Turning Tables Series

The Road To Easter

Pt. 2 - Turning Tables

I. Introduction

Remember those family vacations you took as a kid? Loading the car. Hunkering down in the back seat as miles passed by. I would imagine that if you look back at pictures from those road trips you would probably see pictures from the final destination. The family on the beach. The family in the oversized rocking chair. The family at the campsite. It seems like the final destination always garnered all the attention and certainly the bulk of the photo ops. However, it little store, the tower we climbed up, the rattle snake pit I almost fell into that really what made the trip memorable. The same is true when it comes to Easter. As a believer Easter is our focus. It garners all of our attention and in many ways rightfully so. However, just like we do regarding vacation travels, we become so locked in on that final destination that we overlook and fail to give the proper attention to the stops along the way that were essential and consequential not only in Jesus' life and journey but in ours. I think it crucial for us to slow down on the way to Easter and walk the road Jesus took to get there. What leads to the empty tomb? What happened on the Tuesday or Thursday before He is raised from the dead? Do you know? Does it matter?

Last week, we covered the Sunday that we call Palm Sunday and Jesus' triumphal entry. Now let's proceed to Monday on the Road to Easter.

Monday - Cleanses The Temple

Text: Matthew 21:12-17 (MSG)

Jesus went straight to the Temple and threw out everyone who had set up shop, buying and selling. He kicked over the tables of loan sharks and the stalls of dove merchants. He quoted this text: My house was designated a house of prayer; You have made it a hangout for thieves. Now there was room for the blind and crippled to get in. They came to Jesus and he healed them. When the religious leaders saw the outrageous things he was doing, and heard all the children running and shouting through the Temple, “Hosanna to David’s Son!” they were up in arms and took him to task. “Do you hear what these children are saying?” Jesus said, “Yes, I hear them. And haven’t you read in God’s Word, ‘From the mouths of children and babies I’ll furnish a place of praise’?” Fed up, Jesus spun around and left the city for Bethany, where he spent the night.

On Monday, Jesus approaches His Father's House. It is interesting to me that He enters the Gentile Court. The inner areas of the temple were reserved for members of the people of Israel (men, women, priests). The Gentile Court is believed to have been large enough to house 75,000 people. Since they were not Jewish, they were not allowed into the areas of the Temple that were nearest to God’s presence. Instead, they were allowed access that was further away from God in the court of the Gentiles. There, they could learn God’s Word and learn to worship God. Curiously, Jesus goes to the outcasts and marginalized, sees how they are being mistreated and He responds. (Perhaps that should remind us of who how we should view people.) Jesus finds that the priests had turned this Gentile Court into a shopping mall. The money changers were needed because foreign currency was not allowed to be put into the temple treasury. Every man was required to pay a half shekel, as per the command given to Moses in Exodus 30. Many of the coins in circulation would be Roman. So, the money changers were needed to make the exchange. The chief priests had the money changers charge an inflated fee to exchange foreign currency. Historians believe the priests took in what equated to about $300,000 by this practice. On top of that, the priests were also scamming the people because if someone brought an animal in from the outside for sacrifice, then they would intentionally find something wrong with it so that the person would have to purchase one from one of the merchants at 30 times the price of the animals outside.

Jesus sees that the priests are taking advantage of the people and that the priests were literally becoming a barrier to keep people from worship (It would be like trying to hold a church service on the Midway at the State Fair). There isn't any room for the sick and lame in the house of God. So, Jesus cleans house. Jesus turns tables over. He challenged the entire banking system of Jerusalem.

This account of Jesus' Monday activities is mentioned and detailed in Matthew, Mark and Luke. However, John doesn't mention this account leading up to Jesus' death. He actually talks about an instance at the beginning of Jesus' ministry in John 2 immediately following the first miracle Jesus performs - turning water into wine. It is an eerily similar, but most historians believe, separate account.