Blog Post Monday: Holy Monday (March 29,2021)

It’s Monday again so I’m sitting down to write during my long break in between classes. Here I am snuggled on a couch with a blanket writing and reflecting on Holy Week. I’m not trying to think of anything cringy to say or take light of this part of Holy Week and I feel as if it’s left out. (I looked up the scripture and took a nap. Now I feel refreshed to write.)

Let’s head over to Matthew 21:12-17. Jesus enters into the outer courts of the temple. There’s animals everywhere and money changers a cheating people so they could barely afford to make sacrifices. Women and gentiles were allowed to worship in the outer courts. And you know what Jesus does?

“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.””

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭21:12-13‬ ‭ESV‬‬

What what? Sweet Jesus is turning over tables and driving animals out. We don’t often think of Jesus as a rebel, liberator and someone who stood up against injustice. Jesus came to set people free from the the law keeping them in bondage and oppression from the system. Jesus offers a new way of living. He’s tearing down what’s keeping people from God. Making a sacrifice was the only way to connect with God and have your sin forgiven. Jesus hadn’t gone to the cross yet so animal sacrifices were still necessary. Not for much longer yet.

I didn’t want to be cheesy and make the point of “let Jesus clean the temple of you heart.” No that’s not the point I wanna make today. I wanna make the point that Jesus sets you free from whatever is holding you back from him. Hope is just a few days away friend.

A prayer I shared on my story read “forgive me Father when I sat at a table you would have flipped.” We can’t sit at those tables Jesus would have flipped. It’s not a comfortable thing to do. The same Jesus who flipped tables for your liberation would die on a cross for you a few days later. Hold onto that truth today.