Holy Week: Monday

Valentin De Boulogne, c.1622

This is Holy Week. Palm Sunday marked the beginning of the end of Christ’s long journey to the cross. Sunday He rode into Jerusalem, mounted on a donkey’s colt. Thousands cheered Him with cries of “Hosanna.” They laid cloaks and palm branches before Him, leaving no doubt about His identity as Messiah of Israel.

He spent the night in Bethany at the home of His friends Lazarus, Mary, and Martha.  On Monday He came to the Temple again.

Herod's Temple Mount was huge, 1.5 million square feet in size. It was magnificent, beautiful, imposing. But what Jesus saw in the Temple courtyards did not please Him. 

Vendors and money changers were plying their wares in the Courtyard of the Gentiles, ripping people off and making a mockery of the sacred space. 

He drove them out, quoting Isaiah 56:7 in the process:  "It is written, 'My house shall be a house of prayer,' but you have made it a den of robbers."

He said My house. The Temple is His temple.

Jesus is kind and gentle and patient. But the Temple belongs to Him, and He has a right to drive out whatever displeases Him. Like Paul said, Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20 ESV).