And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying in the temple and saying, Hosannah to the Son of David, they were sore displeased. Matthew 21:15
Oh, how we would have loved to be there! Jesus had just purged the temple of the cattle-sellers and money-changers in most dramatic fashion, claiming it to be His house, and there was nothing the temple security could do about it. Then He further demonstrated His authority and power by healing the blind and the lame who came to him there. Nothing like this had ever happened in the temple before! Our text tells us that two things happened directly in response to the temple cleansing and the healings: the children sang praises and the religious leaders were very upset! Not surprisingly, things have not changed today.
Do the children yet sing? Yes, we who have become the children of God as a result of the work of Jesus Christ will sing today as we gather to remember Him. We echo the theme of the children in the temple by singing of Who He is. Yes, we appreciate what He did on the cross, and what He has done for each of us personally; we rejoice in our salvation. But we appreciate today most of all the wonders of His Person, the fact that He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. We sing of His majesty as the Highest in Heaven. We sing of the perfections of His character and life as he sojourned among us. We sing of the infinite value of His offering on the cross, of the preciousness of the blood shed for our sins, of the unfathomable and immeasurable love displayed to sinners in the offering of Himself. How can we not sing of Him today as we are taken up by His greatness and power, by the beauty of His holiness? As His children, we sing!
But there were more than singing children in the temple, there were also the angry rejecters. These religious leaders bribed Judas to betray Jesus, they enticed the people to cry for His crucifixion, they twisted Pilate into a false condemnation, and then they gathered about the cross, wagging their heads and flinging their vile taunts at the Saviour. How ashamed we are today that there was a time when we might have taken our place among that angry mob.
How great is the mercy of God today, that you and I are no longer among the angry rejecters, but by His grace are today among the singing children! -Jim MacIntosh