Easter Monday - Jesus Cleared the Temple
- Eljoh Hartzer, MTh
- Feb 11
- 8 min read
Updated: Feb 20
The events of Monday in our Holy Week timeline can be hard to understand and confusing. As Jesus cleared the Temple, he reacted to merchants and sellers there with acts of violence - or was it righteous zeal?
Note: At the end of this blog post is a free printable worksheet for you to personally and prayerfully contemplate this important day.
This series of articles will cover the key events of Easter in the order that they're celebrated in in the Christian tradition.
Click the following titles to read about the true meaning of Easter and each day of Holy Week:
What happened on Easter Monday
In the broader story of the Easter timeline, this is right after the Triumphal Entry and before the Olivet Discourse.
On Sunday, Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey - a beautiful expression of His servant leadership and lowly posture of power. Yet on Monday, something shifts as Jesus enters the Temple again. The previous day when he visited the Temple, He just looked around, but not today.
Suddenly, Jesus started throwing out those people who were selling goods in the Templecourts. He flipped the tables of the moneychangers and told everybody who was there for the wrong reason to leave right away.
Why did Jesus throw out the merchants?
He told the merchants two things:
My house will be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers. (Jesus was quoting Isaiah 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11)
Some say that Jesus taught more about MONEY than anything else.
Here are some of the things He said about money, consider them and why He would throw out those selling things in the Templecourts:
It is better to give than to receive.
You cannot love both God and money.
Store up treasures in heaven, not on earth.
Journaling Prompts about when Jesus cleared the Temple
The merchants did not belong in the Temple. If you look at your life, do you see something that does not belong?
Jesus had righteous anger. Write about a time when you experienced righteous anger.
What is something that you think makes God really mad?
Read Ephesians 4:26 and consider if getting angry is a sin. Download an emotions wheel from the internet and write down your prayerful takeaways.
Read Psalm 69:9 and apply it to today's story. Did Jesus experience this kind of zeal?
Jesus taught about money very often. Do you allow Him to speak into your bank account? Does He have authority over your finances?
To take the practice of faith journaling even deeper, consider this encounter tool:
This day in the Gospels
Matthew 21:12-13 (NIV)
12 Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. 13 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”
Mark 11:15-18 (NIV)
15 On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, 16 and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17 And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”
18 The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.
Luke 19:45-46 (NIV)
45 When Jesus entered the temple courts, he began to drive out those who were selling. 46 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be a house of prayer’; but you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”
John 2:13-17 (NIV)
Note: Interestingly, John puts this event right at the start of Jesus' ministry after the water-into-wine miracle
13 When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
Understanding this Easter day in the Old Testament
The Bible tells one beautiful story: God's big story.
In the beginning (Genesis), God's Spirit hovered over the waters in the void that existed before Creation. God was everywhere. After the Fall of Sin, there's a big divide that forms between people and God. (This is the divide that the Messiah would cross). In the meantime, God existed somewhere apart from people. In the pages of the Old Testament, we read about how God observed people's lives. He was still able to speak to them, take action in His Creation, and send messengers - angels - into the Earth. Yet very few people actually walked closely with Him.
God saw that He needed to teach His people how to live His way again - just like He did the Garden. So, He brought them into the wilderness school with their chosen teacher being Moses. Here, God dwelled with His people in Two Ways:
By day, there was a column of cloud
By night, He was in a column of fire
In the desert years, God dwells with His people again! So much so that they decide to create a "tent of meeting" - This is the first semblance of a Temple / Church in God's story in the Bible. (A structure where God stayed)
Where did the Temple come in?
To understand why Jesus reacted the way He did, we need to understand the Scriptural significance of the Temple.
Wise King Solomon, son of David, was tasked with building the first place where Yahweh would dwell 1 Kings 6:12-13 - God: “As for this temple you are building, if you follow my decrees, observe my laws and keep all my commands and obey them, I will fulfill through you the promise I gave to David your father. And I will live among the Israelites and will not abandon my people Israel.”
The Temple was destroyed by Babylon (2 Kings 25:9)
Then the Temple was rebuilt (became known as the Second Temple, see the Book of Ezra)
After the time of Jesus, Romans destroyed the Second Temple
Consider the meaning of the following verses and their significance for the Temple Scene of Easter Monday:
Matthew 8:20 “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
1 Corinthians 6:19 "Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own"
1 Kings 8:27 “But will God really dwell on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!"
Monday is not the only day on the Easter Calendar that we read about the TEMPLE:
Matthew 27:50-51 "And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom."
It's amazing! On Monday Jesus was throwing out the merchants to clean the Temple and on Friday of that same week, the curtain of the temple tore as God's dwelling-place shifted.
He would not be contained by a man-made structure! With the Holy Spirit, God would be present EVERYWHERE, just like He was at the beginning.
Why did Jesus get ANGRY? Isn't anger a sin?
Jesus' apparent violence depicted in this story on the Easter timeline leaves most of us feeling unsettled. Especially nowadays, we like to imagine Jesus as a peace-and-love teacher. Even those who do not follow Him (or call themselves Christian) love saying: "Jesus wouldn't judge like you do. He ate with sinners and made friends with those who the world considered wrong!"
But there's an interesting dichotomy to Christ's teachings:
Psalm 45:7 "You love righteousness and hate wickedness" | James 1:20 "human anger does not accomplish God's righteousness” |
Mark 3:5 "And he looked around at them with anger" | Psalm 7:11 "God is a righteous judge" |
John 9:39 "For judgment I have come into this world" | 2 Coeinthians 5:10 "we must all appear before the judgment seat" |
Ephesians 2:4-5 "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved" | |
What is 'righteous anger'?
In the Bible, we don't read about a passive God who sits back and looks at how evil prevails. That's not loving.
Jesus famously said in the Sermon on the Mount: "Blessed are the peacekeepers". No? He did not say that! He said: "Blessed are the peaceMAKERS". This difference matters!
"Be angry and do not sin" - Ephesians 4:26
There is such a thing as right and wrong. God doesn't need to explain Himself to us, yet He sent Someone who could take all the judgment that was meant for us onto His own shoulders.
The Gospel becomes REAL when we recognize that we really needed saving, falling short, and failing at every turn. The whole Old Testament is full of stories showing that people could not do it by themselves. They needed a Savior. They needed a Sin Offering.
So, as we contemplate the actions of Jesus in the Temple on Easter Monday - let's remember that this is no ordinary man. This is the Son of God, sent to overcome sin and wickedness, to offer salvation for all, and eternal life to those who believe in Him!
The Temple as the dwelling-place of God had to be kept clear of distractions and other lesser loves.
If you've been wanting to dive deeper into the Bible yourself, I want to invite you to consider the following encounter tool:
A Prayer on Monday
Dear Jesus, as You enter and walk through the spaces of my life, would You search me and know me like only You can. I give You permission to get rid of anything that does not honor and glorify You. Throw out the "merchants" and "money-traders" in my heart. All the things fighting for my attention that is not You. Would You fill those spaces with Your Holy Spirit instead so that it might flourish and be filled with God-honoring life and goodness? Amen.
Next up: The following day in Holy Week
Our next stop in the Holy Week timeline is Fig Tuesday where we will learn about a cursed fig tree, debates with the Pharisees, and the Olivet Discourse.
Explore other events in the Easter story:
Below is a free worksheet printable PDF for you to go even deeper with Easter Monday:
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