Day by Day with Jesus Series
What Makes Jesus Mad
Mk 11:11-19
Dr. Roger W. Thomas, Preaching Minister
First Christian Church, Vandalia, MO
On Sunday, Jesus entered the city riding on the foal of a donkey. But he came in humility. Warrior kings rode in on prancing stallions. Jesus came on a donkey. He also came with tears in his eyes for the city that would reject his offer of grace. On Monday, the tears have turned to fire. His eyes blaze with indignation.
Between now and Easter weekend, we are following Jesus day by day through the last week of his life. This week, from Palm Sunday to Good Friday and on to Resurrection Weekend, was the most important week of Jesus’ life. This was what it was all about. Everything he had done for his entire thirty-three years and especially his three and half year ministry led up to this week. If we don’t understand the significance of his last week, I doubt very much if we grasp who Jesus was and what he to do for us. These events matter.
Monday reveals a side of Jesus many would rather not have to deal with. Everybody likes a Jesus who teaches us to love our neighbors and takes little children into his arms. People honor a miracle worker who heals the sick and promises to answer our prayers. They eagerly quote the Jesus who says, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.” There is something nice and comforting about the baby in the manger, the calmer of storms, and the forgiver of sins. Monday presents a disturbingly different portrait of our savior.
Two events take place. First, on the way into town, he curses a barren fig tree. It eventually withers and dies. He then heads straight for the Jewish temple and forcibly drives the merchants and moneychangers from the outer court. This Jesus has fire in his eyes and fierce indignation in his heart. There is no way around it. Jesus was good and mad.
For some people this raises a bit of a problem. Some define anger as a sin. But the Bible clearly teaches that Jesus was without sin. How do we make this match up? Perhaps we are misreading Jesus’ attitude. More likely, we misunderstand anger.
Christian psychologist Dr. David Seamands has a helpful comment. “The person who cannot feel anger at evil is a person who lacks enthusiasm for good. If you cannot hate wrong, it’s very questionable whether you really love righteousness.” That explains a rather curious statement in the New Testament. Ephesians 4: 26 says, “In your anger do not sin.” The KJV renders it, “Be angry, but sin not.” Temper tantrums are always evil. Anger that boils over into vile words and vengeful attacks is never good. But a person who does not feel angry and indignant at evil knows nothing of the righteousness of God.
Jesus carefully planned these events. Both the cursing of the fig tree and the cleansing of the temple were really acted out parables. The Old Testament prophets often used object lessons to make a point. Jeremiah paraded through the streets with a yoke about his neck to warn of God’s judgment. Ezekiel packed his bags and carried them through the streets to predict the coming exile of the nation. Likewise, Jesus cursed the tree and drove the money changes from the temple because he wanted to illustrate important truths. These two events provide a clear picture of the things that makes Jesus good and mad. They still do.
Jesus gets mad when he sees promise without performance. That the lesson of the fig tree. I won’t go into all of the details about fig trees and when and how they produced fruit. Apparently, even though it wasn’t the normal fig season, if leaves were present, fruit of some kind should have been present. But there wasn’t! But there’s more to story than meets the eye.
The fig true was one of the national symbols of Israel. His message—any people, even his chosen people, who professes faith in God but do not live that life will face the same fate as the fig tree. They stand under a curse from God. Earlier Jesus had taught a similar lesson in a spoken parable. Luke 13, “A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. 7So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ 8“‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’” (6-9).
This was the lesson of Jesus in the conclusion to the Sermon on the Mount. Remember the story of the wise and foolish builders. One house stood. The other fell. Jesus said that people who heard his message were like that. Wise men hear and do. Foolish men are all talk. In the same context he had said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 7:21).
Do you want to know what makes Jesus mad? People who don’t walk their talk. Folk who say all the right words and go through all the motions of religion and faith, but fail to produce the fruit of a well lived life.
Jesus also gets mad at profession without prayer. Mark says Jesus did a walk through of the Temple on Sunday afternoon. I think he already has in mind what he is going to do. But he decides to wait until the next day. During regular business hours, the crowds will be greater. He has something to do that he wants everyone to see. On Monday, he heads straight for the sacred mount.
The Jewish Temple was a magnificent structure. It soared some fifteen stories above the Kidron Valley floor to the east. It was huge, nearly 500 yards long and 400 yards wide. The outer court of the Temple compound was nearly the size of fifteen football fields. But what Jesus saw wasn’t a pretty picture. In fact, it made him good and made.
The temple had become a veritable shopping mall. Pens of sheep, goats, doves, and other sacrificial animals were everywhere. Moneychangers operated other tables. In one sense, all of these merchants provided a needed service. Faithful Jews were expected to offer animal sacrifices and financial gifts at the Temple. Pilgrims from afar found it more convenient to buy their animals in Jerusalem rather than transport them across the country.
But there was an ugly side to the enterprise. Jesus said they had turned a house of prayer into a den of thieves. Here’s how it worked. The priests and/or other local politicians maintained strict control over the franchises for these temple businesses, often demanding a kickback. Once a limited number of merchants had a corner on the market, they were free to do as they pleased. The moneychangers would charge exorbitant fees. Similarly, the animal sellers would mark up their prices. Just in case, someone got the wise idea to set up a competing market elsewhere and undercut the temple sellers, the priests had that covered too. Before an animal could be sacrificed it had to pass a temple inspection. The priests who were getting a kickback would simply reject any animal that didn’t come from their licensed merchants. The whole system was filled with graft and corruption.
God had intended the temple to be a house of prayer. It had become anything but. I wonder which came first—the corruption or the prayerlessness. I suspect the prayerlessness. When anyone loses that vital, first-person connection with God, anything can happen. The wheels of religion may still turn. The hymns may still go up. The rituals may all be kept with meticulous precision. Everyone may still mouth the right words. When praying ceases, the real power is gone. Jesus doesn’t like it when he sees profession without prayer. It makes him good and mad.
Finally, Jesus gets mad at practice without purpose. The Lord offers a hint at what was happening when he says that God intended the temple to be a house of prayer “for all nations.” In fact, all of these illicit activities took place in the outer Court of the Gentiles. This was the one place a non-Jew could enter in the temple. No self-respecting rabbi or Jewish priest would have allowed such things to take place near their Holy Place. Never! Yet they not only tolerated, they promoted it, in the one place non-Jews could assemble to pray and seek God.
The people of God had abandoned God’s call. From the beginning, the Lord had made it plain that the Jews were his chosen people for one reason and one reason only. They were to be a channel of blessing for all nations. It was never just about them. It was always about God’s eternal plan to reach people of every nation, tribe, and tongue with the message of salvation through the promised Messiah. That’s the part they had forgotten. They still went through the motions of their religious practices but without the purpose. They had turned their back on the one thing that was at the heart of God’s plan. That made Jesus good and mad. It still does.
It is not just the Jews who can lose sight of God’s eternal purpose. Anyone who thinks they have an exclusive right to forgiveness or thinks the church exists for their comfort and convenience makes the same mistake. So do people who argue that charity begins at home as an excuse for not supporting missions. As do those of who are tempted to see the church as a country club for the saints rather than as a hospital for sinners. It is not about us. Our God still wants all people to hear the message of Jesus, people across the street, across the tracks, and across the globe. Jesus doesn’t like it when we forget that. It makes him good and mad.
That was then. This is now. The principles remain the same. Those same sins still make the Lord good and mad. Some day Jesus is coming back again. It will not be a pretty picture for those who on that day have promise without performance, profession without prayer, or practice without purpose any more than it was for those who faced his wrath on that Monday.
Revelation 19 pictures the scene. “I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire … “ (11-12). The Battle Hymn of Republic catches the spirit of that scene. “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; he is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword. His truth is marching on.”
Only two things will spare a person from the wrath that will be revealed on that Last Day—faith in Christ and repentance from sin. John 3:36 says, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” Romans 5:9 promises, “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!”
That’s a promise worth living for!
***Dr. Roger W. Thomas is the preaching minister at First Christian Church, 205 W. Park St., Vandalia, MO 63382 and an adjunct professor of Bible and Preaching at Central Christian College of the Bible, 911 E. Urbandale, Moberly, MO. He is a graduate of Lincoln Christian College (BA) and Lincoln Christian Seminary (MA, MDiv), and Northern Baptist Theological Seminary (DMin).
