The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 348

it will be found that he is not.. He is not in any of the senses men put into that term. There, riding into Jerusalem as a King, he has no intention of setting up any such kingdom as men expect; he does not mean to use any force; you could never mistake him for a conqueror. There is submission, there is no self-assertion. II. THE JOY OF THE PEOPLE, In calling Jesus the "Son of David," the people recognized him as the long-promised Messiah; and, without clear apprehensions of wha.~ h_is work "·a~ to be, they could rejoice in t~e realization of the national hope. Their Joy made 1t clear to the Jerusalem officials that Jeens claimed to be the Messiah, There could be no mistake, They must accept or reject the cle.im.-R. T. Vers.12, 13.-Thefitti11ga11d the unfitting in Gcxrshouse. "My house shall be called a house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves." Selling oxen, sheep, and doves, and changing foreign money into temple shekels, was right enough in its place; but the point is, that all this was being done in the wrong place. The sense of the ap1>101,riate, of the becoming, was lost; it was covered over and hidden by the greed of the trader, and the avarice of the money-changer. Trade is not wrong, if it be honest tr;1de, and buyer and seller pass fair equivalents. Banking is not wrong in itself, though _it gives great opportunities to the covetous. Our Lord never interfered with tra,1e~folk or with money-changers; he only taught principles that would ensure tl:.eir bargaining fairly. His righteous anger was roused by the offence these traffickers gave to his sense of the fitting, of the becoming. The true consecration of a building is no mere ceremony, it is the feeling of consecration that is in all reverent souls in relation to it. The consecration shonld have been in these traders, it was fitting to the pla.ce where they were; if it had been in them, they would never have thought of bringing the beasts, the cages, and the tables inside the gates of the temple of Jehovah. I. 'l'HE BENSE OF THE FITTING AN IMPULSE TO JESUS. We might properly expect that this "sense" would be at its keenest in the case of J esue. The honour of the Father-God was the one all-mastering purpose of hie life. Re could not bear any slight to be put on God, on anything belonging to God, on anything associated with his Name. He was specially jealous, with a sanctified Jewish jealousy, of the temple where God was worshipped. He felt what was fitting to it-stillness, quiet, prayer, reverent attitudes. He felt what was unfitting-noise, dirt, quarrellings over bargains, shouts of drovers, and the greed and over-reaching of covetous men. So the conseora• tion of our worship-places is rea.lly the response to our quickened, spiritual, Christly, sense of what is fitting. The one thing we ask for is the sustained sense of harmony, lL LACK OF THE SENSE OF THE FITTING GA VE LICENCE TO THE TRADEB8. In them the spiritual was hidden. Custom had covered it. Greed had covered it, They were thinking about themselves and their gettings, and so lost all sense of the becoming. They must learn, by a hard, humbling, and a.wakening lesson, that God's temple is for God.-R. T. Ver. 16.-The ministry of the children. Children are always delighted with a. little public excitement, and readily catch up the common enthusiasm; but we do not look to children for calm and inttlligent jndgments on great issues. To our Lord children always represented simple, guileless, unprejudiced souls, who put up no barriers against hie teachings, or against the gracious influences which be strove to exert, These children would be lads from twelve years old upward. They caught up the words of the excited disciples, and kept up the excitement by shouting, even in the temple courts, "Hosanna to the Son of David I" I. THE OBILDR.EN 00:Mll'ORTED JESUS JIY WHAT THEY DID. Jt was 6 bit of simple, honest, unrestraiued enthusiasm. The young souls were carried away by the joyona excitement of the day. It comforted Jesus to hear some people speaking of him who were unquestionably sincere; who just uttered their hearts; who were glad, 9:nd ~ai~ so. For it must have been a heavy burden to our Lord that, even to the last, hlB d1ec1plee were so guileful • they seemed as if they could never rise above the idea. that they were about to" get admething good" by_ clinging to the Lord Jesus. "Ro_sanna. I" from the lads who wanted nothing from him must have been very comforting to our Lord, That i.e al ways one of the chief elements of pleasure in children's worship; it is guileless, on. xu. 1-46.J THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 35a