Sunday School Jesus is often smiling and warm and mild. We imagine His voice being calm and quiet. It can be hard to fathom that Jesus, full of love and compassion, would ever have one angry bone in His body. But when He overturned the tables in the temple and wielded a scourge of cords to drive out the opportunists, He dispels the notion that “love” and “anger” cannot coexist. In fact, sometimes anger (the right kind) is necessary to show exactly what true love is, as Jesus demonstrates in this account.
The phrase “drove them all out” is literally to “eject by force of violence” in the original language. Jesus used overwhelming physical means to expel the people that were there for the wrong reasons. His motive for such a drastic action against the money-changers is found in John 2:17, where the “disciples remembered that it was written ‘zeal for your house will consume Me’” (a throwback to Psalm 69:9). The “house” isn’t a reference to a building. Jesus was (and still is) zealous for His people. Enough so, that He didn’t hold back on His righteous anger. In a display of fury, we see that making the Father’s house a place of business was not exactly an endearing concept to Jesus. Turning the place where we worship God and pray corporately into the hub of our capitalist business venture is diametrically opposed to what God wants for His people. And so… whips cracking and tables flying…
If Jesus didn’t love His people, such a response wouldn’t be necessary. He could have just let it go. He could have just mildly walked away with the attitude that “swindlers gonna swindle”. He could have reasoned with them by teaching them and quoting some Old Testament passages that might change their minds. But Jesus, being God, knew the motives of their hearts. Jesus had a different idea as to what was supposed to be taking place in the temple , and so His zeal for His people energized Him into taking controlled and decisive steps.
Jesus is zealous for His people, so much so, that this zeal would eventually consume him. In response to the Jews who questioned His authority to upset the financial apple carts in the temple, Jesus said, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up”. But being dull of understanding, they had no idea that He was making reference to His death, burial and resurrection (John 2:20-22). Zeal for His people would consume Jesus at the cross: dying a horrible death to save sinners (even evil money-grabbing opportunists) from God’s wrath.
Establish my footsteps in Your Word ~ Psalm 119:133 