The Son of David
Devotional by Raegan Wolff
Read Matthew 21:12-22
Matthew 21:12-22
Jesus Cleanses the Temple
12 And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. 13 He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.”
14 And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 15 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, 16 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’?”
17 And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there.
Jesus Curses the Fig Tree
18 In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. 19 And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once.
20 When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” 21 And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. 22 And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.
Devotional
The next event that Matthew records in his gospel after Jesus’ triumphal entry is the cleansing of the temple. Following the humble ride on the foal of a donkey, we read about our Lord’s righteous acts of indignation in response to the disdain and disrespect of the religious elite regarding the temple.
The temple was a representation of the holiness of God. It was where Jews went to be cleansed from their sins through sacrifices performed on their behalf by the priests. It is interesting that the place where cleansing for the people took place required cleansing itself.
After flipping tables of sacrificial animals and rebuking the moneychangers, we see the blind and the lame coming to Jesus in the temple, and he heals them, while children in the temple are crying out, “Hosanna to the Son of David.”
The title, Son of David, was synonymous with The Messiah, the anointed one promised long ago and highly anticipated by the Israelites. This Son of David would be from the lineage of the greatest king Israel had ever had, King David. This Son of David would set up an eternal kingdom that would reign forever. There are other times in the New Testament where Jesus is called Son of David, and all such references address healing, the cleansing of diseases or illnesses, and acknowledgments of Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah.
When the chief priests and the scribes heard the name that Jesus was being called, they were indignant and asked Jesus to answer for it, which he does by quoting Psalm 8:2, “Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise.”
Who but the Messiah, the Son of David, had the authority to rebuke the unsavory activities and dishonest and greedy vendors taking advantage of the people coming to the temple? This Son of David would soon replace the physical temple needed to cleanse people from their sins by making the ultimate sacrifice. He would throw out the structures in place given by Moses by fulfilling the requirements of sacrifice. He, the Son of David, would open up direct access to the temple through his coming death and resurrection.
Jesus, the Son of David, took regard with what the temple had become, he took action to show how it was wrongly used for greed and misconduct, and then he healed the very ones who weren’t allowed in the temple because of their uncleanliness. Jesus protested that all belonged in the temple. What a beautiful picture of the cleansing that Jesus does for us today. Only he can cleanse us of our sins, only he can heal us from our infirmities, only in him are we found worthy, and only the Son of David, the Messiah, can set things right.
In what ways does Jesus’ actions in the temple foreshadow his ultimate sacrifice and the establishment of a new way for humanity to approach God? How does this relate to our understanding of salvation and redemption through Jesus Christ?
Jesus cleansed my sin and healed me when He became the sacrificial lamb. No amount of money or substitute could be made in His place. He was the ultimate sacrifice.
Amen
I believe that this is incredibly true. That’s why we get baptized because that is the process of ourselves and our spirit getting cleansed as we enter the water and it’s a sense of healing within our spirit. This is also when Jesus died on the cross and rose again after 3 days to fully symbolize his ultimate sacrifice that he made for us. And as David states no amount of money could be made in His place.
The Lord your God should always be the one and only Savior in your life. Praise the Lord and Amen!!🙏📖🙏⛪
As Jesus is purifying the temple but making what’s wrong right, his sacrifice on the cross does the exact same thing in my own life, the temple of the Holy Spirit. He’s the appointed priest who cleanses on my behalf and provides access to the Father. So grateful for His position as “Son of David”
Amen!
Psalm 103:1-5
[1] Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!
[2] Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
[3] who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
[4] who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy
[5] who satisfies you with good
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
I should have “righteous anger” at the sin in my life and want it permanently removed. Also a reminder that fancy works and sacrifices are not how we “earn “ our salvation. Jesus knocked down the barriers to reaching God. He destroyed them. We can have a direct relationship! I need not take this for granted but instead spend time in confession, repentance, thanksgiving, and worship. These should be priority times in my daily life..
thank you God for giving me the insight into how to get to the Devo today by going to Monday and clicking on the link for today Devo
“in the New Testament where Jesus is called Son of David, and all such references address healing
I am just still in awe of the amazing love of God for sending His son to be sacrificed for us to be reconciled with Him.
The power of faith without doubt is very true and I have seen it work in my life. You first need to be a child of God which is gotten by believing in Him; Jesus spoke of this faith to His disciples and what you are exhibiting the faith on is to glorify only God.
The daily devotional is helping me grow my knowledge of the word of God. Jesus quoted the word of God in His responses.
Jesus I want to know you more, open my heart Lord.
Jesus made a way for me to be reconciled to our Holy God by dying on the cross for my sins to be forgiven, fully paid for. Thank you Jesus for eternal life. Amen🙏🏾
I love the details given about Jesus in the temple. But I also LOVE the story about the fig tree; it has always been one of my favorites. Sometimes I can get distracted and focused on myself, or bogged down in the day to day, and somehow Jesus seems so distant from that. But then we have relevant stories in the Bible, like Jesus cursing the fig tree, that remind me of his sovereign duality & constant presence. He is fully God AND fully man at once. He was hungry, looking for food, and the nearest tree had no fruit. So he got frustrated & cursed the tree. (That even sounds like something I would do.) But when confronted by his friends, Jesus used it as a teaching moment, encouraging them to have faith. This shows his complete humanity (hunger, frustration), but also shows his Godly perfection (the tree obeys, he directs his friends to faith in God). I take such encouragement from this as I go through my day, and it is also a great reminder to use every circumstance to point others to the Lord. Whether it’s in my work life, family life, or personal life. So, the next time I stub my toe on the corner of the couch and want to curse the couch to a fiery death, and my kids walk in the room, I need to follow Jesus’ example and use it as a teaching moment to point them to the Lord. Faith can move mountains!
I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene
And wonder how He could love me….a sinner condemned unclean….
The wonder of it all!
So many lessons in these passages. His house is the house of prayer, not buying and selling. It’s a holy place; a place of reverence. Everyone is welcome.
The fig tree is you and me. The world is hungry to know Jesus but when we don’t bare fruit we are useless and God can’t use us. We become worthless.
Prayers and faith and power go hand and hand. Our faith is increased as we trust the one true God as He answers our prayers. We have power through prayer.
Much to think on
” … but the righteous one will live by his faith.” Habakkuk 2: 4
My Lord and Saviour Jesus, our Heavenly Father sent you, his only son, to save us. The only choice we had to make was to believe in you in order to have eternal life. You died, cursed hung on a tree, taking all the sins of the world upon yourself. With eyes open, knowing exactly what you were getting yourself into, you chose to give up your life for us. Greater love has no one than that! All you ask from us is that we put our faith and trust in you. Frankly, Lord, I am not worthy of your love, but I will accept your amazing gift of eternal life. I also accept the mission of passing the good news on to others. Thank you, Jesus, my Lord and my God.
It’s a sobering and profound truth that the place designed by God to cleanse people needed cleansing itself. I’m so grateful that Jesus came to make straight the crooked and heal my brokenness. The more I slow down and process the depths of His love and Sovereignty, the more I am moved to worship this Son of David. Thank you King Jesus for loving us enough to bear our burden and clean up our mess!
I am grateful today for the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which gives us direct access to the Father!
We seem so quickly to forget the past; in 2 Chr. 6:14-42 Solomon prayed that GOD would hear the prayers of the people from the Temple & forgive, heal, & bless them. But some were using GOD’s house to rob the people & reap a financial reward. The next day JESUS cursed the fig tree that appeared green & fruitful, but was barren; like Israel, appears fruitful but has failed to produce fruit. I thank GOD that HIS Temple today is my heart that the HOLY SPIRIT cleanses everyday & HE doesn’t charge to do it. All hail KING JESUS!!! When I pray, I pray from the Temple of my heart; HE’s listening, HE hears, heals, & forgives in HIS time. I certainly believe in the power of prayer, & I believe in HIM WHO paid the Ultimate for all who would believe by grace through faith in HIS finished work on Calvary’s Cross.
Isaiah 53:5 “with His wounds we are healed”. It’s crazy how Jesus came not to abolish the law but he came to fulfill it. To do what we could never even come close to doing. Then through His death and resurrection, by His blood He gave us the power to walk as He walked and to live how He lived. Jesus’ cleansing of people and of the temple reveals the heart and the will of the Father to cleanse us completely once and for all by the blood of His son.
I’ve seen it in my own life! We have been purified by the blood of the lamb!
Thank you Jesus for being the final and ultimate sacrifice to pay for my sin, apease God’s righteous wrath and justice, and secure my freedom from death, salvation from sin to reconcile me to yourself.
By grace we are set free and that it helps me understand the scripture, believe in the lord jesus christ and you will be saved from Acts 16:31
On my morning walk this morning, I listened to a Sunday message from John MacArthur from Mark 11: 1-11 called False Praise to the True King about Jesus’ “coronation” on Palm Sunday. While the people laid their cloaks in the street and waved palm branches in the road, they cried Hosanna. Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord! Sadly, those cries of adoration quickly turned into cries calling for His death. The next day, Jesus had to cleanse His Father’s house for the second time on Monday. MacArthur described the temple clogged with vendors selling their wares where it should have been the path for sinners to come for cleansing for their sins. How fickle people can be from “adoration” to scorn in just one week, or even one day! The lesson of all this is making sure our praises on Sunday don’t disintegrate into words of scorn and dismay in our conversations with others. May God keep us cleansed eternally through His precious blood!