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April 5, 2019
Jason Meyer | Matthew 21:14-17
And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read,
“‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies
you have prepared praise’?”
And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.—Matthew 21:14–17
Introduction—Three Points About Our New Season
1. What will we do about the Lord’s Supper in this new season?
In the regular rhythm of life at Bethlehem, we celebrate the Lord’s Supper on the First Sunday of the month. Today will be the first time in my tenure as a pastor that we will depart from that practice. And I am going to miss it more than I can put into words. Why are we not going to celebrate the Lord’s Supper again until we can physically gather as a church? I gave a brief answer to that question in a blog post this week, and I am trusting that many of you saw it, but I know some of you did not. I do not have the time to say more, so let me try to restate our answer.
The answer, in summary, is that the very meaning of the Lord’s Supper requires a gathered assembly, not a scattered one. First Corinthians 11 uses the Greek word translated when you come together three times in verses 17–20 and two times in verses 33–34. The physical gathering is an indispensable part of the grace of the Lord’s Supper. In particular, the grace we receive in the Lord’s Supper is the grace at work in the physical gathering as a display or active embodiment of the truth that we are truly in fact one body. In other words, the grace of Communion as a shared supper is our shared identification in the gospel as members of one body. One of the key texts is 1 Corinthians 10:17, Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf. Paul applies this principle in 1 Corinthians 11:21 by rebuking the Corinthians for eating it separately and not together. We should confess and come to grips with the fact that in our scattered capacity right now, we simply cannot do what the text calls us to do.
So what do we do? Right now, we are in a season of forced fasting from the Lord’s Supper. May it drive us to prayer and stoke the fires of our longing even more for the time we can gather together. We lament that we cannot physically gather. Technology is a great blessing and the scattered church gathering in a virtual way can be a real blessing from the Lord, but it is not meant to be a replacement or substitute for the gathering of God’s people. We heartily affirm the truth that Immanuel is with his scattered church. We know he will give us the grace we need until we can gather together again.
2. What about the Helping Hand Fund (the ‘Retiring Offering’)?
Usually, on Communion Sundays the church takes a second offering for our Helping Hand ministry. That money goes to help those in financial need. The Helping Hand is currently working hard to meet known needs. If you have a need or are aware of someone else with a need, please contact the church office and leave a message or use the COVID-19 Care & Help links on our website. The Helping Hand Fund currently has a healthy balance. Please give first to the church budget and then over and above to Helping Hand.
3. What will preaching look like in this new season?
We have been in a series on our 20/20 Vision. The month of February focused on the biblical job description of our leaders, and the month of March focused on the job description of the congregation. Let me give you a snapshot of the next few weeks so you can join us in concerted prayer. Let’s start with three weeks from now and then work our way back to today. Two weeks from now, the Sunday after Easter (April 19), we will start a preaching series on First Peter. Pastors Dave Zuleger, Steven Lee, and I will rotate each week as we work our way through 1 Peter. We need strong Scriptural medicine for this unique season of trial, and 1 Peter will give us the grace that we need.
Next week, we are going to celebrate the Resurrection by looking at Revelation 7:15–17. We have a Maundy Thursday/Good Friday service that will be live-streamed at 7:45pm on Thursday, April 9. This service will also be recorded and available for later viewing. Today we turn our attention to the Triumphal Entry (Matthew 21:14–17).
Outline
And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.
The first thing we need to do is to consider three crucial questions: (1) what Jesus does, (2) where he does it, (3) to whom he does it.
We come to the crucial question: What is the point? How does this detail play a part in the story? It could be that it is necessary in terms of spelling out the “wonderful things” Jesus is doing that the religious leaders witness. In other words, more is needed than simply starting the story by saying, “The religious leaders witnessed Jesus doing wonderful things”—namely, “healing people in the temple.” That is true, but it is only a small part of the much greater answer. The full answer? Healing the blind and the lame in the temple is proof that he is Great David’s Greater Son, the Messiah.
Let’s go back to the clues Matthew left us. He normally summarizes a snap-shot of Jesus’ healing by saying he healed “all who were ill” or “all the sick.” But this is not a general healing account. It matters to Matthew that it was the “blind and lame,” and it matters that they were healed in the temple. Why?
What if I told you that this is the only reference we get in all of Matthew, Mark, or Luke to Jesus healing in Jerusalem. He heals many people elsewhere, but in Jerusalem he is presented as teaching and debating with the religious leaders. Only here does he heal. Why record this?
The best commentary on the New Testament is something you all have in your Bibles and it is called the Old Testament. Before Jerusalem became known as the city of David, it belonged to the people of the land called the Jebusites. When did it become the city of David? Turn to 2 Samuel 5:6–8.
And the king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who said to David, “You will not come in here, but the blind and the lame will ward you off”—thinking, “David cannot come in here.”
So it originated as a taunt or chant against David by the Jebusites. Even the weakest people in the world (i.e., the blind and the lame) could keep you out. But they were wrong. Their strongest fortifications could not keep David out. The next verse says,
Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, that is, the city of David.
But the story does not end. David has a taunt of his own in the next verse.
And David said on that day, “Whoever would strike the Jebusites, let him get up the water shaft to attack ‘the lame and the blind,’ who are hated by David’s soul.”
It is not that David hated the lame and the blind; it is that he hated the Jebusites, and he turns their taunt against them by labeling them as the “the blind and the lame” who couldn’t keep David out. The verse ends with a very tragic saying that circulated:
Therefore it is said, “The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.”
Do you see the point? Jesus is Great David’s Greater Son. Far from keeping the blind and the lame out of the house of God, Jesus not only welcomes them but heals them. This is truly amazing and truly wonderful. He is the Messiah. This is the one we have been waiting for! Do the people see it? How do they respond?
But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?”
Verse 15 shows that one group of people see this as a sign that He is the Messiah, the Son of David. The children see it and recognize him for who he is and so they cry out in verse 15: “Hosanna to the Son of David.”
The word Hosanna means “Save us!” It is a confession that Jesus is the Messiah who has come to save them. So they respond: Yes—save us now!
The religious leaders (chief priests and scribes) see both the healing (wonderful things) and the praising of the children, and they absolutely blow their tops. With indignant rage they ask a question that is hurled at Jesus as a rebuke: “Do you hear what these are saying?”
The force of the question is this: “Do you hear these poor deluded impressionable children? You are clearly misleading people who do not have enough sense to know any better. Make them stop. Tell them the truth. Set the record straight!”
Jesus is about to set the record straight and it is exactly the opposite of what they are expecting.
3. Jesus Rebukes (vv. 16–17)
And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read,
“‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?”
And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.
I love how this story ends. He quoted a verse and then he left: “And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.” This is the ancient equivalent of the mic drop. There is nothing else to say. Case closed!
But why is it enough to just quote this verse? Why does he not need to add anything? Let’s unpack the meaning of Jesus’ response so we can feel the force of the punch.
First, we need to feel the force of the question: “Have you never read?” Can you sense the scathing sarcasm here? He is saying to the biblical, educated, professionally trained experts, “Hey, there is a passage in the Bible … it may be new to you, maybe you have never read it, because it sure looks that way!
This is like saying to a math professor: Hey, there is this thing called a square root—have you ever heard of it? Or saying to a heart surgeon, Hey I read about this thing called a heart attack—have you ever heard of it?
Jesus is saying, “Hey, excuse me, experts in the Bible, did you happen to notice that the Bible is being fulfilled right now right under your noses?
Second, he quotes from Psalm 8. He quotes verse two, but we should start with verse one.
O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
Why is this quotation like a mic drop? To feel the force of it, we have to go back to Psalm 8. The Psalmist begins (v. 1) and ends (v. 9) the Psalm in the same way: the conclusion of all creation is that God has the greatest name.
O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens. …
O Lord, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Someone’s name signifies the essence of who they are or what they are known for. God’s name is another way of saying his character or his essence or his fame. That is why we have a special esteem for God’s great name. Yahweh has the greatest name because he is the greatest, most majestic, and most glorious Being.
Sometimes in a trial, the defense will call some people to testify as a character witness. If God’s greatness were on trial, He could summon everything from above the heavens all the way down to everything on the earth.
That raises the question: Who will the Psalmist call to the witness stand out of all the possibilities? The groups selected are an ironic twist. God’s greatness is seen when God uses little children to defeat his enemies (v. 2) and when he uses little people to rule his world (vv. 3–8). God’s greatness seen against the backdrop of human weakness.
Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.—Psalm 8:2
The religious leaders are identified as the “enemy” or “avenger.” The children praising Jesus in the temple are identified as the “out of the mouth of babies and infants,” and their praise or confession of faith is God’s establishing “strength.”
When we read the Psalm say “babies and infants,” we don’t need to restrict the terminology too narrowly. Jeremiah uses the same word translated “babies” for children playing in the streets (Jeremiah 6:11; 9:21). The word for infants literally refers to nursing children, but women in the ancient world nursed their children until they were 2 or 3 years old. We could be talking about grade school children or toddlers just learning to speak.
Furthermore, the strength that God brings from the mouths of these children is praise. The Greek translation of the Old Testament interpreted the “strength” coming out of their mouths as “praise.” Their praise really packs a punch. They can draw the right conclusion and put the big shots to shame.
Now we come back to our passage. Jesus is connecting what is happening at the Triumphal entry. Jesus says that the best example of Psalm 8 is actually happening right before the faces of the Pharisees.
Jesus did not need to rebuke them; they had already been rebuked by children who shamed the big shots. He didn’t need to add a rebuke to silence them; they just needed to hear that they had already been silenced and shamed.
This is astounding irony. The people who tried to portray themselves as those who see everything most clearly are actually the most blind. They supposedly have the loudest and most respected voices that carry the most weight when they speak. And yet, they are silenced and shown to be frauds … by small children. It is like David and Goliath all over again. The Pharisees are supposedly the leaders of God’s people, but they are actually the enemies of God. They are like Goliath; God in the flesh is here, and they are taunting him to his face. Meanwhile, little children come up and see it clearly, and acknowledge it like with worship and adoration. They get it right and the big shots get it wrong.
Psalm 8 is a perfect text for Jesus to quote because Jesus says that the children are praising him. And Psalm 8 is all about the worship of God. Jesus accepted their praise in a Psalm 8 way. That means Jesus accepted the praise of God for himself! He is God. He is worthy of worship! He has the great name! The children see it and thus they sing it.
Main Point: Jesus is the God of Psalm 8 who has the greatest name and deserves the highest praise
Here is a key question for all of us: What does God want from you in this season? It is a real question. Answer it in your mind for a moment. Did your answer skip right over worship and jump to community action or sewing masks or some other activity? Please do not miss the most obvious action, which is also the most powerful: praise Jesus!
When you are tempted to be discouraged by all the things you can’t do in this season, remember that this pandemic cannot keep you from doing the main thing you were made for: worship. Circumstances have changed, but he hasn’t. Worship him.
Do not underestimate the power of praise in this season. We see many people giving vent to complaints and fears and questions and doubts. People who respond in praise are going to stand out like a wonderfully sore thumb.
When hope is scarce and people see it and want to know where we found it, we must be ready to give a reason for why we have it and how we got it (1 Peter 3:15). Dear listener, are you ready? Are you equipped for the task? Do you have what you need to unpack the glorious reasons we really have for hoping in Jesus?
How can children do this? When I say “praise” or “worship,” please do not think only of singing or what may happen in a church service. All of life is meant to be worship. I am thinking of a moment in the midst of darkness and mess, when a young child pipes up and says, “I am thankful that God never changes.” Suddenly all the adults who were ratcheting up their anxiety have their hearts melted into peace. Yes, that is exactly right—that is our hope. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The circumstances have definitely changed, but Jesus has not changed, so our hope has not shifted!
Sometimes the praise of children arising from a childlike faith pierces the darkness and reorients everyone’s hearts back to the truth of God—the goodness of his character, the greatness of his name, the unflinching hope we can have in him.
When everyone else points to counterfeit hopes that are like thin ice, someone needs to speak into the chaos and confusion and say, “God is in us and God is for us and God is not done with us.” Grace has brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home. Perhaps today the best way to hold on is to cry out, “Hold me Jesus! Help me Jesus!”—and then praise him for never letting you go!
Conclusion
Psalm 8:3–4 looks at the magnitude of the night sky as an example of God’s greatness.
When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
The first thing the psalmist does in this stanza is take time to consider how small man is compared to the cosmic backdrop he looks up and sees. He is looking up into the sparkling night sky—like a 100,000 diamonds sparkling against a black velvet backdrop.
The psalmist was amazed when he looked up at the night sky. We should be much more amazed because we know much more. The psalmist does not expound upon solar systems and galaxies. Our solar system is the sun (a star) and everything bound to it by gravity (including our eight planets and their moons, asteroids, comets, interplanetary dust, etc. Our galaxy is the Milky Way galaxy. A galaxy is a large system of stars held together by mutual gravitation and isolated from similar systems by vast distances. Our solar system may seem large, but it is not all that impressive when compared to our galaxy. In fact, if the Milky Way galaxy were the size of the continent of North America, then our solar system would fit in a coffee cup. Our Milky Way galaxy is the light of 200–400 billion stars turning like a giant pinwheel (100 light years across).
But the Milky Way galaxy is not all that impressive compared to how many galaxies exist. Edwin Hubble showed us that our galaxy is one of many galaxies in the universe (back in the 1920’s). The best estimate is that there are roughly 170 billion galaxies gathered in clusters. We can’t even get our head around how many zeros are in 170 billion or how many stars there are if there are 200-400 billion stars in a galaxy.
That sounds big and impressive, but God did it with ease. We sometimes talk about someone lifting a finger to do something. David calls all of this the finger work of God. Think about this for just a moment. The moon and stars are the works of his fingers. Effortless—he did not even have to use his wrist so to speak.
But this is what captivates his praise the most. The greatest mystery that perplexes the Psalmist is not that we are so small or that the universe is so big, but that God’s love is so big. We are so small—microscopic specks in the universe—and look at how much he cares for us!
This week with Good Friday and Easter coming, we are celebrating not just the greatest actual display of love in history, but the greatest possible love. God Almighty created the seemingly infinite stretches of the universe with just his fingers. What would require all of him? Answer: your salvation. The only way you can be saved for all eternity is for Jesus to pay the infinite price that cost the infinite God everything, including a crown of thorns for his head, flogging on his back, nail spikes through his hands and feet, and a spear in his side. All of him to pay all the price.
How can you keep from worshiping him, saints? Look at all he has done. And if he paid the greatest price, he will do the easy thing and give you everything you need to bring you through this pandemic (Romans 8:32). If have not received Jesus, you are living in real rebellion. You are looking at the greatest possible act of love to save you for all eternity and saying, “No, thanks.” I don’t need that and I don’t want that. On the Day of Judgment there will be no excuse. O, repent. Turn from your rebellion. Find your rest in him.
Lord, I come, I confess,
Bowing here I find my rest
Without you, I fall apart
You’re the one who guides my heart
Lord, I need you, oh, I need you
Every hour I need you
My one defense, my righteousness
Oh, God how I need you
So teach my song to rise to you
When temptation comes my way
When I cannot stand, I’ll fall on you
Jesus you’re my hope and stay!
Main Point: Jesus is the God of Psalm 8 who has the greatest name and deserves the highest praise.
Outline
Discussion Questions
Application Questions
Prayer Focus
Pray for the grace to come to Jesus in your weakness and be a person of praise in the midst of this pandemic.