A Holy Monday Message: More Altar, Less Stage

Palm Sunday kicks off Holy Week with proclamations of “Hosanna”, a red carpet of cloaks and palms, and with hope of a prophet coming to free God’s people from an oppressive Roman government. Blessings are given and there is a sense of optimism and expectation of what this Holy man will do as Passover celebrations are kicked off. In ways no one even understands yet, their King has arrived.

And this King could have begun the week by meeting important leaders and making deals. He could have lapped up the glory of the people by engaging them all week long, and taking in their praise. He could have kicked His feet up and rested, knowing the end of the week would be painful and heavy. Instead, He did what no one expected. First on His agenda that Monday morning was to cleanse the temple.

Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’” The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant. “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him. “Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read, “‘From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise’?” And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night.

~ Matthew 21:12-17

While Passover busyness took place around Him, Jesus marched Himself to the defiled house of the Lord. Surely he should have taken on the corrupt government and left the church leaders alone. But, not so.

The temple had become like the caves that thieves used to stockpile their bounty. It had become a place where business practice usurped the practice of prayer for the lowly. So Jesus turned over their tables, He drove out the money changers and rebuked the religious leaders. There was no mincing words or difficult-to-understand symbolism or parable-telling. His rebuke came from the book of Isaiah, a text these religious leaders would have known. In doing so, He called them back to their levitical priestly duties to give sacrifices on the altar to atone for the people of God. They’re not called to do business, but to serve the souls of the people. More altar, less business.

Jesus models this immediately after His strong disapproval, when the blind and the lame come to Him, He wasted no time to heal them. By engaging these souls in need, He immediately revealed the heart of God to everyone watching. This is the ministry that matters. This is the role of the Priest. Children surrounded Him in praise, affirming His Lordship, making the Chief Priests and Scribes indignant. The humble King, who entered Jerusalem on a donkey the day before unveiled the pride of these leaders. And the affirmation he got made them burn with anger. No doubt the plots for His death were conceived that day.

Holy Week begins with perhaps one of the most relevant and intensely needed messages for church’s today. This message is one of justice and sharp correction. And we, as the church, would do a terrible disservice to ourselves, if we did not take the time to receive it now. Because souls are at stake!

Jesus didn’t flip tables because people were imperfect. He flipped them because a system claimed to represent God while actively and passively crushing people in God’s name. And if we’re honest, that still happens. Sometimes obviously, sometimes subtly. In ways we participate in without realizing. In ways that make us more complicit than we want to admit. Holy Monday reminds us that love isn’t always gentle. Sometimes love is fierce. Sometimes it disrupts. Sometimes it has to dismantle what’s broken and contaminated before anything good and life-giving can be built. But it’s still love. Protective, costly, uncompromising love for people who’ve been pushed aside and told they don’t measure up.

~ Scott Sauls

When people are pushed aside, it’s usually because something pushed them away. A new idea, a popular trend or the love of something other than God and His people.

And as we see in this Scripture, it seems the church merging with unhealthy business practice is a tale as old as time. The product of this is systems that crush people. In these church cases the modus operandi becomes about following a visionary leader, keeping up with changing strategies and merch sales. When an abundance of time and money gets dumped into branding and slick performances, ask yourself what might the King of Kings do with this? Where do the lowly and broken souls go when bustling business practice is the functional first priority?

In a lot of church’s today the most prominent fixture is a stage. Implied in this, is the performances that will take place. Some stages are big, some small. Some boast a Cross, others don’t. Some are filled with many instruments and changing lights, and some are paired back. The functionality of the space isn’t necessarily indicative of the faithfulness of worship that takes place. But I will say, that you will know how much altar is present in your church not by the size and trendiness of the stage but by the care given to downcast souls on a Sunday and every other day of the week. What takes up the Pastors time most? What are the functional (not written) values? Performance and programs? Or care and communion?

Jesus begins the Holy Week making something very clear. The church of God is no place for soul-sucking business systems. There should be no jockeying for money or clout or prestige. The church is not a place for hucksters to perform piety for the glory of admirers.

Instead, the church is for the broken, lost, ailing, disabled and dying. It’s a tabernacle of prayer. Seeking to heal the wounded and encourage the weak. It’s a place where the Good News of the gospel should be served up by humble leaders with no other self-serving agendas. The church is where personal ambitions of glory go to die. The church is indeed, an altar. To offer our prayer, our communion and our worship.

Jesus loves the church. And Holy Monday is a warning for the church to have more humility and less pride. More prayer and less business. More altar and less stage.

And to have more and more and more Jesus.