Holy Monday: Jesus' Temple Cleansing

"And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, 46 saying to them, 'It is written, "My house shall be a house of prayer," but you have made it a den of robbers.'" Luke 19:45-46

In case you haven't glanced at your calendar as of late, let me notify you that yesterday marks the beginning of Holy or Passion Week, the remembrance of Jesus' last week of life before his death. As you go through this week, let not the weight of this week in our Christian calendar escape you. It is a great time to contemplate what Christ has done for us and to focus on his salvific work on the cross by which we are saved. If you don't have a plan for dwelling on the truths of this Holy Week, Let me offer you two resources:

First, the following is a daily reading calendar where you can follow along in the Gospel of Luke to what happened each day of Holy Week. Let me highly encourage you to read these passages each day in preparation for Easter:

1. Palm Sunday (yesterday): Luke 19:28-44

2. Holy Monday (today): Luke 19:45-48

3. Holy Tuesday: Luke 20-21

4. Holy Wednesday: Luke 22:1-6

5. Maundy Thursday: Luke 22:7-53

6. Good Friday: Luke 22:54-23:56a

7. Black Saturday: Luke 23:56b

8. Easter Sunday: Luke 24

Second, I found this resource from John Piper's ministry as well. It's a short devotional that walks through each day of Passion Week: Your Sorrow Will Turn to Joy.

Nevertheless, let us talk about the Monday of Passion Week. Yesterday, we remembered Palm Sunday, where Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey while the crowds were shouting out, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" The Jewish people of that time were excited for the Messiah to come, for they thought that Jesus as the Messiah would overthrow the Roman government and set up His earthly reign. However, the Jews were blind to the fact that Jesus' role in this coming was rather to experience persecution, and even death so that he might save his people. Rather than being the one inflicting persecution on evil, he would be the one bearing persecution because of evil--because of the sin of your and I's own hearts. Thus, Christ's weeps over Jerusalem, knowing that it is soon going to be destroyed for its wickedness.

Yet on Monday, we find Christ truly starting to shake things up. We see him doing something here that there was no going back from. Jesus wakes up on Monday and finds moneychangers in the temple in preparation for the Passover. These moneychangers were ultimately extortioners and thieves. They were out for financial gain from those who had to pay taxes as well as those who were too poor to own a sacrificial lamb of their own to sacrifice during Passover. These actions, within the Lord's house, were a perversion of the true intention of God's temple: worship and prayer. Thus, Jesus walked into the temple, flipped over the tables, and drove out the money-changers.

Imagine if some yahoo were to come into your Sunday church brunch and start doing this in your place of fellowship. You'd think he was crazy. You'd quickly have him detained, and probably arrested. You'd be asking, "Who are you? And what gives you the authority to do this?"

Well, think of that picture, yet times about one hundred, in relation to what Jesus did in the temple. Remember: there was only one temple, not many. There were not multiple places to have fellowship with God in the Old Covenant, there was one. And Jesus walked into that one temple and, by his actions, proclaimed authority over it. By his actions, he was in effect saying, "I have authority over all religious matters, and you all are profaning this holy place of worship." We understand that Jesus had the right to do all of this, as He was in fact God. Yet the scribes and the chief priests did not see it this way and started seeking a way which they could kill him (19:47).

In application to this story, I think we can consider two things. Firstly, in relation to our study of Holy Week, we find Jesus' authority. In this action, he proclaimed that he had sovereign authority over religious matters, and (as discussed above) he did have this authority, for he was God. And in this action, he started an upheaval. Rather than teaching against the false religion of the scribes, here he went public with it, flipping tables and condemning unholy actions. There was no turning back now. This was quite literally the nail in Jesus' coffin (or, we could say, his cross).* From this point onwards, the scribes and the religious men of the day were seeking nothing but to destroy him. There was no going back.

Yet here also, we find a great teaching on the importance of Christ's church. Although the temple in this passage is not perfectly equivalent to the church, it was still the place where God's people gathered to worship him. Thus, in Christ's zeal here for "the Lord's house," we can note that we ought to have the same zeal for his house. God's house has a set purpose given by God: prayer (Luke 19, 46, quoted above), and in this we could certainly include worship as well. In other words, anything that does not focus on God in our regular church worship services is condemnable. The purpose of the church is for God, not for man. We ought not to use God's house for our own gain, but for God's glory.

As we continue to examine Christ's Passion Week, let me ask you to consider: Have you truly realized the authority of Jesus in your own life? Have you submitted to Christ's true and sovereign authority, or have you rebelled against him? As we will see soon, Jesus deserves full authority, and for those who do not submit to it, there will be nothing but eternal damnation.

*Yes, I realize Jesus laid down his own life, and that the Jews did not have sovereign power over him in killing him. Don't read into metaphors too much, that's not the purpose of them.