As we continue through Holy Week, Holy Monday draws our attention to a powerful moment in the final days of Jesus’ ministry: the cleansing of the temple.
What should have been a sanctuary had become a marketplace. What was meant for prayer had become a place of profit. Merchants sold sacrifices at inflated prices. Money changers exploited the poor. The house of God had been hijacked by greed.
“Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. And He said to them, ‘It is written, “My house shall be called a house of prayer,” but you have made it a “den of thieves.”’” (Matthew 21:12–13, NKJV)
Jesus wasn’t passive in the face of this corruption. He was moved by holy indignation. He acted with authority and purpose, purging the temple to restore its sanctity.
This scene is more than a historical moment; it is a mirror for our own lives. We are now the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16). The question is: what have we allowed into our temple? Have worldly distractions and compromises crept in, little by little? Have we turned our hearts, meant to be houses of prayer, into cluttered spaces filled with things that do not honor God?
Holy Monday is a call to personal inventory. It’s an invitation to let the Lord examine our hearts and cleanse them of anything that defiles His dwelling place.
Consider this: Jesus didn’t hesitate to cleanse the temple then, and He will not hesitate to cleanse His temple now. But He doesn’t just drive things out — He restores. He makes space for true worship, for pure fellowship, for divine communion.
Let this day prompt us to pray boldly:
“Lord, search my heart. Show me the tables that need overturning. Cleanse me, that I may be a true house of prayer, a temple fit for Your glory.”
Reflection for Today:
What distractions or compromises have crept into your life that need to be driven out so your heart can fully honor God?
