Monday in the Temple

Here's an excerpt for today from my novella.
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The next morning, Jesus returned to the Temple. Only his disciples were with him this time. He knew the Romans would be watching for him. They had investigated him on Sunday. They came to the Court of Israel and watched him pray for over an hour. They interrogated some in the crowd.

Today he would make a statement. He took some rope and braided it together into a whip. Then when he got to the moneychangers, he began to overturn their tables and drive the animals out with the whip. Everyone scattered, and coins flew everywhere.

“My house will be called a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves!” he shouted. “God has weighed Jerusalem in the balance, and it has been found lacking. Repent and believe in the good news of God’s coming kingdom, for the Son of Man is coming on the clouds!”

Then he withdrew. He did it so quickly that he had disappeared by the time the Roman soldiers rushed down from the Tower of Antonia to the courtyard.

This was the last straw for Judas. Why did Jesus leave? A confrontation between him and the Romans was exactly the kind of moment that would prompt God to come from heaven to establish his kingdom on earth. Was Jesus a coward? Was he a fraud?