Matthew 21
1 Then when theya were nearing Jerusalem, and they arrived at Bethphage, heading toward the Mount of Olives,b Jesus sent out two students.
2 “Go on to the village up ahead,” he told them. “Right away, you’ll find a donkey tied there with her colt. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, say that the lord needs them, and they’ll immediately allow them to go.” 4 This happened with the result that what was said by the prophet was lived out:
5 Tell the daughter of Zion,c
“Look, your king is coming to you,
Gentled and riding on a donkey,
In fact, on the foal of a beast of burden.”e
6 So the students went on and, doing just as Jesus arranged with them, 7 they led away the donkey and colt. They placed their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. 8 A huge crowd of people spread out their own cloaks on the road while others cut branches from the trees and spread them out on the road. 9 The crowd was proceeding ahead of him and following behind and shouting,
Hoshea naf throughg David’s heir!h
Praisedi be the one who comes representingj the Lord!k
Hoshea na, you who are in the highest places!l
10 So upon his entrance into Jerusalem the whole city was stirred up, with people asking, “Who is this?” 11 and the crowds started saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee!”
12 Then Jesus entered the sacred grounds,m cast out all the vendors and buyers who were in the sacred area, and flipped over the tables of the currency exchangers and the chairs of the dove sellers.n
13 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’o but you are making it a ‘stronghold for robbers!’”p 14 Then people who were blind and people who were unable to walkq went to him in the sacred grounds, and he healed them.
15 But when the lead priests and Bible scholars saw the wonderful things he did and the young children shouting, “Hoshea na through David’s heir!” they were furious.
16 “Do you hear what they are saying!” they demanded of him.
“Yes,” Jesus told them, “Have you never read ‘Out of the mouths of children and nursing babies, you have set forth praise?”r 17 Then leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and spent the night there.
18 Then, before dawn, as he was returning to the city, he was hungry, 19 and noticing a lone fig tree by the road, he went up to it but did not find anything on it except leaves.
“You will never produce fruit again!” he said to it, and the fig tree withered instantly.s 20 When the students saw it, they were amazed.
“How did the fig tree wither in an instant?” they wondered.
21 “Honestly,” Jesus answered them, “I’m telling you, if you hold ontot faithfulness and do not distance yourself from it,u not only will you do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain,v ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea!’ it will happen.w 22 You will receive anything you request with prayer while maintaining faithfulness.”x
23 After he arrived at the sacred grounds,y the lead priests and elders of the people confronted him while he was teaching and said, “With what authority are you doing these things? And who gave you this authority?”
24 “I will also ask you something. If you tell me, I’ll also tell you with what authority I’m doing these things,” Jesus responded. 25 “Where did John’s immersion come from? Of the heavens or of human origin?”
They began to deliberate among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘from the heavens,’ he’ll say, ‘Then why didn’t you trust him?’ 26 but if we say, ‘of human origin’…we’re afraid of the crowd because they all regard John as a prophet,” 27 so they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.”
“Then I won’t tell you with what authority I’m doing these things either,” he told them. 28 “But what do you think? There was someone who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go work in the vineyard today.’ 29 The son answered, ‘I don’t want to,’ but later he had a change of heartz and went. 30 The father went to the other one and said the same thing. This one answered, ‘Yes, sir,’aa and then didn’t go. 31 Which of the two did what his father wanted?”
“The first,” they said.
“Honestly,” Jesus said to them, “I’m telling you, tax collectors and sex workers go ahead of youbb in God’s Reign.cc 32 You see, John came to you focused ondd the path of justness,ee and you didn’t trust him, but the tax collectors and sex workers trusted him. Even after seeing, you still didn’t have a change of heart to trust him.
33 “Listen to another parable: There was someone who was a landowner and planted a vineyard. He put a fence around it, installed a winepress, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenant farmersff and traveled out of the country. 34 Then when it was almost harvest time, he sent his enslaved workers to the tenants to collect his crops. 35 But the tenants seized the enslaved workers. They stoned one to death, executed another, and floggedgg another to death. 36 Again, he sent enslaved workers, a greater number than the first time, and the tenants did the same things to them. 37 Finally, he sent his son to them, saying to himself, ‘They will show consideration for my son.’ 38 But, when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir! Come on, we should kill him and keep his inheritance.’ 39 They seized him and threw him outside of the vineyard and killed him. 40 So, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
41 “He will brutally destroy those brutal people!” they said to him. “Then he will lease the vineyard to other tenants who will pay him his crops when they harvest.”
42 Jesus challenged them: “Haven’t you ever read in the scriptures,
The stone which the builders rejected,
That’s the one that became the foundation stone.hh
It’s from the Lord that this happened,
And it is wonderful in our eyes.ii
43 I’m telling you, God’s Reignjj will be taken away from you because of this, and it will be given to a peoplekk who produce its fruit. 44 Whoeverll falls against this stone will be broken apart, and whomever it falls on will be crushed.”
45 When the lead priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew he was speaking about them. 46 Though they were looking for an opportunity to seize him, they were afraid of the crowds because the people regarded him as a prophet.
FOOTNOTES:
a “They” refers to Jesus and the Twelve as they continue their journey discussed in chapter 20.
b The Mount of Olives is about 100 ft. higher elevation than Jerusalem, more of a hill or ridge than how we typically use ‘mountain’ in English.
c ‘Daughter of Zion’ is an idiom that meant the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with Zion being the name of the hill on which Jerusalem is built and is often used in scripture to refer to the city.
d Other translations use ‘humble’ or ‘meek’ instead of gentle here, which do not reflect the meaning well. The traditional ‘meek’ is not a sufficient equivalent to the Greek word praus, which is often used to describe someone who is self-effacing or lacking self-confidence. Praus conveys an active gentleness and patience, and its use in the Hebrew Bible (in the Greek translation [LXX]) is regarding those who rely on God rather than their own strength to protect them against injustice. It includes rejecting the use of force or violence, but also extends further into using active care through gentleness.
e Citation of Zechariah 9:9. As was the custom of the time, only a portion of the passage is quoted when the writer had the full context in mind. It served the same function as modern readers using Book, Chapter, and Verse to indicate what portion we intend. The chapter and verse numbers did not yet exist at the time this was written. The context of Zechariah 9-10 is relevant for what is being communicated here. It’s about God protecting the people and restoring them after oppression by foreign powers that happened because of deviation from the Path of the Lord.
f Traditionally, ‘hosanna.’ ‘Hosanna’ isn’t properly a word. It’s the Hebrew words Hoshea na transferred into Greek letters and then transferred into English letters. They are a quotation from Psalm 118:25. Na makes it a plea, with the closest English translation being ‘please,’ but it’s stronger than a simple request. Hoshea translates to something like ‘save, deliver, liberate, free, be victorious, be open, rescue, defend.’ The expectation here, since they are pairing it with Son of David, is that they see Jesus as the rightful king of Israel who will liberate them from Roman rule.
g There is no Greek word serving as a preposition here. “Through David’ heir” is translating tō huiō Dauid, which is in the Dative Case form. The dative case in English requires a preposition, so one must be supplied in English. This seems to be a dative of means, indicating that David’s heir is the means by which the people are asking God to liberate them.
h The most direct translation is ‘son,’ but the word huios was also regularly used more figuratively to refer to an heir or descendant more broadly as well as those who were dedicated to following a particular movement or figure and emulating them.
i Traditionally, ‘blessed’; however, it is not the same Greek word that is traditionally translated as ‘blessed’ in Matthew 5:3-11 (translated instead as ‘have reason for gratitude’ in the LIT). This word literally means something like ‘spoken well of.’ Praised seems to be a good word to capture that meaning. It can also carry the meaning of ‘speak well over’ with the meaning of declare goodwill for that person and potential inspiring benefits to develop.
j The phrase is literally, ‘in the name of.’ The concept of ‘name’ in scripture is more than the set of sounds or letters used to designate who is being discussed. It refers to their identity, character, and sometimes authority or cause which that person represents or leads. For instance, here, it could be loosely translated to mean something like “serve the identity, authority, and waying of being of the Lord.”
k Citation of Psalm 118:26
l The phrase en tois hypsistois translates as "in the highest," referring to elevated realms or "the highest regions." When the term hupsistos (meaning "highest" or "Most High") is used in the singular, it often indirectly refers to God, serving as a respectful substitution. In the plural, as with tois hupsistois, it implies the "highest heavens," or the sacred space associated with divine presence, aligning with Jewish and early Christian reverence for God. When hupsistos appears singularly, it frequently serves as a title for God, emphasizing respect and sacred elevation. Matthew’s use of "of the heavens" to imply God's authority, like using "the White House" for "the President," exemplifies this indirect reference through spatial language. Such reverential phrasing, common in Jewish and early Christian texts, subtly invokes the divine realm and conveys sacred honor while sidestepping direct mention of God, which was a customary practice to express deference in these contexts.
m Traditionally, ‘temple court’ in this passage; however hieron literally means ‘sacred.’ The understanding is that it refers to the sacred place in Jerusalem, which would be the temple, so ‘temple’ is a workable translation; however, this story is not inside the temple building but rather in the courtyard outside the temple within the wall that enclosed it.
n See Leviticus 14:21-22. The ritual for cleansing from a disease that makes someone ritually unclean (which meant they were excluded from public worship at the temple or were even expected to isolate entirely to prevent the spread of disease) was to sacrifice a lamb after being cleared by the priests. However, if they were poor, they could offer two doves. If they were desperately poor, they could offer two pigeons. The significance of Jesus turning over the chairs of the dove sellers seems to be connected with exploitation of the poor and sick. The currency exchange process forced people to exchange their Roman coins for temple coins in order to buy the sacrifices they needed to be accepted back into community life, and the exchange rates were likely exploitative. Moreover, this was taking place not in a commercial area but was filling the part of the sacred grounds where anyone was allowed to worship, including foreigners, women, and people who were sick or otherwise ritually unclean. The other parts of the sacred grounds were exclusively for healthy, Jewish men. It meant that anyone not a healthy, Jewish man had to do any worship in the middle of livestock and haggling and noise while the healthy, Jewish men were afforded a private area for worship.
o Citation of Isaiah 56:7, but this story in Matthew cannot be rightly understood without looking at the whole of Isaiah 56. Undoubtedly, Jesus was referring to the ideas in the whole chapter (and even the following chapters), including the instruction to promote justice, to welcome foreigners and eunuchs (who were traditionally excluded from temple worship) and the indictment that the authorities are each ‘looking for monetary gain.’ Jesus identifies the current situation with chapters 56-58 and is doing the work to usher in what is described in chapters 59-62 and beyond.
p The phrase here is from Jeremiah 7:11, but context of the whole chapter is in view where Jeremiah speaks on behalf of the LORD telling people to change their ways and start doing justice for each other, stop oppressing immigrants, orphans, and widows (who would have had no way to earn a living), stop killing innocent people, stop paying allegiance to gods whose ways were in contradiction to all these teachings. The entirety of Jeremiah 7 (also 8 and 9) is relevant and includes the prediction that their fate will be as the Valley of Ben Hinnom and death and the destruction of the temple (which happened about 40 years later in AD 70). See footnotes for Matthew 5:22 and Matthew 5:29.
q The word here implies difficulty walking with an injury such as having lost a foot. Blindness and dismemberment would have excluded people from worshiping in the inner temple area.
r Citation of Psalm 8:2. Psalm 8 is both about protecting from enemies and about understanding the security of that protection by seeing the wonder of creation and perceiving God at work in it. The children see Jesus doing God’s work, but the religious authorities do not.’
s See Jeremiah 8:13 and its context. This story is also reminiscent of previous discussions of recognizing a tree by its fruit, such as Matthew 7:17-20.
t Or ‘remember’ or ‘have’ or ‘understand’
u The phrase translated here as “distance yourself from” is based on the Greek word diakrithēte, which is often rendered as “doubt.” However, the verb diakrinō literally means “to separate” or “to distinguish.” In this context, diakrinō implies an internal division or a distancing from one’s commitment. It suggests a relational or internal separation from one’s own faithfulness rather than merely experiencing doubt.
v As Jesus was approaching Jerusalem, he would have had a clear view of the Herodium and the Dead Sea. According to John A. Beck’s Zondervan Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (2011), “The Herodium was a palace set on top of an artificially formed mountain. When Herod the Great was looking for a building site for his palace-fortress that would double as a monumental tomb upon his death, he did not find one high enough to suit his ego. Consequently, he picked a site and ordered that the soil and stone of a nearby mountain be moved to his building site. Herod had moved a mountain, an event that became a symbol for the pagan intrusion of a Roman-occupied Promised Land. […] Jewish tradition observes that the Dead Sea is the place for disposing of articles with a pagan connection (Mishnah, Abodah Zarah 3:3, 9). When we link the connotations of the Herodium and the Dead Sea, Jesus’ point becomes clearer. People with wealth and power can move mountains. But in the kingdom of God, those with true faith can demand that the symbols of paganism be sent off to the proper place, and it will happen” (p. 62).
w Parallel to Matthew 17:20
x Parallel to Matthew 7:7-12
y Traditionally, ‘temple court’ in this passage; however hieron literally means ‘sacred.’ The understanding is that it refers to the sacred place in Jerusalem, which would be the temple, so ‘temple’ is a workable translation; however, this story is not inside the temple building but rather in the courtyard outside the temple within the wall that enclosed it.
z The word here is metamelomai, and means ‘to change one’s mind about a decision or opinion’ and it implies regret is part of the motivation; the most literal translation is ‘care afterward.’ This is in contrast with metanoia which means ‘transform the mind’ and is traditionally translated ‘repent’ and the English.
aa Literally, ‘I, lord.’
bb Literally, ‘precede,’ but it’s not about timing, it’s about status.
cc This is one of only four times in Matthew that it is written as God’s Reign (traditionally ‘Kingdom of God’) instead of ‘Heavenly Reign’ (traditionally ‘Kingdom of Heaven’). There’s a shock factor involved in the choice, emphasizing God’s connection with the tax collectors and sex workers in contrast with the lead priests and elders. The other three instances of ‘God’s Reign’ are Matthew 12:29, Matthew 19:24, and Matthew 21:43.
dd Or ‘pointing toward’ or ‘oriented toward’
ee Traditionally, ‘righteousness.’ The word dikaiosune literally means ‘aligned.’ It signifies being aligned with God’s standards described in Torah and elaborated and demonstrated by Jesus. ‘Justice’ and ‘justness’ are often appropriate words to convey the idea as most of what Jesus showed to be the focus is about how people treat each other, especially the vulnerable, like people in poverty, widows, orphans, immigrants, prisoners, people who are sick or disabled and others.
ff More specifically, sharecroppers, i.e. tenant farmers who pay for use of the land in the form of part of their crops
gg Or ‘beat’
hh Literally, ‘head-stone’ which was a term used for a variety of objects that have different names in English: Capstone, keystone, and cornerstone. Ironically, it is not used for what is called a headstone in English. Based on quotations of this psalm in other parts of the Christian scriptures, it seems clear a foundation stone was in view.
ii Quotation of Psalm 118:22-23
jj This is one of only four times in Matthew that it is written as God’s Reign (traditionally ‘Kingdom of God’) instead of ‘Heavenly Reign’ (traditionally ‘Kingdom of Heaven’). There’s a shock factor involved in the choice, emphasizing how disconnected the lead priests and elders were to God, despite being the religious elite. The other three instances of ‘God’s Reign’ are Matthew 12:29, Matthew 19:24, and Matthew 21:31.
kk In context, the people group Jesus seems to have in mind is anyone who responds by trusting the Path of Justness, such as the tax collectors and sex workers who followed John’s lead. Without paying attention to the context, some people have used verses like this to justify antisemitism.
ll Or ‘whatever’