There are a few times in the gospels where we read about our Lord becoming angry. This was one of those times. On the previous evening, Sunday evening, Jesus had gone to the temple area with His disciples and looked around. Apparently, what He saw there angered Him very much, for the next day, Monday, He retumed to the temple and "cleaned house" so to speak. That which Jesus saw going on in the temple caused Him to become violently angry.
The Bible speaks of the possibility of one being angry without committing sin. In Psalm 4z4,we are told, "fn your anger do not sin."
I believe this is the kind of anger that Jesus had. We commonly refer to it as "righteous indignation." In other words, Jesus was right to be angry about what He saw going on at the temple. He was angry:
1. Because of what was going on.
God's people had lost their sense of perspective. Rather than looking on the temple as something through which they could serve God, they had come to look on the temple as something that existed to serve them. This was true of both the leadership and the common people.
The religious leadership had come to look on the temple as something that existed to help them make a good living. In those days, every Jew had to pay a temple tax of one half shekel a year. This amounted to almost two day's wages. Now, for ordinary purposes Greek, Roman, Syrian, Egyptian, or Phoenician coinages were all equally valid. But the temple tax had to be paid in shekels of the sanctuary, and was paid at Passover time. Jews came from all over the world with all kinds of currencies, and they would have to exchange their country's currency for temple currency. They were charged a fee for this, and should the money they exchanged exceed the tax they had to pay, they were charged an additional fee. Most pilgrims had to pay fees for exchanging their money that equaled a half day's wage!
The priests also monopolized the sale of sacrificial animals, which had to be without blemish. Though worshipers could buy an animal outside the temple, the temple inspectors would be sure to find something wrong with them, and they would be told to buy their animal from within the temple. Outside, doves might sell for as liule as half a
shekel, while inside, they might sell for as high as l0 shekels! This is why Jesus said that the temple had tumed into a "den of thieves."
But the religious leaders were not the only ones guilty thinking the temple existed only to serve their needs. The common people had come to accept this way of thinking also. In verse 16, Mark tells us that Jesus "would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.' What was this all about? Well, one of the many rules that related to showing respect for the temple said, "A man may not enter into the temple mount with his staff or his sandal or his wallet, or with the dust upon hisfeet, nor may he make of il a short by path."
Now, the outer court of the temple provided an ideal shortcut from the eastern part of the city to the Mount of Olives, and many had developed the habit of using the temple as a short-cut as they did daily activities.
In this, they also demonstrated that they had lost perspective conceming the significance of the temple. Jesus was angry because the people of God had come to believe the temple existed only to serve their needs, rather than to enable them to serve God.
Could this true of us today? Whether we occupy the pulpit or the pew, if we only think of the church in terms of what it can do for us, instead of thinking in terms of how we can serve through it, then Jesus has a right to be angry with us! If we think of the church only in terms of how it can serve us, then that means there is one less person left to serve God through the church; and if everyone took on that attitude, there would be no one left to do anything, and the church would die.
Suppose every member of our church attended as often as you do. Would there be a "house full" every Sunday or would the worship center be empty? Just suppose that every member gave to support its ministries as faithfully as you do. Would we be able to increase our budget, giving more to missions, allotting more money for outreach,
and improving our facilities or other ministries, or would we have to wear our coats during worship in the winter to save money on the utility bill? Just suppose that every member invited as many guests to join us on Sunday as you do. Would we have to make plans to provide more space for worship or Bible study or would we have to try to figure out what we were going to do with all the empty space we had on Sunday? Just suppose every member of our church did as much to serve the Lord through our church as you do. Would our church be growing or would we close the doors?
Does Jesus have a right to be angry with you?
Jesus was angry because of what was going on and . . .
2. Because of where it was going on.
It's helpful to understand the lay out of the temple. The outermost court was called the Court of the Gentiles. This was an area where either Jew or Gentile could come and meet with God in prayer. The next court was
the Court of the Women, which was as far as a Jewish woman was allowed to go. Next was the Court of the Jews. It was as far as a Jewish man could go. Next, came the court of the Priests. It was here sacrifices were offered. Beyond this was the Holy Place, where priests performed their many sacred duties, and the Holy of Holies, which could only be entered into once ayear by the high priest on the Day of Atonement.
Where was all the buying and selling? The court of the Gentiles! The Jews had got so wrapped up in their temple activity that the very place where Gentiles were supposed to meet with God was instead filled with
Jews who were buying and selling animals for sacrifice and exchanging money to pay the temple tax. Somehow, in the midst of all their temple activity, God's people had lost their sense of purpose.
When God called Abraham to be the father of a new nation, He said, "All peoples of the earth will be blessed through yott," God's desire was that Abraham's descendants represent Him and be used to draw other nations to Him. But we find that in Jesus' day, the people of God had lost their sense of purpose to such an extent that while faithfully involved in the worship of God, they never carried out the desire of God. That's what made Jesus angry, and He had a right to be angry!
He has a right to be angry with us too when we forget that the primary purpose of all we do as a church is to reach people for Christ.
"Christ was not decorating society when He organized the church. He was developing an attackforce. The church's role is to be active, not passive; to be involved, not isolated. " - William Tanner
A small school consolidated with a larger one nearby. They did away with the small school's football team, but the cheerleaders still had their new uniforms, megaphones, and pom-poms. So, they asked the principal of the school into which their school had been consolidated if they could still have their pep rallies on Thursday afternoons. The principal approved. So on Thursday afternoons, the students of the consolidated school gathered in the auditorium and their cheerleaders led them in rousing cheers and fight songs of their old school. The problem was, they never played a game! They didn't even have a football team!
Many churches gather together each Sunday for our "pep rally." We invest much time and effort in keeping the activities of the church going. Yet we never seem to do that which the Lord has put us here for, which is to reach the lost for Christ. Is it possible we've lost our sense of purpose and are guilty of simply being involved in the life of the church only for involvement's sake?
Pastor Bailey Smith spoke once of a display at a state fair that featured a machine that seemed to have everything going for it - pistons, a gas jet with a ball bouncing up and down, a chain, a locomotive arm going back and forth; and it was beautifully chromed. Every part was moving and it was so well engineered that it did not make a sound. Beneath the display was a sign which read, "It cloesn't do anything, but my, doesn't it work well?"
Indeed, it doesn't matter how much activity is going on at the church, we must remember that our church is never really being a church if we are ignoring our God-given pu{pose of reaching a lost world for Christ!
"A church without a purpose is like a house without u door, it hus no teason lo exist!" - Anonymous
It's been said that too many of God's people today are guilty of saying "Praise the Lord" with their lips and "Go to Hell" with their lives.
Could that be said of us? If so, Jesus has a right to be angry!
Conclusion: The people of Israel had turned inward. They had lost their sense of perspective, thinking only of themselves and their needs, and they had lost their sense of purpose, totally blocking out the world around them that needed to know of God's redemptive love.
Eventually, because they had lost their sense of perspective and their sense of pufpose, they also lost the special privilege of being God's representatives in the earth; at Pentecost, God would raise up a new people, the church, who would take over that privilege and a few years beyond that, the temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed.
There's a lesson in all this for us I believe. That lesson is that if we fail to maintain our sense of perspective concernin! the importance of serving the Lord through His church and if we fail to maintain our sense of purpose in seeking to reach the lost for Christ, day we may one day lose the privilege that is ours to represent Christ in this community.
You see, what we are talking about today is serious business. Serious enough to make Jesus angry. And He had a right to be angry. The question is does He have a right to be angry with us?
