HOLY MONDAY

 Holy Monday

Matthew 21:12-17

Passover was coming. Jews flooded into Jerusalem in advance of the day of celebration. They needed animals for the sacrifices . They needed Jewish coins for the temple tax. 

So, a market developed at the temple to sell animals. Moneychangers were there to convert Roman coins into Jewish coins. Exorbitant fees were charged, taking advantage of the pilgrims. Thus they made the temple a den of robbers. 

These businesses were conducted in the Court of the Gentiles, the only place at the temple where Gentiles could come and pray. Hence the term “house of prayer” used by Jesus. It was noisy. Imagine the sounds of animals and birds in cages or tied up. Image the loud conversations between vendors and buyers. The place of worship of God and prayer to God had been turned into a place of commerce. Instead of being a light to the Gentiles, these Jews had become an obstruction. They had profaned the temple. 

Enter Jesus, whose house the temple was. Matthew writes:

And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” This is a quote from Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11. 

And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. The blind and lame could only gather in the court of the Gentiles. Once Jesus drove out the merchants, they came to him. He ministered to them, doing the work of the Messiah, and healing those who needed it. 

But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read: 

    “‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies

        you have prepared praise’?” This likely comes from Psalm 8:2. Jesus never discounted children. And here they were praising him and asking for salvation. The Hebrew word for hosanna is a request for salvation. 

The chief priests and scribes stand in stark contrast to the children. The children praise and pray, acknowledging Jesus as the Messiah\Christ. The chief priests and scribes resent the interruption to their money making and their control over the temple. They were satisfied with the heartless ritual, whereas Jesus required genuine worship and prayer.

    And leaving them, he went out of the city to Bethany and lodged there. Jesus left the business of the city for the peace and quiet of the village. Maybe he stayed with his great friends Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. He would recharge, rest, and get ready to go again the next day.