THINK TOGETHER.
What makes you mad? Do you get mad when you see others doing something wrong?
READ TOGETHER.
John 2:13-116. 13The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 15And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. 16And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.”
Imagine Jesus coming to your church and getting so angry that he started flipping seats and the pulpit, throwing hymnals and offering plates. Then imagine he pulls out a whip and starts pushing everyone out of the church. That would be pretty crazy, right? Well, that’s sort of what John is describing in chapter two of his gospel. This is probably the angriest we will ever see Jesus in the Bible. What made him so mad? Jesus said, do not make my Father’s house a house of trade. But what does that mean?
Back then when people went to the Temple in Jerusalem, especially during special holidays like Passover (do you remember what Passover celebrated?), they would offer an animal as a sacrifice to God on the big bronze altar. This means that a lot of people needed a lot of animals. So the temple leaders would sell animals in the court yard of the temple. The problem wasn’t that they were selling the animals, it was WHERE they were selling the animals – in the temple court right where people were supposed to be worshiping God. And not just any people, the Gentile people. Gentile people?
A Gentile was anyone who was not a Jew (a Greek, Roman, Persian, Syrian, etc.). You see, many Gentiles wanted to worship God too. They even wanted to obey the Bible. So naturally, they wanted to go to the Temple at Passover like the Jews did. However, one of the terrible things the Jewish leaders did was to limit where the Gentile worshipers could go. They couldn’t go all the way into the Temple area, they had to stay outside in the courtyard. They even called it The Court of the Gentiles.
Obviously all of this made Jesus very angry. Jesus does not play favorites. Jesus does not discriminate. Jesus does not separate people. Jesus does not limit how close people can get to God. The very idea of a Court of Gentiles made Jesus mad enough, but when they started selling animals there, preventing the Gentiles from worshiping God at all…well, now Jesus was outraged.
Sometimes it’s OK to get angry, especially when we get angry about things that are unloving and unfair. Jesus never got angry for his good, but only for the good of others. Jesus’ anger was never sinful; it was always an anger at sin. Do you get angry at sin? What about your own sin?
Remember, God is not angry at you anymore if you have Jesus in your heart. Why not? Because all of your sins have been forgiven. Now God is angry at Satan for tempting us to sin, and we should be angry at him too. We should never be a part of his unkind actions, mean words, or unfair treatment of others. Instead we should always try to help others to know and worship God and Jesus, the one who took God’s anger for us.
Because of Jesus God is not angry at us.
With Jesus we can be angry at sin while still loving others.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
Make angry faces at each other. Talk about how anger can be a good thing if we are angry about sin.
PRAY TOGETHER
Jesus, you get angry at sin, but not at me. Help me to only be angry at what makes you angry. Amen.
TLICfamily 