Stirring things up in a city that has been stirred by conflict...

This week, we have been looking at the significance that a single city has had on history. And that single city is the city of Jerusalem. The city of Jerusalem seems to be constantly in the news as a result of the conflict that surrounds this single city. As a matter of fact, the city of Jerusalem has been a city of conflict since it was first inhabited.

The city of Jerusalem has played a significant role when it comes to God’s activity in history since 2100 B.C. Then, in 30 A.D., an event from history occurred that once again brought the city of Jerusalem to center stage in history. Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem on a donkey because Jesus wanted the residents of Jerusalem to clearly understand that He was fulfilling God’s promise to send a rescuer, a deliverer, a Messiah. Jesus wanted the residents of Jerusalem to clearly understand that He was the Messiah and that He had arrived as advertised.

As Jesus entered the city of Jerusalem, the crowds that surrounded Jesus as He entered Jerusalem were basically proclaiming “Save us now! We believe that you are the Son of David, the fulfillment of God’s promise to send a Messiah. How blessed are you who have come from the Lord to rescue and deliver us! Save us now!”

Matthew then tells us that as Jesus entered Jerusalem, the entire city was stirred with excitement and questions. “Who is this that you are proclaiming as the Messiah?” people were asking. “This is Jesus the prophet from Galilee, He is the Messiah”, was the crowds response. But it was not simply the crowds that surrounded Jesus as He entered Jerusalem that stirred up the city of Jerusalem. We see Jesus Himself begin to stir things up in verse Matthew 21:12:

 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. And He said to them, "It is written, 'MY HOUSE SHALL BE CALLED A HOUSE OF PRAYER'; but you are making it a ROBBERS' DEN." And the blind and the lame came to Him in the temple, and He healed them.

Jesus, after receiving a red carpet welcome from the crowds as He entered into the city of Jerusalem, headed straight to the Temple Mount. After arriving on the Temple Mount, Jesus proceeded to stir things up in the Temple Courtyard by turning over tables and driving out those who were financially exploiting people who came to worship God by charging fraudulent exchange rates on the currency that would be used for worship.

And as Jesus stirred things up in the Temple Courtyard, Jesus quoted from two different sections of two different letters in the Old Testament of the Bible, called the Book of Isaiah and the book of Jeremiah.  First, Jesus quoted from Isaiah 56:7, which referred to the Temple as the house of the Lord and as a place of prayer for people from every nation.

However, as a result of the corruption of the Pharisees, who were the self righteous religious leaders of the day, those from other nations were unable to afford to worship because of the high exchange rates that were being charged to worship. And as a result, Jesus quoted Jeremiah 7:11 to reveal the corruption of the Pharisees that had infected and affected the Temple.

Matthew then explained that as Jesus stirred things up in the Temple, those who were blind and lame came to Jesus to request healing from their illnesses. Jesus responded by healing them, which served as another sign that He was the fulfillment of God’s promise of the Messiah. Now as you might imagine, the Pharisees and the Jewish religious leaders were not too happy about what was happening in the city and in the Temple. Matthew reveals for us how the Pharisees responded to Jesus actions in verse 15-16a:

But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they became indignant and said to Him, "Do You hear what these children are saying?"

As the Pharisees and the religious experts observed Jesus stirring things up in the city by turning over tables and by miraculously healing those who had no hope of healing; as the Pharisees and the religious experts heard the children of the city of Jerusalem shouting “Save us now you who are the Son of David the Messiah” they became indignant. In other words, these self righteous religious people were aroused with anger over the wrongdoing that they believed that they were witnessing.

And in their anger over the wrongdoing that they believed was taking place, these self righteous religious people confronted Jesus. These self righteous religious people basically said to Jesus “Do you understand what they are saying about you! Why are you allowing these children to call you the Messiah! Don’t you know the wrongdoing that you are doing by allowing this to be happening”! We see how Jesus responded to this confrontation in the second half of verse 16-17:

 And Jesus said to them, "Yes; have you never read, 'OUT OF THE MOUTH OF INFANTS AND NURSING BABIES YOU HAVE PREPARED PRAISE FOR YOURSELF'?" And He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and spent the night there.

Jesus responded to being confronted by this group of self righteous religious people by quoting from a section of a letter in the Old Testament of the Bible called the book of Psalms. In Psalm 8:2, the Psalmist proclaims the reality that God’s power is revealed in something as seemingly insignificant as praise. The Psalmist point is that what is significant about this praise is that it builds a wall of power against the enemies of God.

Jesus here quotes Psalm 8:2 to reveal the inherent power and defense that the praise of the Lord provides against the enemies of the Lord, which in this case were the Pharisee’s, who were standing in opposition of Jesus as the Messiah. And with that Jesus ended His confrontation with the Pharisees. After this confrontation with the Pharisee’s Jesus and His disciples left Jerusalem to spend the night in the nearby city of Bethany.

However, the battle lines for conflict had already been drawn. And over the next four days there would be confrontation and conflict between Jesus and the self righteous religious leaders of the day.  There would be confrontation and conflict that would escalate in its intensity and its impact on those in the city of Jerusalem and around the world. 

You see, confrontation and conflict is nothing new for the city of Jerusalem. Confrontation and conflict has surrounded the city of Jerusalem for over 3,000 years. However it was a confrontation that occurred on a Thursday evening and Friday morning a little over 2,000 years ago that would shape the course of history and eternity.

Friday night we will pause to ponder the image of a cross and the significance that a single cross had on history...