Today is Monday the second day of Holy Week.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

Take a moment and quiet yourself. Take a deep breath. Welcome God’s presence. And say, “Come Holy Spirit.”

Today’s reading is from the Gospel of Mark 11:15-17

"15 On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, 16 and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17 And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’

In the Gospel of Mark, we see Jesus enter the temple courts making what can only be described as a scene. If yesterday the people saw him as a humble king... riding into Jerusalem on a donkey... today he’s a frustrated prophet: loud, interruptive, and speaking judgement. Jesus quotes the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah in this text.... Something he was seeing in the temple must have reminded him of that old scripture. Imagine being in the crowd as Jesus was going around overturning tables. What would that have felt like?

There would have been nothing unusual about all the buying and selling, even the money changing. That was standard fare. It was like a market in a city center, providing supplies for the pilgrims who journeyed there. But something about it had become bent, or twisted. The motivations had become disordered. It was likely that the money changers were keeping -people with less means from being able to worship God in the Temple. Maybe it was greed, or selfishness, or turning what was meant to be spiritual into what was simply mechanistic or utilitarian. Whatever it was precisely, on this day of

Holy Week, Jesus reminds us to take our place in his house – seriously. To not forget how easy it is to get coopted by materialism or the
culture around us. To stay, as Jesus quote Jeremiah: a house of prayer for all nations. As you listen to the scripture again, listen for the heart underneath Jesus’ actions and words.

"15 On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, 16 and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17 And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’

As we enter Holy week, consider that we often hold the same paradoxes and tensions that the temple did that day: we’re filled with spiritual motivations, and filled with disordered motivations. What are the tensions you find in your own self today? Is there any place in your heart, or your mind, or your actions that Jesus might want to turn upside down? To make right? Ask God for grace today to receive him as prophet, and for humility to hear his words of correction and reordering over your life.

Music Credit:
House Of Prayer (feat. Kenyatta Pinkney) - Heaven And Earth (YouTube)