What Happened on Monday of Holy Week?
On Monday of Holy Week, Christians reflect on events that took place after Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem (which is remembered on Palm Sunday).
As Jesus entered the Temple on this day, He wasn’t gentle. He was righteously angry. Tables overturned. Coins scattered. Voices raised. The Prince of Peace disrupted the status quo—not out of rage, but out of love. He couldn’t bear to see a sacred place turned into a marketplace. A house of prayer reduced to profit.
“My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you are making it a den of thieves.”
We also see Jesus curse a fig tree that bore leaves but no fruit—an outward show without inward substance. A powerful metaphor. It’s easy to appear spiritually “leafy”—busy with good works, filled with church-going habits—yet bearing little of the fruit God truly desires: love, justice, mercy, humility.
This Monday invites us to ask: What tables in our hearts need to be overturned? What noise and clutter have drowned out the still, sacred presence of God? Are we bearing fruit, or just looking the part?
Let today be a day of quiet reflection and bold honesty. Jesus doesn’t enter to condemn us—He enters to restore. To cleanse. To make us into true temples of His Spirit. Jesus wasn’t just cleansing a building. He was making a statement about the hearts of people who had lost their way. He longed for purity, authenticity, and worship that came from a true place—not ritual, not pretense, but deep, reverent love.
