It’s Monday. The crescendo towards the Cross is in full flow. Jesus left behind the adulation of Palm Sunday and was heading for the most trying few days in Jerusalem.

There is a new picture of Jesus emerging. He is anything but a ‘meek and mild pale Galilean’.

He weeps over the current rejection of His message and the future destruction of Jerusalem. He curses the fig tree who was barren and that is the prophetic picture of the fruitless Israel who was meant to be a refreshing for the other nations.

As He steps into the temple, He is enraged by both the sinfulness of transforming a haven of spirituality into a full-blown shopping mall and the injustice of exploiting people in the name of God. Man turning a place of an upward focus of comfort, reflection and inspiration into a place of greed, deceit and noise.

Many would be uncomfortable with this image. It would not look good on a poster. It offends our sensibilities and shatters our idolatrous preconceived ideas about His identity.

Yet that’s the real Jesus. Emotional. Ruthless. Passionate. Don’t edit Him. Don’t customise your own personalised version of the comfortable Jesus you like. Have a spiritual health check. Has sin made itself at home in your life masquerading as religion? Let his broken heart become your broken heart. For those distracted and perhaps deceived. And the oppressed…

Matthew 21:12-13, 18-19 | Mark 11:15-19 | Luke 19:45-48 | John 12:12-19