Introduction: We know from our beloved Bible and our helpful Heidelberg Catechism that Jesus is a loving, faithful, self-giving, loyal, forgiving, and gentle person. Can you think of him as having an angry rage that caused him to throw over furniture and take a rope and violently whip men in Church? He had an emotionally agitated episode that caused him to shout as he drove men out of the Temple. Jesus was so angered and upset with men who had violated the sanctity of worship that He loudly declared the teaching of Scriptural worship in the Court of the Gentiles. Jesus cleansed the Herodian Temple twice, once in AD 26 and again in AD 29. In AD 70 the Romans destroyed the Temple, never to be rebuilt. There is no need, since the Lord has established the New Covenant Church. This is not the only occasion where Jesus exhibits anger. There are multiple occasions of anger where our Lord saw people mistreating, taking advantage of, and lacking compassion for, others. When he saw legalism, hypocrisy, judgmentalism, indifference, and lack of faith in the leaders Jesus took them to task with anger (Mt 21:18-19; Mk 3:5; 11:15-18; Jn 2:13-20; Lk 19:47).
The Holy Spirit also taught that we could be angry in a way of righteous indignation without sin, and to be slow to get angry. Anger in itself is A-OK (Eph 4:26; Jam 1:19-20). One old New England Puritan preacher had a solemn and powerful sermon entitled “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” That was Jonathan Edwards, preached in 1740 AD from Deuteronomy 4:24.
Read the full article at: https://rcus.org/article/jesus-teaching-and-debating-in-the-temple/
