Righteous Anger

Righteous Anger

Jesus Clears The Temple

Read: Mark 11:15-18

April’s friends couldn’t believe it when they heard the news that she had attacked a man. How could such a quiet, gentle woman go berserk and hit a man with a baseball bat? It was totally out of character. They later heard the full story. April had moved her car from the parking lot to the edge of the field to load up the Little League equipment. She drove up just in time to see a strange man forcing her son into his car.

The women who didn’t know the full story must have felt shock as they witnessed Jesus clearing out the Temple. They had seen Jesus holding children on his lap and blessing them. He had treated the needy with compassion and healed the sick. How could such a gentle man knock over tables and chairs and stop those who were selling the animals needed for sacrifice?

If the women knew the extent of the corruption involved, they knew that Jesus did the right thing. The money changers cheated the people by charging a fee to exchange their currency to the special Temple money. Then merchants who sold animals for sacrifice inflated the prices. God’s house had become a hotbed of extortion and commercialism instead of a place for prayer and worship.

Most people reading the Old Testament have a difficult time with the accounts of God’s destroying entire cities as punishment for sin. The book of Revelation reveals God’s plan to pour out his anger on the earth and finally wipe out all those who persist in rejecting him. Although God is patient and delights in showing love and mercy, his holiness requires that he eventually judge evil. His anger is always righteous and justified. If we think otherwise, we don’t know the full story of his character.

The LORD is slow to anger and filled with unfailing love, forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion. But he does not excuse the guilty.

Numbers 14:18