A Thorough Housecleaning

Passion Week is so named because of the passion with which Jesus willingly went to the cross in order to pay for the sins of His people

It is also understood as the passion he experienced on the cross—better understood as agony, first the emotional agony He expressed in the Garden as He prayed; then the physical agony of the events up to and including the cross

We’ll start with the portion of “Passion Week” or “Holy Week” we celebrate this morning—the triumphal entry

Though some dispute—with good logic—the days and events of the week; traditionally, since at least the 4th century, the Triumphal entry has been celebrated as Palm Sunday in some way

Some churches celebrate each day of this week with special ceremonies/celebrations…at least special names

Holy Monday, Holy Tuesday, Spy Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday

We’ll start with the Opening of the Passion

Then move into an event that seemingly galvanized the hostility of the Jewish leadership against Jesus, the cleansing of the Temple

In and of itself the cleansing was an act of passion—heated emotion regarding the way the temple was being misused

The Opening of the Passion

We have, in all 4 Gospel accounts, the triumphal entry to Jerusalem

We have the joyful clamoring, a sense of expectation, from the crowd

Their words came from Zechariah 9:9 “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

...and Isaiah 62:11 “Behold, the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the earth: Say to the daughter of Zion, “Behold, your salvation comes; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.””

With Jesus, they saw an end to their troubles…they saw the restoration of the Kingdom, of David or Solomon—a time a great freedom, great wealth, peace, security, prosperity

From the perspective of the crowd, they would have been ecstatic to see Him crowned as king as He entered the city…that was not to be

From our point in history, we know that is not what Jesus came to bring

His was not to be an earthly kingdom, but a heavenly kingdom

We also see the passion from the perspective of Jesus—His understanding of what was to transpire in the next few days was complete, thorough, and for His thoughts we turn to Luke 19:41–44 “And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.””

If we fast-forward a few days, in what is called the 7 woes of the Pharisees, we see more of that passion in Matthew 23:37 ““O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!”

As He rode into the city, the crowd was seemingly going wild, and when they entered the city, those within weren’t really sure of what was going on, needing to ask who it was

Where the whole city was stirred, is better translated shaken…as in an earthquake, such was the sensation He caused

The Opening of Hostilities

Matthew’s account is shortened a bit, making it appear to have been all the same day; Mark’s Gospel shows it as two successive days

This was, interestingly, not the 1st time Jesus cleared the temple—the first is only recorded in John’s Gospel, we’ll not delve into that episode

We return to some of the prophecies

Malachi 3:1 ““Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.”

The opening of that verse speaks clearly of John the Baptist; the second spoke of the Son of God

They were seeking God, or the god of their thoughts—They had, over the years, built the system of worship around the thoughts of man

Just as we condemn those who today invent a Jesus of their own design, in that day, the religious leaders had done the same thing…so burying the truth they couldn’t even see it themselves—thus the hostility

Yes, they followed the law…as they saw it…but had placed multiple layers of protection around it…it ultimately had become THESE they cared about

The scene outside the city and even upon entrance and leading up to the Temple, had been a joyous chaos

The situation in the Temple was a chaos of a different type

Called by some ,“Annas’ Bazaar,” after the name of the High Priest, for what it had become—a place making a profit off the faithful who came to make sacrifice, to celebrate passover,

Too far and too inconvenient to bring animals with them, they would purchase them…of course, the temple became the logical place make that happen

The merchants charged an exorbitant price for the animals they sold; and only took local coinage

The money changers charged an exorbitant rate of exchange—we could call it the fleecing of the faithful

We have no way of knowing all the other goods or services that may have been available—for a price—in the temple in those times

...all done with the complicity of the High Priest…and likely with him getting a percentage of the profits

This was happening within the “court of the gentiles” a place where anyone seeking to worship the true and living God could do so—in theory, the special nature of the God’s people would have attracted them to the one true God—in practice, they were excluded

After the clearing of the temple there were healings, there were spontaneous outbursts by children

The Jewish leaders became indignant; Mark’s Gospel tells us they then sought to destroy Him

Within all the events of the approach to the city and even the cleansing of the temple, there may have been, in the minds of the crowd, a thought of the historic rededication of the temple after the desecration of Antiochus Ephiphanes’ sacrifice of a pig to the god Zeus; This may have added to the fervor expressed in their action

The scene closes with Jesus leaving, the word being more forceful than that…leaving them behind

The Opening of our Hearts

The opening of our hearts is best seen in comparison to the closing of the hearts of the leadership of the Jews

Even after the Triumphal Entry, even after the cleansing of the Temple and the people flocking to Jesus because of His teaching, the Jewish hierarchy was still blinded and hardened against Jesus

…still intent on destroying Him

They challenged His authority in 21:27; They got the point in parables from 28 to 33…even understanding that the parable of the tenants was specific to them as the caretakers of the vineyard....Matt 21 45

Matthew 21:45 ESV

When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them.

If we read from 21:23 on through chapt 24, we see repeated rejection...

He was despised, rejected....

…and Jesus warned them Matt 21 42

Matthew 21:42 ESV

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “ ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?