What Does the Bible Say Happened to Jesus on Holy Monday?
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We talk a lot about what Jesus did during his last week in Jerusalem—but what happened on which day? What did he do on the day we now call Holy Monday?
Let’s look deeper at this day and what the New Testament says about Jesus’s teaching and activities that day.
When Is Holy Monday in Holy Week?
Holy Monday is the second day of Holy Week, the day after Palm Sunday.
On Palm Sunday, Jesus has the triumphant entry, in which he enters Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. People spread their cloaks on the ground as he enters the city and wave palm branches, shouting things like “Hosanna!” and “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” and “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” (Mark 11:9-10).
After entering Jerusalem that day, Jesus went to nearby Bethany for the night, which he did every night during Holy Week (Matthew 21:17). We assume he stayed with Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, hence why he’s eating dinner with them on Holy Wednesday (also called Spy Wednesday).
Since the gospel of John uses a different structure than the three Synoptic Gospels, most of what we know about the Holy Week timeline is based on Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Specifically, we learn about Holy Monday events in:
How Do We Know What He Did on Holy Monday?
As the Crosswalk.com piece on Holy Monday explains, it’s difficult to determine precisely what events occurred on each of Jesus’s seven days in Jerusalem. Matthew, Mark, and Luke discuss what happened, but not necessarily in a clearly defined day-by-day timeline.
Generally, church calendars commemorate Jesus cleansing the temple, cursing a fig tree, and answering priests questioning his authority on Holy Monday.
It’s also possible that on Holy Monday, he taught several parables and praised the widow who gave all she had to the temple. However, church calendars generally focus on Holy Tuesday as the day they commemorate Jesus’s teachings. For this article’s purposes, we will follow that tradition.
Let’s look deeper at these three major events on Holy Monday.
Why Does Jesus Cleanse the Temple on Holy Monday?
John 2:13–16 mentions Jesus cleansing the temple at the start of his ministry, shortly after his first miracle: turning water into wine. This appears to be a separate event, although Jesus says some things that predict what will happen during his second visit:
- Telling people to stop turning “My Father’s house into a market” (John 2:16)
- Answering critics who asked for his authority that he could raise the temple in three days if they destroyed it (John 2:19)
When this first cleansing occurs, His disciples remember the Psalm 69:9 verse, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
When the second temple cleansing happens, Jesus challenges people that Scripture says, “My house will be called a house of prayer,” but they have turned God’s house into “a den of robbers” (Matthew 21:13, Mark 11:17, Luke 19:46).
The message parallels Jesus’s comment from John about people using the temple for the wrong reasons. In both cases, Jesus overturned the money changers’ tables and freed doves being sold for sacrifices. Heather Adams explains that both activities involved deception: people visiting had to convert their money to buy doves and cattle for sacrifices. Money changers charged more than the conversion rate and kept the extra. Dove and cattle sellers charged inflated prices. So, Jesus highlighted the greed and corruption taking advantage of the Passover season.
However, Jesus was also quoting from two Old Testament passages, quotes that would have shocked his listeners.
What Old Testament Prophets Does Jesus Quote on Holy Monday?
“House of prayer” is from Isaiah 56:7, which describes God renewing the temple and his people if they return to following him. Tradition says that the prophet Isaiah wrote this book and proclaimed messages to the kings of Judah. While many of these kings were bad, and the nation came close to being invaded several times, Isaiah died while Judas was still a free nation.
The second quote, “den of robbers,” was much darker. It comes from Jeremiah 7:11: “Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you?” The statement is part of a larger rebuke against the people of Judah for not following God. It rebukes people for performing sacrifices to Baal and then going to the temple to burn incense to God. Sadly, people did not respect Jeremiah’s warnings. He lived to see the people of Judah captured and exiled in Babylon.
Jesus’s quotes graphically showed how serious the corruption was: serious enough; he compared it to dark moments when the Jews came close to losing their own country. As Jesus warned later while speaking on the Mount of Olives, destruction was coming. The Romans sacked Jerusalem in 70 AD.
Jesus’s second temple cleansing also finished what he began with his first temple cleansing. By the end of Holy Week, he would rebuild a temple in three days. His body would be broken on the cross, but he would be raised from the dead on the third day.
Why Does Jesus Answer People Questioning His Authority on Holy Monday?
The local religious leaders weren’t too pleased about Jesus causing problems in the temple. They were less pleased by his many teachings about corrupt leaders, which not too subtly criticized them. Some of his statements sounded like his cousin John the Baptist calling Pharisees a “brood of vipers” (Matthew 3:7-9).
So, the chief priests and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Tell us by what authority you are doing these things . . . Who gave you this authority?” (Luke 20:2). Jesus responded by asking them a question: “Tell me: John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or of human origin?”
Much like Jesus’s challenge in John 8:7, “Let he is without sin cast the first stone,” these words put them in a trap they couldn’t escape. Admitting that John’s baptism was something from heaven (God-ordained) would mean John was a prophet, leading to awkward questions about why these leaders didn’t support John’s teaching (Luke 20:5). Saying that John’s baptism was from humans (something John thought up himself) would get them in trouble with the crowds (Luke 20:6).
The people answered, “We don’t know where it was from,” and Jesus replied, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things” (Luke 20:7-8).
Why Does Jesus Curse the Fig Tree on Holy Monday?
While Jesus was traveling from Bethany to the temple, he inspected a fig tree to see if it had any figs on it. When he saw it had no fruit, he said, “May you never bear fruit again!”
Jesus and his disciples passed the fig tree as they returned to Bethany at the end of the day. The disciples pointed out that the tree had withered. Jesus told them this was an example of faith:
“For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore, I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.” (Mark 11:23-25)
As Christianity.com’s article on the story explains, scholars have explored why Jesus may have cursed the fig tree. Many believe Jesus was reinforcing what he said at the temple: warning about people’s lack of faith. The barren tree, like the people without faith, had no fruit.
What Can We Learn from Jesus’ Holy Monday Speech about Faith?
After showing what barren faith looks like, Jesus discusses what true faith should look like. It’s tempting to read Jesus’s statement as self-actualization: if we believe enough, we have the power to do anything.
However, it’s worth noting two things:
First, Jesus seems to be using hyperbole—exaggerated language to make a point, like the time he told people to poke their eyes out if their eyes tempted them (Matthew 18:9). The point is not to try and throw a mountain into water but to trust God fully.
Second, Jesus pairs his instructions about prayer with forgiveness. In this respect, he emulated what Old Testament prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah did many times. They talked a lot about avoiding idolatry and worshipping God truly, but spent equal time, sometimes more time, warning people to stop mistreating the poor. Doing dramatic actions for God, whether it is a miracle or a grand charitable act, doesn’t mean much if we are known as unforgiving or inhospitable.
What Can We Learn from Holy Monday Today?
We can learn many things from Jesus’s activities on Holy Monday. Particularly, the story shows us the following:
God cares about where our hearts are at. Jesus’s warnings about the fig tree and his cleansing of the temple highlighted how important it is to seek God with all our hearts. True faith that trusts God and bears fruit matters.
God gives people every chance to repent. Jesus’s words about the temple hinted at something he made clearer in parables like the vineyard tenants and the 10 bridesmaids: not following God has grave consequences. However, he didn’t let people suffer consequences without repeatedly telling them what was coming. More than that, Jesus’s interactions with people who sought to follow him—even religious leaders like Nicodemus—showed that he was willing to accept anyone who took his offer of mercy.
God cares about what we do with our money. When Jesus challenged people who used Passover to make money, he showed that how we make money is no private matter. He cares about tending resources well, and about making sure we do not gain money dishonestly.
Spiritual gifts cannot be separated from character. We are tempted to think of working miracles and exercising spiritual gifts as powers we should pursue, without thinking about the rest of the Christian life. When Jesus ends the discussion about having great faith by telling his followers to pray and to always forgive others, he highlights that we cannot treat Christian character and Christian gifts as separate categories. We are called to live integrated, holistic lives that honor God in every area.
God cares about how different ethnicities are treated. While the temple sales hurt many people, the extortion would have mostly affected foreigners: diaspora Jews with exotic currency, unable to bring cattle or doves with them. By challenging the corrupt behavior, Jesus made it clear that he cared about Jews in Judea and overseas, ethnic Jews and Jewish converts—everyone who had come for Passover. He valued faith no matter people’s ethnicity and refused to stand for racist activities.
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