JESUS – HIS FURY
John 2:13-17
Lake Arrowhead Church, Waleska, Georgia
©Monty Watson, March 1, 2020
WHAT MAKES JESUS FURIOUS?
John 2:13-17
Have you ever wondered what Jesus looked like? All of us have some image in mind of what Jesus looked like. And I suppose every culture has fashioned Jesus into its own image. But Jesus was not Asian or African or American. He was a Jew from Nazareth.
We don’t know what Jesus looked like, but those who were there did. Those who were there would have known the color of His eyes and the length of His hair. They would have known how tall He was and would have recognized the sound of His voice. Even though we don’t know what Jesus looked like, by reading the New Testament, we can know what He was like by the emotions He expressed.
• Jesus laughed. He smiled. He expressed joy. He enjoyed life and He enjoyed people.
• Jesus cried. He mourned. He grieved. He sympathized with those who were hurting.
• Jesus listened. He was interested in people. He gave His full attention.
And, that same Jesus also got angry. And those who were there saw that too. They witnessed the day Jesus went wild in the temple.
The event recorded in John 2 does not fit comfortably with our view of Jesus. It wasn’t comfortable for those who were there that day either. The Bible says, “They were afraid of Him”
(Mark 11:18). Jesus’ fury shocked the crowd. And if we had been there that day, it would have shocked us too.
This morning, we’re going to look at the day Jesus went wild in the temple and see what makes Jesus furious.
THAT DAY IN THE TEMPLE
John 2:13-17 tells us about that day in the temple.
13When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!” 17His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.” (John 2:13- 17, NIV)
More than a million people traveled to Jerusalem for the Jewish Passover, so the city swelled to almost two million. Passover was a week-long festival commemorating the exodus of the Hebrews from Egyptian slavery. They were celebrating what God had done 1,500 years earlier.
At festival time, the city was flooded with people from different countries, speaking different languages and carrying different currency. Upon His arrival to the temple, Jesus “found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money” (John 2:14). The outer court of the temple had been turned into a stockyard. It was like a flea market with vendors lining the walls of the temple.
Since people traveled long distances, they were unable to bring a suitable animal for sacrifice. So a system evolved to expedite the process. A worshiper had to buy an approved animal from the temple, and the markup was high. A pair of doves worth 50¢ were being sold for $5. It would be like paying $5 for a cup of coffee worth about 50¢. Who in the world would do that?!
Only Jewish money was accepted in the temple, so there was a fee for exchanging currency. There was also a fee for inspecting each sacrifice. Vendors were making money and worshipers were being ripped off. Author Ken Gire called it “the stench of religion gone bad.”1 Another commentator wrote, “These men were there to make religion easy! It could all be done for you.
Everything was conveniently arranged.”2 And it infuriated Jesus.3
It infuriated Jesus so much that “he made a whip out of cords” and drove everyone and every animal out of the temple (John 2:15). Jesus turned over tables and “scattered the coins of the money changers,” and told those selling doves, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!” (John 2:15-16).4 This was not a meek and mild Jesus. He was furious.
Imagine Jesus. Red-faced, eyes glaring, veins popping, arms swinging, whip cracking. But He was not out of control. Jesus did not lose His temper. He perfectly and appropriately expressed His righteous anger.5
This was our Savior, our shocking Savior! Yet why is this so shocking? Because we have limited our view of Jesus to what makes us comfortable. We are comfortable with His kindness, but not with His justice. We are comfortable with a baby in a manger or with a teacher talking about love, but we are not comfortable with His fury. That part is disturbing. But we must understand. If we limit our view of Jesus to what makes us comfortable, we make Jesus anemic.
And Jesus is far from anemic.
WHAT MAKES JESUS FURIOUS?
What provoked such a wild, violent, angry reaction from Jesus?6 What makes Jesus furious?7
Jesus was furious because people were going through the motions.8 They were approaching God in a casual way. They substituted ritual for devotion. They thought ritual was enough to please God. The temple was filled spiritual complacency. They were playing church.
And Jesus groaned, “This is not what My Father’s house was meant to be!”
The temple was where people met God. The Creator of all that is. The holy, perfect God.
You don’t approach God casually. But they had lost all sense of humility and reverence. And they were flippantly offering sacrifices.
The purpose of the sacrifice was to make a person right with God. The sacrifice allowed a person to go before God and seek forgiveness for sin and to seek restoration with God. The penalty for sin – any sin, all sin – is death. The Bible says, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” (Hebrews 9:22). Blood sacrifice was a severe act to remind people that sin is a severe act.
God allowed the sacrifice of an animal to substitute for the sacrifice of the sinner himself.
The animal was bound to the altar and the worshiper placed his hands on the head of the animal, confessed his sin, thus transferring his sin to the sacrificial animal. The worshiper then cut the animal’s throat, collected the blood in a bowl, and poured it on the altar. By this act, sin was forgiven and relationship with God was restored.
They cheapened atonement. They took God’s grace for granted. And Jesus was furious because they were just going through the motions.
Furthermore, animal sacrifice was a picture of a greater sacrifice to come.9 When Jesus was crucified on the cross, He became the lamb. Jesus is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29, NIV). It’s as if Jesus was bound to the altar, and we placed our hands on His head, confessed our sin, thus transferring our sin to Him. It’s as if we cut His throat, collected His blood in a bowl, and then poured it on the altar. His blood was the required payment for our sin. By this act, our sin was forgiven and relationship with God restored.
The reason we don’t offer animal sacrifices today is because Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice. “He has appeared once for all … to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself”
(Hebrews 9:26, NIV).10
Jesus did not take our sin and nail it to the cross. He became our sin and nailed Himself to the cross. Jesus absorbed our sin and suffered for everything we’ve ever done wrong. Every time you were impatient and lost your temper. Every time you were selfish and had to have your own way. Every time you felt hate in your heart toward someone. Every time you were prejudiced, uncaring, or mean. He absorbed every time you lied or lusted, and every time you ignored His will and went your own way. Jesus absorbed everything we deserved for everything we’ve ever done wrong.
And because He did, all of heaven is praising Him at this very moment. John was allowed a peek into heaven, and in the book of Revelation he wrote down what he saw and heard.
11Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. 12In a loud voice they sang: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” 13Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, singing: “To him who sits on
the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, forever and ever!” And all the creatures in heaven “fell down and worshiped” (Revelation 5:11- 14, NIV).
The worship Jesus observed in the temple that day was far from the worship John observed in heaven. What Jesus observed in the temple that day infuriated Him and it grieved Him. Perhaps He wondered, “I’m about to lay down My life as the ultimate, final sacrifice for them. Will they take My sacrifice for granted as well?”11
TURNING OVER TABLES TODAY
If Jesus were to walk into our church one Sunday morning, what would He think of us?
What tables would He turn over? If He evaluated your life, what tables would He turn over?
What would infuriate Him? What would grieve His heart?
Here are some things I thought about.
Jesus would be infuriated and grieved if He found in us a loss of humility and reverence.
That’s what we see in John 2. He was furious because people were going through the motions.
They were approaching God in a casual way. They substituted ritual for true love and devotion.
And Jesus groaned, “This is not what My Father’s house was meant to be!” The temple was where people met God. Yet they had lost all sense of humility and reverence.
The same thing is recorded in the prophet Malachi. The Lord had loved Israel, and in return, got cheap worship. “I have loved you,” the Lord said, “so where is My respect? You bring sick and lame and blind sacrifices to the altar and then ask for My blessing. I wish one of you would shut the temple doors and stop offering these worthless sacrifices. I am not pleased with you and I will not accept your offerings.”12 God would prefer that we shut the doors, close up the church, rather than offer cheap worship.
Jesus would later say, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (Matthew 15:8, NIV). Jesus was infuriated and grieved at their loss of humility and reverence.
John 2 forces us to look in the mirror. Is there a loss of humility in your life? Have you loss a sense of reverence for God?
Jesus would be infuriated and grieved if He found in us a loss of love and devotion. Jesus would start turning over tables in our church if He found us drifting into spiritual complacency.
Jesus hates complacency. To the church of Ephesus, He said, “I have this one thing against you, you have lost your first love” (Revelation 2:4). To the church at Laodicea, He fumed, “Because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth” (Revelation 3:16).
Complacency makes Him sick to His stomach.
• It’s when we substitute routine for true love and devotion for God.
• It’s when we go through the motions and play church.
• And that happens when we lose the awe and wonder of God.
• It’s when the Bible is no longer God’s voice and reduced to words on a page.
• It’s when we become numb to the Holy Spirit, when we are no longer sensitive to the conviction of sin.
• It’s when we become consumer Christians and expect the church to please our personal preferences.
• It’s when we take grace for granted, when we forget how much we have been forgiven, when we forget the bloody price Jesus paid to win our salvation.
Jesus is infuriated and grieved when there is loss of love and devotion. May that never be said of us.
Jesus would be infuriated and grieved if He found in us a loss of burden and mission.
Jesus said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations” (Mark 11:17). “All nations,”
all people, were invited into the temple and invited to God. The inner court was reserved for Jews;
the outer court was for Gentiles. But when the religious vendors set up shop in the outer court, it pushed the Gentiles out. There was no room for those farthest from God. The priests were more concerned with preserving tradition and the vendors were more concerned with making a profit.
They lost sight of the mission, to be a “house of prayer for all nations.” Again, Jesus groans, “This is not what My Father’s house was meant to be.” If the way we do church makes it harder for people to come to Christ, I think Jesus would start turning over tables. If our church is all about us and not welcoming to people who need Jesus, I think He would be furious with us.
It would also infuriate Jesus and grieve His heart if we fail to love each other and forgive each other. The Bible says, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:31-32, NAS). If you’re holding on to bitterness or anger against someone in the church, then you’re like the worm in the apple. How can we be forgiven by Jesus and not pass that forgiveness on to others? Think about it this way.
No one has ever offended you as much as you have offended Jesus, and He was willing to forgive you!
It would infuriate Jesus and grieve His heart if we compromise the truth. Paul warned Timothy, as a young pastor, about that. “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths” (2 Timothy 4:2-4).
If Jesus were to walk into our church, what would He think of us? What tables would He turn over? If He evaluated your life, what tables would He turn over? What would infuriate Him? What would grieve His heart?
CONCLUSION
We cannot explain away the fury of Jesus in the temple that day. He was mad. He was angry. And that day, He cleansed the temple. And today, He wants to cleanse our hearts. When we read the story in John 2, we should pray, “Oh Lord, please don’t let that happen to me.”
I urge you to trust His fury. Yes, trust it. Because His fury shows how much He cares about us. It reveals His love and His passion for us. Jesus is like a father fighting to protect his children.
His fury proves He is going to fight for us. And if we believe that, we will invite Him to inspect our lives and turn over tables. If we really trust His love, we will pray, “Lord, I don’t want to go through the motions. I don’t want to play church.” And we will pray as David prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart” (Psalm 139:23).
For the next few minutes, we’re going to take the time to do that. To allow God to inspect our hearts, to expose, to convict, to cleanse, and to transform. Read through these prayers slowly and deliberately and make these your prayers.
• “Oh Lord, if I have lost my reverence for You and no longer approach You in humility, please forgive me. Please fill me again with awe in You.”
• “Oh Lord, if I have lost my devotion to You, if my love for You has waned, please forgive me. Please fill me again with gratitude for the sacrifice You paid and the grace you showed to me.”
• “Oh Lord, if I have lost a sense of urgency for the mission, please forgive me. Please fill me again with a burden for people far from You.”
• “Oh Lord, if there is anything in my life that grieves Your heart, please forgive me.
Please reveal it to me and help me overcome it.”
NOTES
1 Ken Gire, Moments with the Savior (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1998), page 75.
2 G. Campbell Morgan, The Gospel According to John (Tarrytown, NY: Fleming H. Revell Company, n.d.), page 51.
3 For further reading see Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (Peabody: Hendricksen Publishers, n.d.), I:367-372, and Hendriksen, The Gospel of John, page 122.
4 There seems to have been two incidents when Jesus cleansed the temple. Matthew 21:13 and Mark 11:17 record a later time and add the phrase “robber’s den.”
5 Aristotle once said this about anger: “Anybody can become angry – that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way – that is not easy!” That’s why a study of Jesus’ anger is fascinating, as we ask, “What makes Jesus furious?”
6 William Barclay, The Gospel of John, Volume 1 (Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster Press, 1975), pages 112-113.
7 There were other occasions when Jesus was frustrated and furious. When the hypocrites wanted to stone a woman caught in adultery (John 8:2-11). When the Pharisees criticized Him for performing a miracle on the Sabbath and completely overlooked the fact that He had performed a miracle (Luke 14:1-6). When His disciples lacked faith (Matthew 8:26, 14:31, 16:8). And when the disciples argued about who was the greatest (Mark 10:34-35).
8 As this was happening, verse 17 tells us that the disciples remembered Psalm 69, a prophecy about the Messiah.
“Zeal for your house will consume Me” (John 2:17). What Jesus did that day was a fulfillment of prophecy and identified Him as the Messiah. The Greek word for “zeal” refers to a deep devotion, a passionate commitment, even a warlike spirit. Like the appropriate jealousy and love a man would have while protecting his family, so Jesus displayed a righteous rage and a protective love for worship. Jesus was “consumed” with a passion for all people to worship His Father with reverence.
9 See Hebrews 9.
10 “For God’s will,” God’s heart for us, God’s wish for us “was that we be made holy (acceptable to God, permitted to come into His presence) by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time. Under the old covenant (the old system of animal sacrifice), the priest stood before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which could never take away sins (permanently). But our High Priest, Jesus, offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand … For by that one offering he forever made us perfect (acceptable to God and permitted to live in His presence forever)” (Hebrews 10:10-12, 14, NLT).
11 “Just think how much worse the punishment will be for those who have trampled on the Son of God, and have treated the blood of the covenant, which made us holy, as if it were common and unholy, and have insulted and disdained the Holy Spirit who brings God’s mercy to us” (Hebrews 10:29, NLT).
12 Paraphrase of Malachi 1.
