John 2:13-22 When the Tables Come Tumbling Down
I would hazard a guess that when most of us think of Jesus, we picture the soft spoken, peace loving, gentle as a lamb, Savior. Always smiling, always patient, always kind. There is no doubt that Christ had a side of Him that was all of those things. But this morning’s Scripture is far from the peace loving, gentle as a lamb, always smiling Savior.
If there was any “stereo-type” of Jesus that I could correct, it is that stereo type of lamb-like meekness. Yes, part of Him was those things, but more often than not, Christ was confrontational with folks. But it is difficult for us to understand confrontation without vengeful anger. It’s difficult for us to understand because that’s the only kind of anger most of us have ever seen, or heard, or been a part of.
Christ was not a timid mouse. Christ came to not only upset the tables in the Temple, He came to upset the world’s way of thinking. He confronted people every day of His life on earth. But you see, the only ones who had that evil, vengeful kind of anger within them, were the ones Christ was confronting!
We have grown soft in our Christianity today. We have held up Christ as the great peace maker, and justified our actions by saying we are trying to imitate Christ. Trouble is, we are way off the mark, because I think it can be said that Christ went out every day knowing that He was going to disagree with someone he came in contact with. So if you truly want to imitate Christ, the thing that you need to change the most is simply getting rid of the selfish, evil, vengeful, anger that it seems is the only kind many of us know.
The Scripture this morning is a showing of “righteous” anger. You probably have heard that term before, but it’s the kind of anger where you are justified being upset with some circumstance, or action, or situation, or person. But righteous anger differs because it is devoid of any kind of evil. It has no motives of forcing your will upon anyone, it lacks any selfish “my way or no way” sentiments, and it has none of the hurt that is always involved in “un-righteous” anger.
Have you ever thought about that? The anger most of us feel today always has some kind of hurt attached to it.
Someone says an unkind or unjustified thing to you, and you get angry. But just before the anger hit, if you’re honest, there was a wound that had been inflicted first.
You are treated unfairly at work and you react in that suppressed anger. Why? It is probably because your feelings have been hurt by the injustice you are perceiving in a supervisor’s or co-workers actions.
You get angry at a parent, or a spouse, or a brother or sister because they prevent you from doing something. But if you are honest, isn’t the feeling that they don’t trust your judgment the real reason for your anger?
Someone says something that seems to make you feel inferior or threatened in your judgment. Could it be that your anger is the result of the hurts inflicted by others in your past, and their judgment of you when you were younger? How many of us hear the “parent tapes” in our head -- no matter how old we get -- when we do something that our parents would criticize?
You see all of those anger moments really started out as a spiritual injury to our innermost beings. A hurt that touched us to the core. A word that dredges up old memories of stern parents, old classmates, or past friendships that turned sour.
Our emotions are so quick, so conditioned, that almost all of the time our anger reacts so quickly that we don’t even realize it began with hurt and pain.
That is the negative, dark, brooding, and most of all, destructive anger that is so prevalent in today’s world.
There have been thousands of case studies done on the escalating anger in our world. Gang bangers who are a walking time bomb of anger are interviewed by experts, and the studies all lead to one thing. Personal power is the only way they can get any feelings of worth in their life. Their surroundings of poverty, stress, lack of education, and most of all lack of a loving environment lead them to seek out validation of their own worth in seeking a kind of fearful respect that they equate with self-worth.
Those same experts interview those who have escaped the same homes, the same streets, the same environment without joining the gangs or resorting to violence, and they ask, “What was the difference?” The answer? Someone in their early lives – a parent, a grandparent, a teacher, a coach – someone took the time to tell them they had worth, they were good at something, someone believed in them and their abilities. And most often that “someone” not only spoke the words, but lived out the meaning in their own life. That “someone” put aside their own needs, their own time, and they realized the importance and the impact of simply having someone in your life that would say, “Good job, well done.”
Christ can certainly be held up for many examples that speak to us. But do you really think Christ had a NEED for a word of affirmation in His life? He first of all was perfect, but perhaps more importantly in this matter, His Father in heaven had the divine ability to place an abundance of love within His Son’s heart. CHRIST KNEW WHERE HIS AFFIRMATION CAME FROM, HE KNEW HIS FATHER’S LOVE WAS UNCONDITIONAL, SUPPORTIVE, AND PRESENT WITHIN HIM. What would Christ need with a personal agenda or selfish motive? He was humility walking, but not necessarily because He was God in the flesh. It was because He knew God intimately, and carried His Father’s love with Him every moment of every day. How incredible a relationship that would be for us!
We read this morning’s Scripture, and we sort of become like the Pharisees’, because we become caught up in the DETAILS of the story. Yes, Christ was angry because there were unjust activities going on in God’s House. It wasn’t the idea of vendors and selling things…that would have been a necessary thing in those days when sacrifices needed to be purchased so they could be offered. What got Jesus so angry was that the persons selling the things, the money changers exchanging the currency for Temple coins, were doing it in a way that took advantage of the poor, truly devout, and sincere persons who had come for one purpose, and that was to worship. Do not allow yourself to make this into a story about selling things in church because that is NOT the point.
The point is the same point that Christ encountered every day in His ministry. The point is that evil was preying upon the innocent. Let me say that again, the point was that evil was preying upon the innocent. THAT is the reasoning for Christ’s righteous anger. This scene could have easily taken place in the streets, or at some fair or bazaar. Perhaps it added insult to injury because it was happening in God’s House. But the righteous anger that poured out of Christ was because His lambs were being used to feed the pockets of evil, evil men.
Righteous anger can NEVER be about selfish motives. Righteous anger only happens when God and His teachings are being threatened, when God’s children are being threatened, and when God’s Word is being so mis-construed that it is being used as a tool for evil purposes.
But there is one more important aspect of righteous anger. There is nothing evil, bad, or sinful involved with it in any way. There are no evil threats. There are no evil thoughts of vengeance. There are no lies involved, and there are no selfish purposes in it’s expression.
Do you think this passage from John is the only time Jesus expressed righteous anger? You’re wrong. In Matthew 18:6 Jesus uses very strong language to describe the punishment of anyone who caused a child to stumble. In Mark 10:14 Jesus was angry when His disciples hindered little children from coming to Him. In Mark 3:5 Jesus looked with anger on the Pharisees who were eager to prosecute Him for healing on the Sabbath. But the common and overriding factor in all of these is the fact that Jesus’ anger is directed toward those who put up barriers to prevent others from coming to Him.
Sometimes we think that God might be angry with us for watching too much TV, or overeating, or not reading His Word more, or having those “unclean” thoughts, or any of a thousand other reasons. In reality, what angers the heart of Jesus are those things that keep us -- and others -- from experiencing and enjoying the presence of God.
You see, when we put up barriers to our own relationship with Christ, or the relationship of others with Christ, that gives God cause for righteous anger. And what justifies Christ to bear such anger? The stripes upon His back justify Him becoming angry. You see, he took all that so that a relationship could be formed between us and our God. And when we deliberately put things in our lives, or the lives of others, that hinder that relationship, Christ gets angry.
If you are so angry you let fly a few blue letter words, you’re not communing with Christ – the relationship is broken. If you think your way is the only way and you immediately get angry with someone who might see things differently – you’ve broken a Christian relationship. If you fail to see your child, or your friend, or your Christian brother and sister with understanding, and instead are critical and harsh with them – you have broken your own relationship with Christ, but you’ve also put barriers in their relationship with Christ. If you say this is “my” church instead of recognizing this is “God’s” House, you have put a wall in your relationship with Christ – and you deserve for Christ Himself to come into this place and upset a few tables.
You want to know why churches today are declining? Because we’re afraid to acknowledge that God is in charge. This is God’s House, and we’re bringing in every kind of wall and barrier we can think of to set up between God and everyone’s relationship with Him. We’re too focused on money and we’ve forgotten about the people in the world who need to hear the Good News of Christ. We say we’re tired and “somebody else can do it” and then we complain about the way they attempt to do the job. We criticize rather than being open to different ways. We spread gossip rather than understanding, we tear down rather than encourage, and we look for someone else to blame when problems arise.
And through it all we think we are justified in our own personal anger, and we fail to see the plank in our own eyes.
Christ was angry because these people in God’s House were being barriers to those seeking a true relationship with Him. He was justified in His actions to try to pull down the barriers. What would Christ think if He came into this House of God?
If we continue putting up barriers to our own relationship with Christ, and the relationship of others, then Christ’s suffering and death mean nothing, and this time of Lent is just a few weeks leading up to ham dinners and Easter bunnies. But if we really start a sincere effort to re-build relationships, and tear down walls, then we will know in our hearts that Christ still lives. Both here, and within our hearts. Amen.
