Holy Week... the days between Palm Sunday and Easter ... the days leading up to Calvary and Resurrection Sunday ... the most important days in human history ... Holy Week!
So, what was Jesus’ first appointment during Holy Week? After His triumphant arrival on Palm Sunday, what was the first and most important item on His sanctified to-do-list?
First, Jesus cleansed the temple, throwing out the merchants and marketeers who had polluted that most holy place making it something repugnant and disgusting! The temple courtyard smelled like a barnyard. It sounded like a carnival’s midway. The crowded marketplace atmosphere was akin to Macy’s between Thanksgiving and Christmas!
Jesus had to set things in order.
Like a giant among cowering children, Jesus single-handedly took control of the temple complex. He turned over the ATMs. He drove out the herds and flocks. He pushed out the profiteers.
Talk about a make-over! In little time, Jesus transformed the temple into a warm and welcoming house of prayer! Matthew records, “The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them.” (Matthew 21:14, CSB) Stunning! The temple once again became that place where Jesus would lovingly meet the needs of the neediest ... like me!
Paul teaches us that every Christian’s heart has become the dwelling place for God’s Holy Spirit ... the Temple of the Living God. This begs the question: What filth needs to be removed today?
I wonder, is my heart most similar to a marketplace, a barnyard, a midway, or a house of prayer?