When Jesus God Mad
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Streamer X Main: [00:00:00] Did Jesus ever get mad? Now maybe you think he's just like us. Of course, Jesus got mad. Or how about this one? Did Jesus ever endorse violence when you get mad? I wanna look at a story today that's actually one of the most misunderstood passages. Especially about Jesus. It's a story I often hear referenced and all sorts of conclusions are drawn from this one story, and today we're gonna figure out what is it actually talking about.
We're gonna look at John chapter two, beginning in verse 13. It says, it was nearly time for the Jewish Passover celebration, so Jesus went to Jerusalem. In the temple area, he saw merchants selling cattle, sheep, and doves for sacrifices. He also saw dealers at tables exchanging foreign money. Jesus made a whip from some ropes and he chased them all out of the temple.[00:01:00]
He drove out the sheep and the cattle scattered the money changers coins over the floor and turned over their tables. Then going over to the people who sold doves. He told them, get these things out of here. Stop turning my father's house into a marketplace. Then his disciples remembered this prophecy from the scriptures.
Passion for God's house will consume me. Now in this story, we see a lot of the culture of that time of how they would worship. Now, all of these animals were necessary for temple worship. The cattle, the sheep, the doves, even the exchange of money was necessary. If people were traveling from afar, they wanted to have something to sacrifice, but they wouldn't have traveled far distances with an animal.
Therefore, it would be necessary to buy an animal there. And if someone was coming with a different currency from far away areas far away countries, they [00:02:00] would need someone that could convert their money so that they could buy the animals, they could figure out what they need. So all of this was actually necessary.
For what was going on. This is what we think Jesus is normally reacting to, and it's actually different than that now. I think it helps to see a picture of the layout of the court system in this time. This is what the Temple Courts looked like. Now, if you see on the left though, you'll notice at the very center is where the Holy of Holies that's the really central spot there.
And it worked out from there. And basically only the top priests get into that area. And then depending on who you were limited, how close you could get to that area. And there would've been barriers at each of these areas of, of where you could cross and where you could not cross.
They took it very seriously as to when you could cross an area and when you could not. Now we find references to this in the Old Testament. Ezekiel 44, [00:03:00] 9 says, no foreigners, including those who live among the people of Israel, will enter my sanctuary if they have not been circumcised and have not surrendered themselves.
To the Lord, basically, meaning if you are a Gentile, a non-Jewish person, you're not gonna get in to some of these inner areas in these temple courts. And they had barricades to make sure that you were left out, which meant that the only place that the Gentiles, if they wanted to come and they wanted to come pray.
The only place they could pray was in the outer Temple courts. And this had become by this point, a noisy market. Now here's what you gotta realize. If you were Jewish, this was not a problem for you. You would walk past the noisy market spot and you would keep on going to where you're gonna go and worship God.
If you were not Jewish, you had nowhere to pray. You were now going to deal with all of the chaos of [00:04:00] the animals and the money changing in your area that you had to pray. And this is why Jesus got mad because one group of people was alienating. Another group of people sound like something we've ever seen happen before, and when Jesus saw this, it bothered him.
What's the deal with this violent Jesus that we see here depicted in John chapter two? , I can't help but wonder what were his disciples thinking as they watched Jesus begin to make a whip. You know, what were they thinking he was doing? Oh look, Jesus is making a necklace. Like, oh, that's cute.
What's he gonna do with that? And all of a sudden they begin to realize that ain't a necklace, that Jesus is creating a whip. Here's what's fascinating. This is an important detail. This story appears in all four gospel accounts, Matthew, mark, Luke, and John. But only John only. This version talks [00:05:00] about the whip.
It's the only gospel that mentions the whip. It's also the only gospel that mentions the sheep and the cattle. Now, what does this tell us? This indicates that the WIP was not used on people, that the WIP was created to get these animals to disperse. And that is how Jesus got a whole bunch of animals out of this area very effectively, right?
He was not hurting people. He was not attacking people. Jesus is shutting down their ability to use the court of the Gentiles in this way. Here's what we can learn from this today. Always look for Jesus to be with those who are left out. Always look for Jesus to be with them.
Our country right now is in the midst of figuring out new and creative ways. To leave more people out literally than ever before. In fact, we have talked about how we're going to [00:06:00] deport more people than ever people that don't look like the majority of us. And whenever you see this happening, you can be sure that Jesus is involved standing with the people who are being left out.
As we find in this story now, we keep reading, we pick it up in verse 18. The Jewish leaders demanded, what are you doing? If God gave you authority to do this, show us a miraculous sign to prove it. Alright, Jesus replied, destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. What they exclaimed, it has taken 46 years to build this temple and you can rebuild it in three days.
But when Jesus said this temple, he meant. His own body. Now, after he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered what he had said this, and they believed both the scriptures and what Jesus had [00:07:00] said. Now, this scene quickly turns into an authority battle. Who has the right to decide how the court of Gentiles is going to be used?
Now Jesus's comments here only make sense in light of the crucifixion, right? They think he's literally talking about the temple in which they're having this conversation, but Jesus is not talking about that. He's talking about his body and he's basically saying, kill me and I'll come back in three days.
Video: I will be back.
Streamer X Main: Now this is some serious smack talk, right? And this gives one of the best arguments that we have for why you and I can feel confident in following Jesus today. I think Andy Stanley sums this up perfectly. If someone predicts their own death and resurrection and pulls it off, we should go along with whatever that person says.
Yeah, you have my trust. When [00:08:00] you predict that you're gonna do this and then you do it. So what do we learn from a story like this? Lemme give you a couple takeaways. Number one, learn to recognize a righteous anger. See, there are things that should bother us and maybe don't. I would say things like racism and sexism.
Nationalism, especially Christian nationalism, tribalism, classism, ableism, ageism, and any other ism that hurts people. We should have a righteous anger about these things. They should bother us. Now we say, well, I, I am angry, but I'm not angry about that. Right? I'm angry about all sorts of other things.
Which leads to the second conclusion is to remember that even righteous anger. Can inspire unrighteous behavior that we need to always look like Jesus. [00:09:00] Even when we're mad especially when we're mad and notice that Jesus wasn't angry. Often we don't have a bunch of these stories in the gospel of him constantly going around doing this stuff.
This was a very targeted reaction to seeing how these gentiles were being treated by his own people. I'll close with something that Shane Claiborne says that I think is a great reminder for each of us, especially in light of a story like this. While most activists could use a good dose of gentleness, after all, it is a fruit of the spirit.
I think most believers could use a good dose of holy anger. Friends, there's plenty to be righteously angry about today, as long as we respond in a way that looks like Jesus. I'll see you next week on Rebuilding Faith.
