Holy Monday | Day 2 of Hope Week

This devotional is the second installment in our Hope Week devotional series—following Jesus' journey from the gates of Jerusalem, to the cross, to the hope of the empty tomb. Join us every day from March 29 to April 5 to re-experience the story of His sacrifice and the magnitude of His love!

Today, let's reflect on the events of Holy Monday—the day Jesus cleansed the temple.

In Luke 19, after Jesus has entered Jerusalem, we witness Him walk straight into the temple. No hesitation. No small talk. Nothing distracting Him. He immediately begins to drive people out after seeing what the house of God had become: noisy, transactional, and self-serving. “My house shall be a house of prayer,” He declares, burning with fierce devotion (v. 46). Jesus is consumed with protecting what is sacred.

When I sit with these verses, I don’t just see a dramatic scene playing out in the temple courts, but instead Jesus bringing order to His people and what their hearts are consumed with. I can’t help but ask myself: “What would happen if Jesus walked into the temple of my heart today?”

Scripture makes it clear that through Christ, I am now a dwelling place of God. I am called to be a house of prayer and devotion to God. But this past year, He showed me the tables I’d set up in my heart—tables that needed flipping.

I realized that sometimes, my temple becomes crowded with productivity, as I measure my worth by how much I accomplish. I let busyness and distractions fill spaces meant for stillness with God—and before I know it, even worship becomes about performance.

In the same way, the merchants in the temple justified their work, believing they were helping people fulfill “religious requirements.” It looked spiritual and practical—but ultimately swapped profit for prayer.

Here’s what confronts me: In John 2, Jesus does not politely rearrange the temple—He overturns it. In my life, cleansing has rarely felt gentle at first. It has looked like conviction that interrupts comfort, prayers going “unanswered” because God is after something deeper than my desires, and the Holy Spirit whispering “that doesn’t belong here anymore.”

When Jesus cleanses, it feels disruptive because He is restoring the original design. In John 2:19, Jesus says to the Jews, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” He was not talking about the building, but His body. The ultimate cleaning would not come through overturned tables, but through His broken body and an empty tomb. The cleansing of my heart did not cost me—it cost Him. Every time He brought my sin to light, it was not condemnation; it was His love refusing to let me settle for less than Him.

After the cleansing in Luke 19, the clutter is removed and Jesus teaches daily in the temple, His voice filling the new space. This Holy Monday, may we desire a cleansing that is not merely a moment of emotional repentance but a sustained habit, where the heart cleared of noise so His Word can echo freely. May we not be interested in God’s partial access, but in Him coming in to fully expose what we’ve normalized and scatter the sins we’ve clung to. May we not just desire a clean temple—but one where He dwells.

What things have you been clinging to that Jesus would “overturn”? How could this cleansing make more room for your relationship with Him?

At Crossroads, Easter is more than a day. It's the culmination of a week of expectation—as we follow Jesus from the gates of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, to the cross on Good Friday, to His triumphant resurrection that first Easter morning.

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