Matthew 21:12-17
Let’s remember to pray for Jim and Marty.
“Notice what you notice.” The cleansing of the Temple… The Chronological Study Bible points out a difference between Matthew’s and Mark’s accounts as to the day of Jesus’ cleansing of the Temple. Matthew has it on the same Sunday of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem while Mark has it on “The next day…” (Mark 11:12). The key in Matthew is verse 12 beginning with the word “Then…” immediately following the multitudes in the city introducing Jesus as “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth in Galilee.” (v. 11) So we’ll never be able to reconcile these two accounts, except to surmise that something has been lost in the translations over the two millennia since this incident.
It is so strange to me how the chief priests and the scribes could have continued to be so firm in their rejection of Jesus as the Messiah: But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He had done … they became indignant… (v. 15) How could they see “wonderful things” – the blind and the lame being healed before their very eyes – and still fail to believe? I have blogged before about the healing in Jerusalem of the man born blind and of the raising of Lazarus in Bethany just two miles east of the city, with both occasions being either visible to or immediately reported to the chief priests. How could they remain so adamant in their rejection of Him??!! It is so confusing to me…
Slava Bohu!