Outburst

Outburst

Mark 11:15-16, NLT

When they arrived back in Jerusalem, Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people buying and selling animals for sacrifices. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves, 16and he stopped everyone from using the Temple as a marketplace.

Setting the Scene

The Temple in Jerusalem was rich with history. Three Temples had been constructed on the same site. Solomon’s glorious Temple, built in the tenth century BC was the first, but it was destroyed in 586 BC when the Babylonians captured Jerusalem. The second, Zerubbabel’s Temple, much smaller, was built on the same site by the exiles who returned from captivity and finished the job in 515 BC. This Temple was enlarged by Herod the Great, construction having begun in 20 BC, and was the one Jesus entered. Actually this project may not have been finished before the Temple was destroyed by the Romans in AD 70 in response to a Jewish revolt.

The Temple was run by the high priest and his associates. When Jesus entered, he would have encountered tremendous chaos. Josephus, an ancient Jewish historian, wrote that 256,500 lambs were sacrificed at the Passover in AD 66. This lack of worshipful atmosphere didn’t seem to bother the priests, who were counting their profits. The money changers exchanged international currency for special Temple coins—the only money the merchants would accept. With so many foreign visitors, these money changers would do big business during Passover. The money changers also would exchange Hebrew shekels for Roman drachmas for the Temple tax. Because the drachmas had the stamped image of Caesar (who was an idol worshiper) on them, they were considered blasphemous by the Jews.

In addition to the money changers were those “buying and selling animals for sacrifices.” God had originally instructed the people to bring sacrifices from their own flocks (Deuteronomy 12:5-7), but the religious leadership had established four markets on the Mount of Olives where animals could be purchased. If the priests decided that an animal brought from home was unacceptable, the worshiper was forced to buy another one. “Doves” could be an alternate sacrifice for those too poor to purchase larger animals. Doves were also sacrificed for the cleansing of women and lepers (Leviticus 12:6; 14:19-22).

One of these markets was in the Court of the Gentiles, the only place Gentile converts to Judaism were allowed to worship because they were not pure Jews. But the market filled their worship space.

So Jesus drove them all out. He was angry that God’s house of worship had become a secular place of extortion and was preventing Gentiles from worship. Jesus was fully human, so he experienced the broad range of human emotions—joy, sadness, love, and even anger. But in expressing those emotions, he did not sin.

Getting Personal

When has an angry outburst caused harm to yourself and others? What did you do to heal the relationship or make the situation right?

What daily irritations, inconveniences, or personal slights tend to make you angry?

What injustices or sinful acts bring out your righteous indignation? Which ones have you tended to overlook or ignore?

Jesus knew exactly what he was doing and why. His anger was directed at those sellers and buyers. Righteous indignation and uncontrolled rage are quite different, yet both are called “anger.” Quoting Psalm 4:4, Paul wrote, “And ‘don’t sin by letting anger control you’” (Ephesians 4:26, NLT).

We must be careful how we use this powerful emotion. Being angry about injustice and sinful acts is right; being angry over trivial personal offenses is wrong. But even anger for the right reasons can become sinful when we let it control us or push us into an extreme response. We can err on both sides of this issue, not becoming upset over what we should and lashing out when we shouldn’t.

Talking to God

Ask God to align your affections with his own, so that you will be righteously angry at those situations that make him angry and brokenhearted over the issues that break his heart. Ask him to help you discipline yourself to react in love, thinking of others more than yourself.