In Holy Week, people focus on Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Resurrection Sunday. The days of the week are sometimes overlooked, but are also important. This may be because there’s no fancy title or catchy name, but there are some major lessons Jesus teaches the Jews, and us, during this week in scripture.

There are (3) main takeaways from this timeline in scripture: Jesus curses the fig tree, Jesus cleanses the temple, and he confronts false worship and empty religion. In this article, I want to focus on Jesus cleansing the temple.

¹² And Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all those who were selling and buying on the temple grounds, and He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves. ¹³ And He *said to them, “It is written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a den of robbers.” –Matthew 21: 12-13

Point 1: Sometimes us Christians are so predictable and we use the same scriptures over and over to justify certain Biblical topics. Is this a bad thing? No, as truth is truth. But, I think we should meditate and study scripture and allow it to speak to us at different times and in different seasons instead of it just checking one topical box. In this case, we like to use this as an example that you can be angry, because Jesus was angry. People call this a “righteous anger”. Sure, that’s true. However, we sometimes use phrases to justify us taking things to the next step which is an anger that is sinning. Let us not use instances in the Bible to try to make a parallel to our sin. Righteous anger is understandable, but anger is also a sin. Lord, give us the wisdom to know the difference.

Point 2: Sometimes I think our churches can be like the temple depicted here. This is another commonly used saying: “Jesus flipping tables”. That’s a scary image. It’s one that people use a lot (see Point 1’s point), but I also pray Jesus wouldn’t flip tables in our churches, either. Merch sales, music sales, bakery and coffee sales, etc., aren’t bad in themselves. Where is the line? Does it have to do with intentions? We are a delicate people that tow the line often. I also pray God gives us the wisdom to know the difference.

Lastly, things are building at this point. People are seeing this man turn over tables and constantly break perceptions of what they thought this Messiah would be. This is like starting to watch a bottle of Coke fizz over. Things are starting to build, and people are taking notice.