Holy Monday marks the day Jesus went into Jerusalem’s temple with a whip in his hands. The temple was supposed to be a place where people from all over the world could offer sacrifices to God and receive forgiveness. The religious establishment, however, decided to use the temple courtyard as a livestock market for sacrificial animals as well.

The temple was filled with animals braying, vendors haggling, and manure stench instead of prayers. Jesus flips over tables in anger and prevents merchants from carrying merchandise through the temple courts.

With a captive audience, Jesus taught them. He said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”

The crowd sees the truth in what Jesus is saying and they were amazed. After being publicly exposed and cornered, the chief priests and teachers of the law plot to kill Jesus.

The significance of Holy Monday is that Jesus came to restore God’s temple to its original purpose.

Holy Monday marks the day Jesus went into Jerusalem’s temple with a whip in his hands.