Chatting with Jesus
Holy Monday, March 25, 2024
Lord, I guess you had enough. Every year as you were growing up, your family made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the Passover feast. Every year, you witnessed the same mockery of your Father’s house. The Temple and courtyard became a bazaar. Vendors sold blemished sacrificial animals at exorbitant prices. How this dishonesty must have angered you, watching your parents shell out too much for a lamb every year? Unscrupulous moneychangers cheated foreign pilgrims in their currency exchange. Sincere worshippers purposely ripped off while the religious leaders, on the take, looked the other way. Disgusted, Corruption in your Father’s House? Yes, I guess you had enough—again.
Two years earlier, during your first year of public ministry, your time had come. Now you “cleansed the Temple.” People watched stunned, seeing the kind and compassionate Jesus going on a holy rampage, turning over the moneychangers’ tables, driving out the sacrificial animals, releasing the doves. “The Scriptures declare,” you shouted, “‘My Temple [Father’s House] will be a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.” (Luke 19:46 NLT). It was time for a repeat.
Lord, we have the complete Gospels today, however back then, people had no clue they would witness the most historic event in human history that week. On what we call Holy Monday, we see the cleansing reenactment from two years prior. The merchants once again had set up shop again in the Temple. And replaying your actions from two years ago, your motive hadn’t changed. “I told you this before. This is my Father’s House. This is a place for prayer.” On this first Holy Monday, you kept your Father’s house holy.
Lord, on this Holy Monday, may we keep our spiritual house holy. Amen, Jesus.
THANKFUL 
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