When Jesus Got Angry

Below is the script for my dad's sermon for Sunday (Sorry if I've ruined it for you guys at FCF).  This is a good word that I want to pass on to you.  It is a little longer than my usual post, but enjoy.

When Jesus Got Angry

John 2:13-22

Introduction: Some of us who are in the congregation today have struggled at times controlling a hot temper. At times in our lives we have lost our temper and said things we should not have said and done things we should hot have done. There have been times in my life that I have lost my temper and had some outburst of anger. “Maybe you say, Pastor Jack I just can't see you doing that!” The reason you say that is that you have not lived with me 24 hours a day 7 days a week for 56 years. Now as I have grown older and hopefully wiser and as I have matured as a Christian, those outburst of anger have happened less often. I have found out that when you lose your temper and blow your top you may feel better for a moment. But it makes such a mess that it takes a lot of time and effort to clean up the mess you made. It takes humility to apologize, it takes times to rebuild people's trust and confidence in you. So you think hard and long before you explode in anger.

James 1:18-20 says, “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”

Be Quick to Listen

Be Slow to Speak

Be slow to become angry.

Moses is an example of a man who was a godly man but a man who struggled at times to control his temper. The first time we see Moses temper was when he killed an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew slave. Moses was beginning to identify with his own people, after being raised by Pharaoh's daughter. He saw this poor slave being beaten by his Egyptian master and he got so mad he struck the Egyptian and the man died. This outburst of anger cost Moses 40 years of living in the wilderness. Of course God used that time to prepare Moses to lead his people to freedom.

Another time when Moses' anger got the best of him was when he was leading the Israelites. No matter what he did or what God did to provide for them all the people did was complain, complain, complain. They came to a place where they did not have enough water. God told Moses to speak to a rock and he promised water would come forth. But Moses got angry and struck the rock with his staff. Water came forth, but God punished Moses for his disobedience by prohibiting him from going into the promised Land. No matter how much Moses pleaded, he who had led his people for 40 years was not permitted to go into the promised land. He was able to go up on a high mountain and see the promised land, but he never set one foot on Canaan's promised land.

Anger can be a big problem in our lives. Paul says in Ephesians 4:26 "In your anger, do not sin, Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.” That verse tells us it is not always a sin to get angry. Some things ought to make us angry as Christians. Anger is a common emotion in our lives. Sometimes we are going to feel anger. But when we do, Paul says do not sin. It is possible to get angry and respond in productive way that does not cause us to sin.

Today we are going to read about a time when Jesus got angry. Jesus acted on his anger in a powerful shocking way, but Jesus did not sin. Hopefully we can see from Jesus what should make us angry, how to respond to our anger and when we have the right to respond.

Read John 2:13-22

Before we look at this story in depth. It is interesting to note that in John's gospel the story of Jesus cleansing the temple occurs at the beginning of his public ministry. But in Matthew, Mark and Luke the story of his cleansing is told during the last week of his life before he was crucified. Many conservative Bible scholars believe Jesus cleansed the temple twice. William Barclay who writes some of the most helpful commentaries I ever read thinks it only happened once. He says John is not concerned with chronology but put the material in his gospel in a way designed to reach a certain group of people. I believe there probably were two cleansing of the temple by Jesus. But it really does not matter in the lessons we can learn from Jesus and this story.

There are three things I want to point out that we can learn from this story about dealing with our anger. We need to understand:

1. What are some things that should make a Christian angry?
   Jesus went up to Jerusalem. It says he went down to Capernaum but he went up to Jerusalem. Jerusalem was 2500 feet above sea level it is one of the highest point in all of Israel. So from almost every town or village to go to Jerusalem was to go up. It was passover time. Passover was one of three annual feasts that the Jews celebrated. In that feast they remembered how Moses delivered them from slavery in Egypt. God sent Moses to Pharaoh with the message, “Let my people go!” But the king resisted and God gave Moses the power to command the ten plagues to fall on the Egyptians. The last and most terrible plague was the death of the first born child of all the people. God told the Israelites to sacrifice a lamb and put it blood on the door post of their houses and that would be a sign so the death angel would passover their homes and their first born children would be spared.
   
   
   At the Passover celebration thousands of Jewish pilgrims would come to Jerusalem and worship in the temple. But when these sincere worshipers came to the temple, they did not find a place to worship in quiet reflection. In the court of the Gentiles people had set up a market for buying cattle, sheep, doves for sacrifice. God originally intended people on a farm who raised these animals to bring their best ones to be sacrificed. That taught the people that sin comes with a heavy price. But some people lived too far to bring their own animals. But these animals were sold at high prices, maybe the priest would not even let people bring their own animals. There were also money changers. Every Jewish male over 19 years of age was required to pay the temple tax of ½ shekel. These money changes would make change for a fee, and take foreign money with images on it,and give them Jewish money, but they also charged a high rate for this exchange.

All this happened in the court of the Gentiles. The Temple was a series of courts. The most inner court was the Holy of Holies which was only entered once a year by the High Priest on the day of Atonement. The Holy Place was only entered by priests and they they offered sacrifices. Then there was a court of Men. After that was the court of women, and then there was a court for Gentiles. God chose Israel as his chosen people but he wanted them to live in such a way that the whole world would come to know the only true and living God. But if a spiritually hungry Gentile came to the temple in those days, he or she would not learn of the only true God, all they would see was a noisy market.

Jesus got angry at this sight and he said, Get out of here! How dare you turn My Fathers house into a market!” That is how John tells what Jesus says. I think most of are more familiar with the word Mark records. “My Fathers House shall be called a House of Prayer, but you have made it a Den of Thieves.”

Not only did Jesus tell them to get out of the temple, He made a whip of cords. No weapons were allowed in the temple. Some people were revolutionaries and so people were searched for weapons. In our state where thousands of people have permits to carry concealed weapons I see on some buildings, like a courthouse or even a school or nursing homes, no weapons allowed.

Jesus made this whip of cords and began to drive out all the animals and then he over turned all the tables of the money changers. It was a wild sight cows and sheep running all around, coins being thrown to the ground, people running every where.

Jesus got angry. But the Bible says plainly in the book of Hebrews Jesus was tempted in all points just like us, yet he never sinned. Jesus got angry for a good reason. His Father's house was not being used as a place for worship, it was a market place, where honest God fearing Jews were being cheated. Access to the worship of God was blocked by religious hypocrites.

Martin Luther as a young priest made a pilgrimage to the Holy City of Rome. But instead of being impressed by the city being a place for worship, he saw religious hucksters making money from all the pilgrims. When people use religion to make a buck, or to become extremely wealthy that is a reason to get angry. I have gotten angry at Televangelists who live in million dollar mansions get their money from contributions of old people barely getting by on social security. Some people take money claiming they are helping hungry children who may be starving and take a high percentage of the gifts for their own self indulgence. That really makes me mad. I think Christians have a right to be angry at religious scams.

But I think there are other things that should make Christians angry. Human trafficking makes me very angry. Young women are lured from home, by offers of good jobs or through drugs and other ways and then are forced into prostitution. The pimps who handle them beat them and force them to be prostitutes. That happens in third world countries and also right here in America.

Child abuse makes me very angry. Those who physically or sexually abuse children make me very angry. I think they should face the most severe punishment allowed by our constitution. When innocent or disadvantaged people are hurt or used by others and harmed in anyway that really makes me hopping mad.

Sometimes getting angry at injustice is the motivation we need to change things for the better. As a young man Abraham Lincoln made a trip down the Mississippi River to New Orleans. In that city he saw his first slave auction in which human beings were being bought and sold like animals and families were broken up. Abraham Lincoln vowed in his heart, if he ever got the chance to end such an evil institution as slavery he would do it.

So when you are angry ask yourself. What is making me angry? Am I getting angry at something that would make God angry? If so that is not a sin. Most of the time we get angry at a personal slight. Someone said something bad about me. Or someone did not give me something I think I deserve. Or somebody hurt my poor feelings and we get angry and sulk. It is often a sin to get angry when someone hurts out feelings. But it may not be a sin to get angry when others are treated unjustly.

The second thing we can learn from how Jesus handled this situation.

2. When we get angry, do we express that anger in such a way that we are not out of control.
   Jesus got angry and he not only felt anger he spoke up about it. He cried out. “Get out of here. How dare you turn my Fathers house into a market.”
   
   
   And then he began drive out all the animals with his whip of cords. Now it never says Jesus used that whip to whip any people. It probably did not hurt the animals but just scared them so they fled. Then the turned over the tables of the money changers and coins went rolling every where. But in all this activity Jesus was not out of control. He knew exactly what he was doing. He did not curse and swear and call people names. Although he said the temple was a Den of Thieves. So I guess he called them thieves but they were thieves because of the way they cheated the people.
   
   
   Jesus acted in a drastic way, but he was not out of control. His action was sort of like an act of civil disobedience. Maybe like some of the Marches led by Martin Luther King. Or maybe like something else that happened in our history. I watched a PBS special by Ken Burns the film maker on 'Prohibition”. That was the experiment to out law the sale of alcohol in the 1920's. It gave a pretty fair and balanced story of the times. Drunkenness was so rampant before that time, it was not uncommon to see a saloon on every corner and drunken bums lying in gutters. Many men would drink away all their money they got paid on the job and their children and wives would not have food. Many women were beaten and abused by drunken husbands. Now we must remember this was before there was any AA or and Treatment centers or programs, like ASAC or Sedlacek, or the Betty Ford Clinic.
   
   
   Religious people took up the fight for prohibition and it passed. One woman named Carey Nation from Missouri would see a saloon that was operating illegally and she would go in the saloon with an ax and bust up the place and smash all the bottles of booze. She would be arrested and put in jail and when she got out she would do it again.

Burns in the film series tells how organized crime got to smuggling booze and there was much violence and killing by gangs with leaders like Al Capone and others it is much like the terrible gangs that are so violent on the Mexican border.

I am not saying Carrie Nation was Jesus. But Jesus acted in a drastic way and yet he was not out of control.

Ask yourself when you are angry and decide to act. Am I doing something that needs to be done?  Am I under control or am I out of control? Sometimes we get mad for a good reason, but when we act out of control, or our reaction may be a bigger problem than the thing that made us made in the first place.

Lets suppose an underage teenager is found to be drinking and breaking the law in some way. A parent has the right to take some drastic action. Maybe you take away the kids car keys, maybe you take away his or her cell phone. Maybe you take away their right to use the computer to communicate with friends on Facebook. Maybe you tell them they must only go to school and then they must come straight home for a certain period of time. When you makes these demands on a teenager you will probably hear some weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. But if you are good parent you will stand strong.  

But if you teen gets in trouble and you yell and scream at them and call them names and attack their worth as a human being, you are out of control and not helping the situation. We need to learn how to be firm and how to discipline with love, without getting out of control.

The last lesson I see here is:

3. When I get angry about something, we must ask myself, do I have the authority to act.
   Notice how people reacted. The disciples remember a scripture from the Old Testament that says. “Zeal for your house will consume me.” But the Jews, meaning the Jewish leaders, demanded of him. “What miraculous sign can you do to prove you have the authority to do this?”
   
   
   Notice they did not at first say Jesus was wrong in doing this. Many people were probably cheering him on. It is about time somebody threw those crooks out of the temple. Some times we hear the cry in an election year. Throw the bums out, get some honest politicians!
   
   
   But they said give us a sign to prove you have the authority to do this. Now Jesus had the authority to clean up the temple. He was the Son of God and this was his Fathers house. If you drop by my house and see me pushing the vacuum cleaner around, don't worry I have been given the authority by Becky to clean house. I live there too, why should she have to do all the cleaning. I agree with that.
   
   
   But they asked Jesus for a miracle. He said I will give you a sign “Destroy this temple and I will raise it up again in three days.” Now in this instant Jesus said something in the Bible that was not intended to be interpreted literally. His disciples understood after he was raised from the dead, that Jesus was speaking of the temple of his body.
   But the Jews said, This temple had been under construction for 46 years. Herod the Great began building the temple in the Roman year 734-735 and it was finished in the Roman year 779-780, that would be AD 27. A few years after Jesus death and resurrection. It is hard for us to imagine a building that took 50 years to complete. But some of the great cathedrals in Europe took 50 to 100 years to build.
   It was said to be a magnificent looking structure. But Jesus told his disciples one day soon not one stone would be left upon another. In the year 70 AD the Roman destroyed the temple because the Jews revolted against their rule.
   
   
   It is not wrong to have a beautiful church building. If that building is used to worship God and to build his kingdom and help people. When my son Matthew was in college his Choir at Wartburg toured Europe and he saw some churches in Rome and some in the Vatican and he said the art work was amazing.  One large church in Cedar Rapids built a new complex and someone told me it cost 28 million. I am not sure if that number is right but it cost a lot of money. But I am not going to judge them. We have considered building a church building and some people have told me it would cost 300 to 500 thousand dollars. To me anything over 100 dollars seems like big money.
   But Jesus was talking about the temple of his body. His resurrection from the dead proved he was the Son of God and he had authority to clean up the temple which was suppose to be the house of God.
   
   
   When you get angry before you act you must know if you have the authority to act. Some times I may be in the grocery store and I see a little child behaving very badly throwing a fit. I know if that kid were my child, I would give them a spanking. But unfortunately I do not have the authority to spank other people's children. I might get arrested for that.
   In some situations you have authority to act. If you are upset at something the school is doing as a citizen you can go to the school board meeting and complain. As a citizen of Springville I can go to a city council and speak my peace. I  may not like the color of my neighbors house, but I do not have the authority to start painting it a different color. I may get upset about how Micheal Jackson's doctor treated him, but really the life of some celebrity is none of my business. Certain things are in my circle of responsibility and I need to take care of those things. Some things are in somebody else's circle of responsibility, I might get angry at what they do, but it is not my right to tell them what to do. I may get angry when my grown children do things I do not think is best, but when they are grown and on their own they must answer to God. Their decision are no longer my problem.
   
   
   Conclusion What can we learn from Jesus about how to handle our anger? First ask, "What is making me angry and is this something that would also make God angry, or is it just my hurt feelings?" Second ask, "Am I my reacting to this problem in a way where I am in control, or am I out of control blowing my top in a way that will not help the situation?" Finally ask, "Do I have the authority to do something about this problem? Or is it really none of my business?"
   
   
   Some times anger can motivate us to do good. But it is a powerful emotion and we must be careful so we do not let our anger cause us to make problems worse.