Monday of Passion Week

Jesus Expels Money Changers and Merchants from the Temple Courtyard.

After Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, he entered the temple and once again drove out all who bought and sold in the temple. This would be the second time that Jesus would cleanse the temple. John 2:14-16 describes Christ as cleansing the temple early in his public ministry and would be the first time that Jesus would cleanse the temple during passover. Jesus' cleansing of the temple a second time after his entry into Jerusalem would mark the second day recorded during Passion week or Holy week for Christians.  

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 seats of those who sold pigeons. (Matthew 21:12) Jesus considered those who bought and sold in the temple as desecrating the temple. 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 21:13) Because Roman coins and other forms of currency were deemed unacceptable as temple offerings, merchants would exchange coins for pigeons and other animals for sacrifice. Both money-chargers and merchants were charging such excessive rates that the temple marketplace took on an atmosphere as a thieves den instead of a house of prayer. This took place in the court of the Gentiles which would have covered several acres on the temple mount. 

The synoptics, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, all describe how Jesus addressed all present at the time of the cleansing of the temple and how he would use the incident as occasion for public teaching. And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 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?" (Matthew 21:14-16) The babes most likely mentioned here would have been devout Jewish males over the age of 12 who would have made the trip to the temple to celebrate their first passover just as Jesus had done. (Exodus 23:14-17) Three times in the year you shall keep a feast to me. You shall keep the Feast of the Unleavened Bread. As I commanded you, you shall eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib for in it you come out of Egypt. None shall appear before me empty-handed. you shall keep the Feast of Harvest, of the firstfruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field. you shall keep the Feast of Ingathering at the end of the year. Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord GOD.

And leaving them, he wet out of the city to Bethany and lodged there. ​(Matthew 21:17)