And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.
All Commentaries on Matthew 21:14 Go To Matthew 21
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Hearing even the children proclaiming, the disciples were ready to stifle them. They remarked, “Do you hear what they are saying?” Jesus said to them, “Yes.” The children were singing to him as to God. Since the disciples were speaking against things being revealed, he applies his corrective more in the way of reproof: “Have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of babes and infants you have brought perfect praise’?” For what the children were saying had not reached to their level of understanding. So of his power he gives articulation to their tongues, which are as yet immature. Their voices were a prototype of the lisping of the Gentiles of the gospel. They were sounding forth great things of faith. The apostles found consolation in this. For they had already been perplexed as to how even the unlearned should be able to publish the gospel. But now they were already finding that the children were anticipating them. The children removed all their anxiety, teaching them that God would grant them utterance, who made even these little ones to sing praises.This showed that he is Creator of nature. The children, although of immature age, uttered things that had a clear meaning in accordance with testimony from above. But others thought them only to be teeming with frenzy and madness. For such is the nature of wickedness. So his detractors found many things to provoke them: the multitude, the cleansing out of the buyers and sellers from the temple, the miracles, the children. He once again departs from them, giving room to their swelling frustration, not yet willing to begin seriously his own teaching, lest boiling with envy they should be all the more displeased at what he would say. The Gospel of Matthew, Homily
