NOTES for Mat 21:1-11

Then as now, passionate message of prophets pulls those who’re able to receive it out of the swamp of common religious convictions and practice. Indeed we tend to make a god for ourselves after our image and likeness. We always know what he should think on this or that subject (and though the Scriptures give a solid base for such assumptions, we somehow never get to notice it being paradoxical and at times allowing more than one interpretation). We're always there to help God judging the living and the dead, and to remind Him of something that He has forgotten to do for us etc. But God is a different person from what we think of Him. While accepting his incarnation we mustn’t deceive ourselves and make him as small-minded, wicked and stupid as we are. He is faithful to himself. He is not there to fulfill our dreams and wishes (which, by the way, are a little too primitive). He is inconceivable. His thoughts are not our thoughts. The only will he fulfills is his own. He always remains the same – no matter whether he is dwelling in the unapproachable light, permeating the creation, or going down the road to Jerusalem.

Into almost every line of this story the evangelist places a parallel with biblical prophecies, and some of them are quoted directly in the text. But almost every quotation is interpreted and understood here in a new way: Jesus becomes the center of all the prophecies and psalms. And this newness is naturally dictated by the course of the events that follow: everything will be fulfilled both as expected and, at the same time, in a way completely different from what the disciples and the people accompanying Jesus expect.

He enters the holy city, but what awaits Him there is not triumph, but execution. He is greeted as King, but He will be condemned as an impostor and criminal. He cleanses the Jerusalem Temple, but soon He Himself will become the new Temple for those who follow Him after His Resurrection.

Christ shows a new way, not at all the one people expect, even His disciples. He will fulfill the prophecies in a new way, in a way that even the wisest of the wise will not think to read them. He does not do what we expect of Him; He calls us to follow Him into His new life, into a new Heaven and a new Earth.

The people greet Jesus with joyful cries: "Salvation to the Son of David!" Many of us came to faith with the same joy, meeting Christ for the first time, suddenly realizing that He is truly alive, truly answers prayer, and leads us through life.

But after the enthusiastic cries of greeting come decisive changes: the Lord encounters the complete mismatch between the Temple, the center of Jerusalem's spiritual life, and the purpose for which it was built; the spiritual blindness of the religious leaders; and the unfaithfulness of the people, who are ready to shout both "hosanna" and "crucify Him." He encounters all this also at the "micro level," when He comes into the life of an individual person who, though glad at the Savior's coming, has already managed to turn from a temple of the Holy Spirit into a "den of robbers," and who will prove unfaithful and blind to Him many more times. But, as we know, this is not yet the end of the story...