Having grown up in the church, I've had Bible passages read to me my entire life. But outside of the church service, it's easy to forget that those same verses still apply. The New Testament is chock-full of references to the Old Testament. Take today's passage, for example.
The margins of my Bible are crammed with study references to other Old Testament verses that are referenced in Matthew 21. In verse 5 Jesus quotes Isaiah 62:11 and Zechariah 9:9; just a few sentences later, in verse 9, He quotes Psalm 118:26, and then in verse 13, when He rids the temple of the money changers, Jesus again quoted the Old Testament, this time Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11. The dramatic apex comes in verse 16, when Jesus, quoting Psalm 8:2, rebukes the Pharisees, asking them rather ironically if they had ever read the Scriptures.
Of course they had read the Scriptures. Their entire lives revolved around knowing the Scriptures. They were the ones who were supposed to know it better than anyone else in the world. But to them, the Word of the Lord was simply words on paper. The holy text was only an incriminating and inconvenient set of rules to be followed. The God-breathed Scripture was just a dead document.
The Pharisees thought of the Bible as simply words on paper. But Jesus wanted them - and us - to see it as a living, breathing document. It affects us personally; it's not just a set of rules. God's word is as true today as it was when it was written. If you don't see the proof of the Scriptures everywhere around you, if you don't see that God's word is coming true every single day, if your life doesn't change based on the principles that you've learned from the Bible....then you haven't really read it.
Matthew 21:1-17
Jesus Comes to Jerusalem as King
1 As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, say that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.”
4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:
5 “Say to Daughter Zion,
‘See, your king comes to you,
gentle and riding on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”
6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,
“Hosanna to the Son of David!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
10 When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”
11 The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”
Jesus at the Temple
12 Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. 13 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”
14 The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.
16 “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him.
“Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read,
“‘From the lips of children and infants
you, Lord, have called forth your praise’?”
17 And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.
No comments:
Post a Comment