The Journey of Holy Week: Monday

Mark 11:12-19 

It is the tenth day of Nisan, the day on which, long ago, Moses commanded the captive Israelites to procure a sacrificial lamb for each family. They were to keep it until the fourteenth day, when it would be slaughtered at sunset. During the intervening days the Israelites were to pack up and get ready for their flight from Egypt. Today is also one of the two days during the week of purification when festival-goers are to be cleansed with the holy water. The final water cleansing will occur Friday morning, just before the Passover lambs are to be slaughtered.

Jesus will perform his own kind of cleansing today. Many pilgrims have brought their Passover animals with them, while others will go into the city on this day of procurement to purchase them, one animal for every ten people. In the spacious temple courts there are those quick to capitalize on this need—some selling doves and sheep, others exchanging foreign currency for the pilgrims, and keeping a generous percentage.

This infuriates Jesus. What happens next is a chaotic scene: doves escaping to their freedom, coins flying everywhere as people scramble to pick them up—a scene that does not impress the temple authorities or the Roman officers assigned to keep the peace.

If the disciples thought Jesus had behaved strangely before, it is nothing compared to today's events. Their prophet seems to be losing his mind. In the past he had tried to hide the fact that he was in Jerusalem and often urged the people he healed not to tell anyone. Now he is healing out in the open, in full view of the crowds.

To the disciples, this recklessness is at once thrilling and unsettling. And yet, many are seeing for the first time; many are walking a path that hadn't existed until now.