NOTES for Mat 21:1-17
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...