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1 November. Matthew chapters 21-22
Today’s reading starts with the “triumphal entry”, as Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey, followed by overturning the tables of the moneychangers. In the Christian calendar this is usually read at the start of Holy Week, leading up to Easter. That last week or so of Jesus’ life was marked by increasing conflict with the Temple authorities. Many of the parables in these chapters were told in the Temple, making reference to its activities, and were (as Matthew explicitly says) told against the Pharisees and Sadducees. He seems to have set these two rival groups against each other, as first one and then the other tests him to see if they can catch him out.
But they cannot. Jesus’s wise answers leaves them dumbfounded. You can’t say that the popular prophet John was sent from God without accepting that I am too, he tells them. It’s OK to pay taxes to the Romans as long as you also honour God and give to the work of the Temple or church. Heaven is a completely new kind of existence where concepts such as marriage and parenthood have no meaning. The most important thing to do is love God – but it’s equally important to love other people as much as yourself. And finally, Jesus himself was greater than David, the king who everyone remembered as being God’s favourite. No-one could contradict him on those points, although his interpretation of the Jewish scriptures was radically different from accepted teachings.
All through this time, these Jewish leaders were criticising Jesus, not praising him. But the ordinary people praised him, and most of all the children. As we saw yesterday, the faith of children is something precious and special, to be protected. Jesus saw in their enthusiastic response to his teaching and healing a fulfilment of a verse from the Psalms – “Out of the mouths of infants and babies you have prepared praise for yourself” (21:1, based on Psalm 8:2). It was in those children that Jesus saw his Kingdom starting to grow.