Monday
One of His first acts after entering the city was Jesus’ famous cleansing of the Temple, where he overturned the moneychangers’ tables and the seats of those who sold animals. These corrupt people made the temple “a den of robbers” (Mark 11:17), ripping off people who had come to behold the beauty of the God of Israel but instead found a commercial “bazaar.”
But how did Jesus get away with this? The leaders hated his attack on their illegitimate “business” (Mark 11:18; Luke 19:47). A strong force of “temple police” also managed troublemakers in this holy site. Why could they not stop this Galilean “peasant” from wrecking the Sanhedrin’s profits?
They did try to stop him, but something prevented them from apprehending him—a sympathetic crowd of common people surrounding the Savior, hanging on his very words.
After describing the cleansing, Luke adds: “But the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the leaders among the people were trying to kill him. Yet they could not find any way to do it, because all the people hung on his words” (Luke 19:47–48).
Then notice Matthew 21:46:
“They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.”
(see also Mark 12:12 and Luke 20:19)
I can imagine that a cadre of young men surrounded Jesus wherever HE went in Jerusalem over the next few days, ensuring he was safe from those who would have liked to seize him. Remember that when we consider the fateful events of Thursday evening when the temple police successfully seized Jesus, He was away from the adoring crowds in the darkness of Gethsemane.
One of the most serious charges often leveled against Jesus’ Jewish followers is that they were fickle—hailing him as Messiah on Monday and then crying for his blood on Friday morning. But that’s not true. They didn’t change. That was a different crowd on Friday. This is one of the most overlooked facts so clearly mentioned in the Gospels that I am shocked so many forget or ignore it. “The large crowd listened to him with delight” (Mark 12:37), or as the KJV has it: “And the common people heard him gladly.”
Jesus’ actions were a judgment on the corrupt leaders of the Sanhedrin who allowed this commercial money-making “business” to take place in the Temple. It foreshadowed the Temple’s eventual physical judgment because it had become nothing more than “a den of robbers.” He got away with it because the common people believed in him—and protected him! This continued until his enemies found him later Thursday night, almost entirely alone.
Prayer for Reflection:
“Lord Jesus, this crass lack of reverence in your house justly enraged you. Help me realize that these awful abuses filled you, the loving Lord Jesus, with righteous anger. Help me to hate sin in all its forms. Show me how to hate sin with a perfect hatred while still loving the sinner with your perfect love. I cannot do this without your help.”
