A Period of Testing - Jesus Prepares For The New World Order - Journey to Jerusalem - Triumphal Entry - Jesus Is Lord (19:3-22).
Having entered Judaea on the way to Jerusalem for His final visit, Jesus enters into a period of testing as to His status as a Prophet, a process which comes to completion in Matthew 22:46. This commences with a visit by the Pharisees to test Him on His views on divorce (Matthew 19:3 ff). In reply to this He reveals that marriage is not something to be treated lightly, nor is it something to be manipulated by men, but is permanent and unbreakable, and that a new day is dawning when marrying and having children will not be the main focus of the Kingly Rule of Heaven.
The testing will then continue on as He is approached by various combinations of opponents concerning various contentious issues, as He Himself enters Jerusalem as its King. These include:
The Pharisees (Matthew 21:3 ff).
The Chief Priests and the Scribes (Matthew 21:15 ff).
The Chief Priests and the Elders of the people (Matthew 21:23 ff; Mark includes Scribes).
The Chief Priests and the Pharisees (Matthew 21:45-46; Luke has the Scribes and the Chief Priests).
The Pharisees with the Herodians (Matthew 22:15-22; Mark the Pharisees with the Herodians, Luke ‘spies').
The Sadducees (Matthew 22:23-33).
The Pharisees, including a lawyer (Scribe) (Matthew 22:34 ff; Mark has Scribe; Luke has Scribes).
These testings go on until they recognise the futility of testing Him any further because He always has an unassailable answer (Matthew 22:46). Thus all the main political and religious elements in Jewry were included in the opposition (the Essenes and the Qumran Community would have no particular reason for attacking Jesus. They were separatists and looked to God to deliver them from their enemies).
The combinations described by Matthew are deliberately intended:
To demonstrate how all the opposition were getting together one by one in order to bring Him down (note that no combination is repeated).
To indicate the widescale nature of the opposition.
To bring out how even hereditary enemies were being brought together for the purpose (Chief Priests and Scribes, Chief Priests and Pharisees, Pharisees and Herodians).
As can be seen the Chief Priests are mentioned three times, and the Pharisees are mentioned four times, the former around the time of His purifying of the Temple, when He has drawn Himself specifically to their attention and has shown up their dishonesty in their dealings in the Temple, and the latter all the way through, for the Pharisees, who were to be found throughout Judaea and Galilee, had dogged His footsteps from the beginning. It must be remembered in considering the parallels that most, although not all, of the Scribes were Pharisees (there were Scribes of the Sadducees and general Scribes as well).
Brief note on the Pharisees; Scribes; Chef Priests; Sadducees; Elders and Herodians.
The Pharisees were a sect of Judaism. They were in all around seven thousand in number but their influence far outweighed their numbers. They laid great weight on what distinguished Judaism from the world around them such as the keeping of the Sabbath, the payment of tithes and the various daily washings for the constant removal of uncleanness. They saw themselves as responsible to preserve the purity of Judaism. They did not run the synagogues but had great influence in them, and their Scribes (Teachers) were influential in teaching the people. They believed in the resurrection and in angels, strove for ‘eternal life' by obedience to the Law of Moses and the covenant, and sought rigidly to keep the covenant as they saw it, but often with a great emphasis on externals as is man's wont when enthusiasm has died down. This involved them in a rigid intent to observe the Law in all its detail, in which they were guided by the Traditions of the Elders and by their Scribes. In general they looked forward to the coming of the Messiah, although with various viewpoints concerning him, and to God's final deliverance of His people, when Pharisaic teaching would triumph. They waited patiently, but restlessly, for God to step in and remove the occupying forces as He had done in the time of their ancestors. Meanwhile they accepted the need for passive obedience to their conquerors.
The Scribes were the Teachers of Judaism. As well as Scribes of the Pharisees, who were by far the greatest number, there were Scribes of the Sadducees and general Scribes. The Scribes of the Pharisees laid great stress on the Traditions of the Elders which included secret information which they claimed was passed down orally from teacher to teacher from the past, and these especially included past dictates of former well known Scribes such as Shammai and Hillel. This teaching in general formed the basis of religious observation by the common people, although they did not conform to all its particulars, and were in general seen as ‘sinners' because of this. The Scribes of the Pharisees were generally looked to by the people as the authorities on religious matters. Their influence in Judaea outside Jerusalem was paramount. While accepting the authority of the Chief Priests over the Temple and compromising with them on various matters they generally conflicted with them at every turn. They were bitter opponents.
The Chief Priests ran the Temple and its ordinances which provided them with a source of revenue and great wealth. At their head was the High Priest. There was strictly only one functional High Priest, but as far as the Jews were concerned the appointment was for life, and when the Romans replaced one High Priest for another, religiously the earlier High Priest remained High Priest (thus Annas, the father of Caiaphas the High Priest, was still High Priest in Jewish eyes, as were any others who had been High Priest and were still alive). The Chief Priests also included the high officials of the Temple such as the Temple Treasurer, the leaders of the courses of priests, and so on. It was their responsibility to supervise and maintain the cult with its many offerings and sacrifices. They were pragmatists and maintained a steady if uneasy relationship with the secular state, (they were despised by them and despised them in return), favouring the status quo. Their influence was mainly restricted to Jerusalem, except cultically, for the whole of worldwide Jewry looked to the Temple as the centre of their religion and contributed their Temple Tax to the Temple authorities.
The Sadducees were a small but important sect, mainly, but not exclusively, restricted to Jerusalem and its environs. They were on the whole wealthy. They included the chief priests and their wider families. We do not know much about them for they died out with the fall of Jerusalem, and the information that we have about them has mainly come from their opponents who survived. Seemingly they did not believe in angels or in the resurrection. They accepted the teaching of the Law and, to some extent at least, the Prophets. But they rejected the traditions of the Elders. They were antagonistic towards the Pharisees, and were not favoured by the people.
The Elders of the people were the lay rulers and wealthy aristocrats connected mainly with princely families. Along with the Chief Priest and Pharisees their leading members formed a part of the Sanhedrin, which was from the Jews' viewpoint, the governing body of Judaism in Jerusalem. As the Romans tended to leave local government to the locals, only intervening when it was considered necessary, they were very influential at this period. The Roman prefect/procurator lived away from Jerusalem in Caesarea, although coming to Jerusalem for the feasts in case of trouble.
The Herodians were members of Herod's court (Herod ruled Galilee and Peraea, while the Roman prefect/procurator ruled Judaea and Samaria) or supporters of Herod. They may have been mainly a secular group, in as far as a Jewish group could ever be secular, favouring the status quo. Little else is known about them, but they would have political influence at Herod's court which was why they were useful to the Pharisees in their opposition to Jesus.
All of these would gather in Jerusalem for the Passover.
End of note.
During this period in Judaea and Jerusalem Jesuswill be called on to deal with some of the main questions of the day, which will mainly be used, either as a means of seeking to entrap Him into exposing Himself as a false prophet, or in order to get Him into trouble with the Roman authorities. These included questions on divorce (Matthew 19:3-12); on prophetic authority (Matthew 21:23-27); on tribute paid to Caesar (22-15-22); on the afterlife (Matthew 22:23-33); on what is central in the Law (Matthew 22:34-40); and on how the Messiah relates to David (Matthew 22:41-45).
We should not be surprised at the opposition that Jesus faced for He was now publicly approaching the very centre of Judaism in order to make clear Who He was and why He had come. While in Galilee and its surrounds He had been a distant figure as far as the authorities of Jerusalem were concerned, apart from previous visits to Jerusalem, only affecting them when the northern supporters of the Scribes called on them for assistance (there were not many Scribes in Galilee). But once He approached Jerusalem and began to assert His claims more forcefully than before it was inevitable, either that Jerusalem would flock to Him, or that they would bitterly oppose Him. And the latter in general proved to be the case. On the whole Jerusalem did not welcome Him (His popularity was among the visitors to Jerusalem for the Passover). It was a very religious city and very much bound up with the cult. Few of them would accept Him. His views overthrew too many of their treasured views, and threatened to upset the status quo.
Intermingled with this description of opposition is a clear emphasis in Matthew on the fact that Jesus is coming to Jerusalem to claim His heavenly throne, and, through His death and resurrection, is about to set up a new world order.
This process began at His birth when He was established as and proclaimed as King of the Jews (Matthew 19:1-2), and continued on with His being introduced by His forerunner (Matthew 19:3). That was followed by a period of consolidation and establishment of His authority, until the moment of His ‘official' recognition as the Messiah, the Son of the Living God by His followers (Matthew 16:16). His heavenly royal status was then verified by the Transfiguration (Matthew 17:5) and His payment of the Temple Tax from heavenly resources (Matthew 17:25). At the same time He prepared for the establishment of His new ‘congregation' (of Israel) (Matthew 16:18; Matthew 18)
Now, taking up the thought found in Matthew 16:16; Matthew 17:5; Matthew 17:25 that He is the Messiah and His Father's Son, enjoying royal authority, we will find:
1) That He sets up a totally new standard for marriage based on the principles of His Kingly Rule, which involves monogamous and unbreakable marriage, while at the same time indicating that marriage and having children will no longer necessarily be the prime function of man, an idea which was revolutionary to normative Judaism, in view of the arrival of the Kingly Rule of Heaven (Matthew 19:4-6; Matthew 19:12).
2) That He turns the world order upside down by declaring that life under the Kingly Rule of Heaven must be based on childlike trust and humility (compare Matthew 18:1-4), and not on riches and wealth, because God is at work doing the impossible (Matthew 19:13-26).
3) That He declares that in this soon coming new world order He will sit on the throne of His glory in the presence of the Ancient of Days, while His Apostles will reign on earth on His behalf, sitting on ‘the thrones of David' in Jerusalem, and establishing His new congregation of Israel, while all who serve under His Kingly Rule will enjoy multiplied blessing (Matthew 19:28-29).
4) That all His disciples are called to work in His Father's vineyard with the promise of equal reward and blessing (Matthew 19:30 to Matthew 20:16).
5) That after His death and resurrection (Matthew 20:17-19) His disciples are not to vie for earthly advancement or honour (Matthew 20:20-23), but are rather to be zealous of being servants and slaves like He is (Matthew 20:24-27), following His example of sacrificial zeal in that through His death He will have bought redemption for many (Matthew 20:28). Thus the ministry of the Servant (Matthew 8:17; Matthew 12:17) will be cut short by death, but this will lead on to resurrection.
6) That while He is rejected by the seeing, the blind will acknowledge Him as the Son of David (Matthew 20:29-34).
7) That He will enter in humble triumph into Jerusalem on an ass in fulfilment of Zechariah's prophecy of the king who is coming (Matthew 21:1-11) and will reveal His authority over the Temple and His disagreement with the old order (Matthew 21:12-13).
8) That the blind and the lame (the lost sheep of the house of Israel) will then cry ‘Hosanna to the Son of David' (Matthew 21:14-15).
9) That, as the withering of the fig tree reveals, the old order is dying, so that all good men must face now up to His authority, and be like a repentant son who says, ‘Sir, I am ready to go' (Matthew 21:16-32).
10) That as the beloved Son, having been killed by the previous workers in the vineyard, He will be made the head of the corner with a new nation replacing the old (Matthew 21:33-43).
11) That as the King's Son His marriage feast is coming as a result of which those who are in the highways and byways will be called to His feast, while those who refuse to wear His insignia will be cast out and destroyed (Matthew 22:1-14).
12) That men must now recognise their duty to God as well as to the state, and must begin in a new way to render to God the things that are God's (Matthew 22:15-22).
13) That when the new age comes to its finalisation in the Resurrection, marriage and reproduction will no longer be central matters of concern, for they will have no application to their new resurrected state (Matthew 22:23-33).
14) That the basis of His coming rule is that men must love God with their whole beings and their neighbour as themselves (Matthew 22:34-40).
15) That He is not just the son of David but is also declared by Scripture to be David's Lord (Matthew 22:41-45).
Thus having in Galilee mainly (although by no means solely) stressed His presence as the Servant Messiah, in His approach to Jerusalem He is deliberately turning their thoughts towards Himself as the Coming King, something which the disciples appear to recognise, even if incorrectly, for their thoughts are still being shaped as they are wooed from their own false ideas. They have yet to learn that the advance of the Kingly Rule of Heaven will take place in a very different way than they anticipate. See Matthew 20:20-22; Matthew 20:24-27; Mark 9:34; Luke 22:24.
So, far from this section depicting Jesus as offering Himself as the King and being refused, it reveals how He is in fact in process of turning the world upside down, and firming up the Kingly Rule of Heaven, preparatory to its massive expansion when He has been enthroned and crowned (Matthew 28:18).