Holy Week: Tuesday.

Jesus agains teaches in the temple in Jerusalem and to the crowd outside the temple. Matthew, chapters 21-23 record what he taught. Jesus boldly exposed hypocrisy, calling out those who looked religious outwardly but inwardly were full of corruption. He addressed the religious spirit head on.

Why is this significant?

Because before the cross, there had to be a confrontation.

Jesus didn’t go to the cross ignoring sin, he confronted it. He didn’t ignore corruption, he challenged it. He didn’t affirm empty religion, he dismantled it. Everything he confronted he would ultimately pay for. The Cross wasn’t just an act of love, it was the answer to everything he revealed.

This speaks directly to us today.

Many want the celebration of Palm Sunday and the victory of Resurrection Sunday, but not the confrontation in between.

We want comfort without correction.

We want grace without repentence.

But Jesus showed us that before resurrection power, there must be cleansing.

I Corinthians 3:16-17 reminds us that we are now the temple of the Holy Spirit.

What Jesus did in the physical temple, he desires to do in us.

He wants to cleanse anything that does not belong. He wants to overturn the tables in our hearts.

Here’s the truth: what Jesus confronts, He redeems.

He doesn’t expose things to shame us, but to redeem us. The cleansing of the temple was not rejection, but restoration. He was reclaiming what belongs to God.

This is the pattern:

Confrontation … Cleansing … Cross … Resurrection

If you skip the middle, you miss the transformation.

When Jesus truly has access to your life, resurrection isn’t just something you believe in, but something you live. Our path to transformation looks like this:

Confrontation/Confession

Cleansing/Repentence

Cross/Surrender

Resurrection/Transformation

Today as you meditate on the events of Holy Week, ask yourself this:

Am I honest with myself about my relationship with Jesus? Am I willing to engage in the confrontation Jesus wants to have to expose what is still in my heart, mind, actions, that are not pleasing to God? Have I fully surrendered my life to Him? If strangers watched me, would they know I’m a Jesus follower?