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| Jesus Cleansing The Temple |
Jesus and His disciples went to Jerusalem for the annual Passover celebration. When He came into the temple He found the merchants and money changers had set up their booths in the Court of the Gentiles. The merchants were selling sacrificial animals such as doves at very high prices, taking advantage of those who had to travel long distances to the temple.
The merchants selling the sacrificial animals would only accept the temple coins. The money changers exchanged all international currency for the special temple coins. The money changers were known for being dishonest in their exchanges and often cheated folks out of their money. Their buying, selling and trading in the house of God was a major distraction and frustrated people’s attempts to worship God. This angered Jesus greatly and He put a stop to it by driving them out of the temple.
He made a whip and chased them out. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. He would not let anyone carry merchandise through the temple. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations,’ but you have made it a den of thieves. Get these things out of here! Do not make My Father’s house a marketplace!” Then His disciples remembered that verse in Psalms that says, “Zeal for God’s house has eaten me up, and the reproaches of those who insult Him has fallen on me.”
Jesus became angry, but He did not sin. There is a right time and place for righteous indignation. As believers, we have a right to be indignant about sin and injustice and should take a stand against it.
There are several scriptures in the Bible that warn us to be slow to anger, so we certainly do need to be sure that our anger is directed toward the right issues, and carried out in a controlled godly manner. Anger over someone offending you can be dealt with in private prayer time. That is not a time for uncontrolled rage. Righteous indignation is anger that is primarily motivated by sin and injustice, or some other profound moral lapse. Jesus was clearly angry about the disrespect of the worship place of God, and He dealt with it. The Bible also speaks about the wrath of God, so clearly anger is not a sin, it just needs to be dealt with righteously.❤💙💚💛💜
Dee Richardson, Voice of the Dove