near he sent his servants to the farmers to receive his fruits. 35 But the farmers took his servants—one they beat, one they killed, one they stoned. 36 Again he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did to them likewise. 37 So finally he sent his son to them saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 38 But when the farmers saw the son they said among themselves: ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and take possession of his inheritance.’ 39 And taking him they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. 40 Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?” 41 They say to Him: “He will miserably destroy those miserable men! And he will lease the vineyard to other farmers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons.” 42 Jesus says to them: “Did you never read in the Scriptures:
45 As the chief priests and Pharisees heard His parables they knew that He was speaking about them.‡They understood, so they were warned; but they did not pay attention to the warning. They went to hell with their eyes open. They would rather go to hell than acknowledge Jesus as Messiah. Today it is the same way—many would rather go to hell than acknowledge Jesus as Creator and Savior. 46 And although they wanted to seize Him, they were afraid of the crowds, because they considered Him as a prophet.
<- Matthew 20Matthew 22 ->- a The quote is from Zechariah 9:9. Unfortunately the KJV (corrected by the NKJV) mistranslates both the Hebrew and the Greek, making it appear that Jesus rode both animals, which was not the case; He rode only the colt. For a more complete discussion, please see the Appendix: How many animals?
- b It must have been a curious sight—no one had ever seen anything like it. Mark 11:2 and Luke 19:30 make clear that no one had ever ridden the colt. It was so young it was still staying close to ‘mother’, so if she was tied he was too. Jesus was going to expose the colt to a frightening experience—be ridden for the first time, by a stranger, someone perhaps heavier than the colt, and in the middle of a noisy crowd! So He has them bring the mother along as moral support. The disciples put clothes on both animals (the clothes would be very strange to the young donkey, but seeing his mother take it patiently would help his peace of mind), but Jesus rode only the colt—maybe He had to lift His feet so they didn't drag! It was probably comical, a strange way for a King to present Himself.
- c See Psalm 118:26.
- d Really and truly: can't you just see the hubbub! The crowd with Jesus was not from Jerusalem (John 12:12), so the locals were taken by surprise.
- e Mark and Luke have the correct sequence of events for that Sunday, Monday and Tuesday—Matthew rearranges the material for stylistic reasons (presumably). For the correct sequence of events, read Matthew 21:1-11, 18-19, 12-17, 20-22, 23-46. Chapters 22-26 are in sequence.
- f See Isaiah 56:7 (Jeremiah 7:11).
- g See Psalm 8:2.
- h As Mark points out (Mark 11:13), it was not fig season, but a tree with leaves might have some dried figs. Since dried figs are very good eating, any visible figs would have been eaten long since (the tree was near the road).
- i The Text has ‘the sap was cut off’; the result would not be visible immediately.
- j According to Mark this was 24 hours later.
- k The Lord's words were definitely not designed to make them happy! In effect, He goes on to show that their refusal to answer His question was duplicitous. They knew good and well that John's baptism was from heaven.
- l See Psalm 118:22-23.
- m That is what the Text says, ‘a nation’, which makes me wonder which ‘nation’ that might be. Since at any given time a nation is made up of the people alive at the moment, an Israel in the distant future would be a different ‘nation’. However, in 1 Peter 2:9 the Church is called “a holy nation”, so perhaps the reference is to the Church.
- n Two Greek manuscripts (of inferior quality: D and 33—Codex D is possibly the worst copy in existence), against some 1700, omit verse 44. In consequence the so-called ‘critical’ text, UBS4/N-A27 (which reproduces the text of UBS3/N-A26), places the verse within brackets, thereby affirming that in their opinion the verse is not genuine. NIV informs us that “Some manuscripts do not have verse 44.” By “some” they mean two against 1700—is that not a dishonest use of the English language? To join Jesus means you have to be broken (so you can be remade), but to reject Him…
- o They understood, so they were warned; but they did not pay attention to the warning. They went to hell with their eyes open. They would rather go to hell than acknowledge Jesus as Messiah. Today it is the same way—many would rather go to hell than acknowledge Jesus as Creator and Savior.