It is today that Jesus enters into the Temple and drives out the vendors and money changers (Mt 21:12-17; Mk 11:15-19; Lk 19:45-48). When Jesus enters into the Temple, is infuriated by the sight of everyone who was buying and selling there. He overturns the tables of the money changers, and making a whip out of chords, he clears out the temple area proclaiming Isaiah's words "My house shall be called a house of prayer" (Is 56:7), and saying that these money changers have made it into a house of thieves. Jesus then welcomes the bind and the lame, and heals them. The scribes seek to arrest him, but they fear the crowds.There are a few important questions to ask here. First, what's the big deal? The vendors were selling religious animals for the sacrifice, and the money changers were helping them do that. Second, why are the blind and lame mentioned. Third, Why are the pharisees and scribes so angry?
To answer the first question, the answer lies in the layout of the Temple. You see, the way in which the temple laid out, there were several courts all radiating from a the central Holy of Holies where the Living God dwelt. The vendors were selling their product in the Court of the Gentiles, which was reserved for non-Jews who wanted to worship. By putting the vendors here, it made a distinction between the Jews and Gentiles. A place that was designed for the Gentiles to be able to worship is suddenly reserved for the sale of animals. The Gentiles who came to worship the Living God were no longer able to enter and pray.
This shows a level of bigotry on the part of the Jews. Instead of making an effort to be first among God's sons and drawing all nations to Mt Zion (Isaiah 2:2-4), they place themselves above the Gentiles and treat God as their own personal possession. The same dynamic exists when Jesus preaches at the synagogue in Nazareth at the beginning of his ministry (Luke 4: 21-22, 25-28). The problem is not that Jesus refers to himself as the fulfillment it is the fact that he says only the foreigner had faith enough to be healed. The problem, therefore, in the temple is not the fact that the merchants were selling. They were allowed to be there by the chief priests. The problem was the racism represented by their selling in the Court of the Gentiles, and their barring of the Gentiles from being able to pray.
Jesus, by driving out these merchants and going against the priests and scribes in such a direct way, he was not just protesting. Jesus was asserting his religious authority over Israel. In this passionate act, Jesus was telling the Pharisees and Sadducees that their reign over the Jewish people was over, and by exercising his authority, Jesus was making himself the high priest. This forces the elders and priests to ask, by who's authority Jesus was driving out the vendors? Instead of simply asking why, the Pharisees want to know that authority Jesus operated under.
The answer: His Own.
This is why was it so important in Matthew that Jesus healed the blind and lame. At the time, the lame and the blind were not allowed in the Temple because of the fact that they were considered to be ritually unclean. Normally they would sit outside the gates because to let them into the temple area was against the Mosaic Law. When Jesus allowed them to enter the temple to be healed, he was further expressing his authority over Israel. He was telling all those in assembly by his actions that he was Lord over Israel and of the Law.
So why were the scribes and elders so mad? Jesus was telling them that he had the power and authority that they thought they possessed. If Jesus was the authority, they were subject. Their pride would not accept this fact.
Do we accept Jesus as Lord in our hearts? Do we let him rule as he should?
That night, after a dramatic first day in Jerusalem, Jesus went to Bethany outside the city to stay in the house of Lazarus, whom he raised from the dead, and Lazarus' sisters, Mary and Martha (Mark 14: 3-9; John 12:1-11). While they were eating dinner, Mary, whom tradition states is Mary Magdalene whom Jesus freed from seven demons, took an alabaster jar of expensive aromatic nard, an oil of anointing, and poured it on Jesus. Mark says that she poured it on his head, while John says that she poured it on his feet and dried them with her hair. The house is filled with the fragrance of the nard, and the objections of the other dinner guests who complained about the waste of such an expensive asset. The nard itself was worth 300 day’s wages and could have been sold to feed the poor. Jesus, however, silences them. He says that Mary has done this in anticipation of his death and burial, and that she will be remembered whenever the gospel is proclaimed.Mary’s gesture was unmistakable. She truly was anointing Jesus. This anointing had a two-fold meaning. First, in Mt 26:6, when she anoints the head of Jesus, it acts as a sign of his regal and messianic anointing. Secondly, he was being anointed for burial, which in Jewish society was considered essential for participation in the resurrection. Mary may not have known what she was doing at the time, but it was because of her that his body was not laid in the tomb without being anointed.
However, Mary’s gesture points even further to her deep love for Jesus. This is demonstrated by her actions that seem crazy at the time. First of all, The nard was worth 300 day’s wages. Think about that. Essentially, in the eyes of the other dinner guests, she wasted an entire years worth of work and wages. But Mary was embodying the notion that love makes you do crazy things. Her actions symbolized the literal pouring out of self that she did out of love for Jesus. Everything that was hers belonged to him, and he rewarded her for her devotion. She was, after all, the first person that Jesus appeared to after his resurrection.
Her actions also take on deeper meaning when we examine the Song of Songs, the great love song of the Old Testament. Spikenard was an aromatic and precious perfume worn by a bride on her wedding day. It goes on in Song of Songs 1:12 and 4:13-14 to speak of the sweet fragrance of the nard and its connection to the self giving love of the Bride and Bridegroom. Mary, desperate to show her love for Jesus, takes this perfume that is being saved for her wedding day and pours it over Jesus. We see through the eyes of scripture the depth of love the Mary held for Jesus, the ultimate Bridegroom who is about to give himself once and for eternity for his Bride the Church.
Let us look at the events during this Monday of Holy Week as an invitation to conversion. First, let us pray that our Lord can come into our hearts and drive out all that is standing between us and Him. It may seem violent, and it may not be comfortable, but if we allow him to claim his authority in our hearts he will make us like new. Second, let us pray that Jesus can make our love for him as real as Mary’s, who held nothing back from the one she loved.
See you tomorrow!
St Joseph, model of manhood, pray for us
Father almighty, bless us
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