“In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. And 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… “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.”” –John 2:14-16

            As I reread John chapter 2, since that is my focus for the week, I am noticing something that I have never really paid attention to before in my readings. Jesus’ human nature. I know that I have been taught and have talked about the two natures of Christ, His Godly nature and human nature, but it has never been quite as apparent before as it has recently.

            Human nature in general, is on display all throughout the bible. We read stories about people who are disappointed because they are asked to go sell all of their things and give the money to the poor. We see people who lie because they want to keep some profit of the sale for themselves and then pay the ultimate consequence. We see disciples spend years with Jesus listening to Him teach and still walk away from those lessons and miss the point completely. I can’t help but relate with Peter so often because he tries his best to understand and follow Christ but always falls short somewhere. But yesterday Jesus’ human relationship with His mother really stuck out to me. How unmistakably human His response was to her request to come up with more wine. And today, it is Jesus’ outburst of passionate anger toward the people who were in the temple making it more of a farmers market rather than a place of sacrifice and worship.

            I don’t know about you, but sometimes it takes someone getting upset with me for me to realize that I was messing up. And I think that was the case for the people in the temple that day, as well as it being a lesson to the disciples. I want to be clear that Jesus’ anger or outburst was not sinful. Anger in itself is not a sin. It is a very powerful emotion that can sometimes cause us to do sinful things. I believe that it was a display that has a double meaning for us. The first is this: Jesus’ display of anger was a reminder of how God is a jealous God and wants nothing more than our faith to be completely found in Him. It is a reminder of how our God wants an exclusive relationship with each and every one of us so that He can show us the depths of His great love for us. The second meaning is this: It shows Jesus as 100 percent human. He sees that the temple of His Father’s house is being treated in a disrespectful manner and that He is not alright with that. It shows that He is passionate about people having a right relationship with Him, and sometimes we need a very powerful reminder of that.

QOTD: How does Jesus’ display of passionate anger actually show His desire to repair our broken world?

“Sometimes, you have to get angry to get things done.” –Ang Lee