Anchor My Faith

Previous Lesson
Next Lesson
Author: Stephen Weller
732 words, 4 minutes read time

The Children Cry Out

Scripture: Matthew 21:14-16; Mark 11:17

As Jesus was returning to Jerusalem on Monday, he curses a fig tree for showing no promise of bearing fruit that season. Arriving in Jerusalem, in the previous lesson, he went into the temple and cleanses it by driving out those who were doing business there. In this lesson, Jesus will replace those corrupt business activities with his teaching and meeting the needs of the people.

^{Mk 11:17} And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”

After cleansing the temple of the corrupt business that was taking place where there should instead be prayer and worship, especially on the part of the Gentile believers who come for the occasion, Jesus then prevents anyone to carry anything through the temple as he begins to teach those who were there. He teaches about what was said long ago by Isaiah: ⁶ “And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant— ⁷ these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” (Isaiah 56:6 – 7 ESV).

The temple was to be a place where people (both Jew and Gentile) could come to sacrifice for their sin and spend time in prayer and worship; it was to be a house of prayer for all the nations, but the Jewish leadership had allowed it to become a den of robbers, taking from the people who came to get right with God and spend time with him; they took to satisfy their own greed. God chose them to reveal himself to the people and help them in their walk with God, but instead they seek glory for themselves and burden the people with many traditions to follow that God did not intend.

^{Mt 21:14} And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. ¹⁵ But 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, 16 and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?”

With Jesus there in the temple in place of those doing business, there was more room for people to come in and seek Jesus for help. In came the blind and the lame and Jesus healed them. Here is another example of what Jesus spoke of when, in lesson H154, he was given the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and he read: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Recorded in Luke 4:18 – 19 ESV).

Here was Jesus in the temple teaching about what Isaiah had prophesied, preparing to go to the cross to pay the price to set people free from their bondage to sin and to demonstrate who he was he restored sight and healed the lame. Even the children saw what was happening and they cry out, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”

The chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things Jesus was doing, and the crying out of the children, and they became indignant and came to Jesus with a complaint and begin by saying, “Do you not hear what these are saying?” Their crying out, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” was confirming that Jesus was the divine Messiah, and this upset the Jewish leadership.

Conclusion

As the children cry out, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” and the chief priests and the scribes voice a complaint, Jesus again prepares to shame them from the Scriptures.