The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my heart and mind in Matthew 21:46,
"They looked for a way to arrest him [Jesus Christ], but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet."
"They" in the above verse were the chief priests and elders of the people that had come to Jesus to question him about his authority for teaching at the temple. The day before he had overturned the tables of the money changers in the temple courts and healed many there. He had come back to the temple this day and began teaching the people.
The parables Jesus told caused the chief priests and elders to seek a way to arrest him when they realized he was talking about them. The two parables he told were the parable of the two sons given tasks by their father and the parable of the tenants who killed the son of the vineyard owner they rented from. Both of these were veiled condemnations of the chief priests and elders.
I note the chief priests and elders refrained from arresting Jesus because they were afraid of the crowd gathered at the temple to listen to Jesus. Earlier in the chapter we read much the same thing. When the leaders of the Jews came to ask Jesus about his authority to do the things he was doing at the temple, Jesus countered with his own question of them. He asked them what they thought the origin was of John's baptism. We read in verses 25-27, "'John's baptism—where did it come from? Was it from heaven, or of human origin?' They discussed it among themselves and said, 'If we say, "From heaven," he will ask, "Then why didn't you believe him?" But if we say, "Of human origin"—we are afraid of the people, for they all hold that John was a prophet.' So they answered Jesus, 'We don't know.' Then he said, 'Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.'"
Jesus manipulated the both the events of the day as well as the people involved in order to effect the culmination of his public ministry, the giving of himself as a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the world.
His manipulation of the events and particularly the people involved point to politics. The setting of this chapter is a political one. The authorities of the day were being challenged, and without taking a Gallup poll, they knew what the will of the people was. As office holders (chief priests and elders) they desired to use their political power to control Jesus, to end his threat to the power they held. However, since Jesus determined to carry out the events of the week on his own terms, he countered with the political power of the people, a threat to the chief priests and elders in itself, to manipulate the events and people of the day.
You probably see the direction I am going with this here. If we are not seeing the political element of the account in the Scriptures here, we are missing something. And, of course, it raises a question for our day: is God involved in our politics today and how might he be using the politics of our day?
There is an answer if you know what God's agenda is for today. What is that agenda? How might God be using the political arena to bring about the successful accomplishment of his agenda today? I am entirely convinced he is very involved in politics - and not just in our nation and Israel, but in all nations.
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.
"They looked for a way to arrest him [Jesus Christ], but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet."
"They" in the above verse were the chief priests and elders of the people that had come to Jesus to question him about his authority for teaching at the temple. The day before he had overturned the tables of the money changers in the temple courts and healed many there. He had come back to the temple this day and began teaching the people.
The parables Jesus told caused the chief priests and elders to seek a way to arrest him when they realized he was talking about them. The two parables he told were the parable of the two sons given tasks by their father and the parable of the tenants who killed the son of the vineyard owner they rented from. Both of these were veiled condemnations of the chief priests and elders.
I note the chief priests and elders refrained from arresting Jesus because they were afraid of the crowd gathered at the temple to listen to Jesus. Earlier in the chapter we read much the same thing. When the leaders of the Jews came to ask Jesus about his authority to do the things he was doing at the temple, Jesus countered with his own question of them. He asked them what they thought the origin was of John's baptism. We read in verses 25-27, "'John's baptism—where did it come from? Was it from heaven, or of human origin?' They discussed it among themselves and said, 'If we say, "From heaven," he will ask, "Then why didn't you believe him?" But if we say, "Of human origin"—we are afraid of the people, for they all hold that John was a prophet.' So they answered Jesus, 'We don't know.' Then he said, 'Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.'"
Jesus manipulated the both the events of the day as well as the people involved in order to effect the culmination of his public ministry, the giving of himself as a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the world.
His manipulation of the events and particularly the people involved point to politics. The setting of this chapter is a political one. The authorities of the day were being challenged, and without taking a Gallup poll, they knew what the will of the people was. As office holders (chief priests and elders) they desired to use their political power to control Jesus, to end his threat to the power they held. However, since Jesus determined to carry out the events of the week on his own terms, he countered with the political power of the people, a threat to the chief priests and elders in itself, to manipulate the events and people of the day.
You probably see the direction I am going with this here. If we are not seeing the political element of the account in the Scriptures here, we are missing something. And, of course, it raises a question for our day: is God involved in our politics today and how might he be using the politics of our day?
There is an answer if you know what God's agenda is for today. What is that agenda? How might God be using the political arena to bring about the successful accomplishment of his agenda today? I am entirely convinced he is very involved in politics - and not just in our nation and Israel, but in all nations.
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!
If you have someone you would like to receive these ruminations, send me their email address. I'm happy to add them to the list. If you are receiving this and would like to be removed from the list, just respond and let me know.
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