As Jesus and the Twelve awoke the next day, gathering at their appointed meeting place in Bethany to make their short trek back to Jerusalem, Jesus’s agenda was the same as it remains today: to strip away misunderstandings of who he was and what he was going to accomplish so that our expectations could be confounded. This was not going to be a meek and mild Monday. (Your Sorrow Will Turn to Joy, p.22)
As we reflect upon Holy Week, the week leading up to the gruesome and vicious death of Jesus Christ on the cross, Holy Monday was Jesus' first full day back in Jerusalem. The very first thing Jesus does is enter into the temple. As we've been learning in Ephesians 2:19-22 and John 2:19-22, Jesus is the true temple, the dwelling place of God, where sinful man comes into God's holy presence.
In Matthew 21:12-17, we see that Jesus makes it a point to ransack the physical temple, over-turning tables, His holy fury coming forth in all anger and righteousness. But why? Why was Jesus so concerned about people changing money, buying and selling animals in the temple?
His holy fury comes from His passion for true worship-- exalting the infinite worth of God-- expressing that He is the most worthy and most valuable. The money-changers and sellers were diminishing worship, making it about the animals, the sacrifices, making it seem so easy and so simple to come into God's presence and to meet with God. "Well I don't really need to worry about raising a choice lamb or choice sacrifice, God's really not that valuable, so let me give him just the easy sacrifice, something I can buy right in front of the temple."
Jesus' passion was for the worth of His Father's Name, the only Name above all Names. This act of cleansing the temple, of clearing it out, of displaying His righteous anger towards those who lessen worship, was to show the value of His impending death on the cross. The cross was absolutely necessary to cover so much sin, so much failure, so much debt, so much lack, so that sinful man loved by God could meet with a holy, worthy, and infinitely valuable God.
Revelation 5:8-14 shows us how the twenty-four elders respond in worship to God. Read, hear the call to lay our crowns before the worthy lamb that was slain. He died so that we could love Him with a love incorruptible. We can love Him because He first loved us.