Matthew 21:1-22
New Catholic Bible
Encounters at Jerusalem
Chapter 21
The Entry into Jerusalem.[a] 1 When they drew near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent off two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go to the village directly ahead of you, and as soon as you enter you will find a tethered donkey and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, tell them, ‘The Lord needs them.’ Then he will let you have them at once.” 4 This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the prophet:
5 “Say to the daughter of Zion:[b]
‘Behold, your king is coming to you,
humble and riding on a donkey,
and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’ ”
6 The disciples went off and did as Jesus had instructed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt, and laid their cloaks on their backs, and he sat on them.[c] 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 The crowds that preceded him and those that followed kept shouting:
“Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord![d]
Hosanna in the highest!”
10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was filled with excitement. “Who is this?” the people asked, 11 and the crowds replied, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”
12 Jesus Cleanses the Temple.[e] Then Jesus entered the temple and drove out all those whom he found buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. 13 He said to them, “It is written:
‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’
but you are making it a den of thieves.”[f]
14 The blind and the crippled came to him in the temple, and he cured them. 15 But when the chief priests and the scribes witnessed the wonderful things he was performing and heard the children crying out in the temple area, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became infuriated 16 and said to him, “Do you hear what they are saying?” Jesus replied, “Yes. Have you never read the text:
‘Out of the mouths of infants and babies who are nursing
you have received fitting praise’?”
17 Then he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.
18 The Lesson of the Withered Fig Tree.[g] Early the next morning, as he was returning to the city, he was hungry. 19 Noticing a fig tree by the side of the road, he went over to it but found nothing on its branches except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never give forth fruit again!” And instantly the fig tree withered away.
20 When the disciples witnessed this, they were stunned, and they asked, “How could that fig tree wither away in an instant?” 21 Jesus answered them, “Amen, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what has been done to this fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will be accomplished. 22 Whatever you ask for in faith-filled prayer, you will receive.”
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Matthew 21:1 One of the key events in the life of Jesus. He seemed to be fulfilling what was most attractive in the Old Testament prophecies: here is the Messiah in the midst of his people, God’s messenger in the midst of the human race, and joyous shouts of acclamation arise on every side. Hosanna means “Grant salvation!” but it is above all a shout of applause. Jesus allows himself to be acclaimed as the “Son of David,” the Savior from the royal line, the figure that the believing people had, generation after generation, tried to picture for themselves in light of the promise made to David (2 Sam 7). But the sumptuous display in the courts of princes was of quite a different nature. Once again, Jesus rejects all dreams of prestige; here he is, in the midst of the people, riding the beast of the poor, the donkey, and linking himself in this manner with the Davidic tradition.
- Matthew 21:5 Daughter of Zion: i.e., Jerusalem, which rises on Mount Zion; the citation is from Isa 62:11. There follows the prophecy of Zec 9:9, which describes the Messiah, a humble and meek king taking peaceful possession of his kingdom.
- Matthew 21:7 He sat on them [the cloaks]: from Mark (11:2) and Luke (19:30), we know that Jesus rode on the colt. It was customary for a mother donkey to follow her offspring closely. Hence Matthew mentions two animals.
- Matthew 21:9 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord: taken from Ps 118:26f, this phrase does not express the customary greeting directed at the pilgrim who had reached the Holy City. Like the Hosanna mentioned above, it is an acclamation to the Messiah who is taking possession of his kingdom.
- Matthew 21:12 As if to stress the authority of the Messiah, the evangelist follows up the entry into Jerusalem with Jesus’ cleansing of the temple. He then adds the acclamation of the children, in whom he sees the fulfillment of another prophecy. John, on the other hand, places the cleansing of the temple at the beginning of Christ’s public ministry. While not ruling out two distinct cleansings, scholars usually prefer the chronology of John, since the Synoptics have chosen to assign the whole of Christ’s activity in Judea to the last period of his life.
- Matthew 21:13 Jesus combines two Old Testament prophecies: Isa 56:7 (“My house shall be called a house of prayer”) and Jer 7:11 (“Has this house, which bears my name become in your eyes a den of thieves?”).
- Matthew 21:18 The cursing of the fig tree is a symbolic act, a kind of parable in action. It signifies the condemnation of Israel, which has now become a sterile plant. The ancient Prophets often had recourse to this type of teaching.
