Why did Jesus get angry?

Yes you know the one, fair hair, blue eyes, even has birds that fly around his head, all goodness and kind – yup, That’s Jesus. So who is this? Why did Jesus get angry?

Our text for this weekend is John 2:13-22. Jesus has just arrived from Cana and a great wedding celebration and is now at his new hometown, Capernaum. This place was a central focal point for Jews in Galilee.

This journey between Capernaum and Jerusalem was around 130 km although you could go via two separate routes. Jesus has only just come from Jericho, north east of Jerusalem to Cana. He has gathered Mary, his mother, and his brothers, possibly so they can travel up to Jerusalem for the Passover. There’s some more detail about the journey here. (It’s worth a read). With such a party of people the four or five days travel might have been easier for all.

Synoptic View

Which is odd really. The Synoptic Gospels, those that are ‘seen as one’, Matthew, Mark and Luke, seem to portray Jesus as approaching Jerusalem just prior to his final week. He’s about to find that the Chief Priests and Scribes finally have got their act together to devise a plot to kill him. John’s perspective is that Jesus is off to Passover as a sign of his first ‘public ministry’ event. I say it’s odd in that John’s Gospel was the last one written, so I wonder which source material he was using.

Passover

Anyway, without Mark’s reference to fig-trees en route (Mark 11:12-21), Jesus arrives. Wow, the noise, the hubbub! Now passover to Christians might be seen in the Communion noted in 1 Corinthians 5:7, but here it is clearly stated as the Jewish Passover. Remember that John’s Gospel was written, it is said by academics, around 90-110 CE.

Now a few days before 1st Nisan – the names of the months are explained here – all adult male Jews had to pay their Temple Tax. So what’s the problem…other than it is yet another tax they all had to pay in addition to the high taxes imposed by the puppet rules of the Roman led territories? You couldn’t use Greek or Roman currency. That was deemed to be idolatrous due to the imagery on such coins. So the solution was to use special Tyrian – high in silver content – coins which you could obtain in exchange for normal currency – with an interesting exchange rate… and the coins had the image of Baal, Tyre’s god, the protector of shipping, on them. Passover wasn’t until the 14th Nisan so there was a bit of a rush prior to 1st Nisan to get to Jerusalem and pay the Tax.

Temple

The Temple wasn’t your standard Church design. It was huge, but also separated into the Inner and Outer Courts. Only the Inner Court could be used by Jews, whereas Gentiles had to remain in the Court of Gentiles, or Outer Court. Jews had to get through the Outer Court to enter the Inner Court to pray. The Money Changers were located in the Outer Court; hence, it was bedlam for about a week: there were pigeon sellers, sheep and cattle milling everywhere, all essential for worship.

There was also the issue of people using the Temple as a short cut. Hence the verse Mark 11:16 which states that it wasn’t allowed “to carry merchandise through the Temple courts“.

So what happened?

Jesus enters the Temple area and perhaps shakes his head. I wonder what the others accompanying Jesus must have thought?

“Why are you upset Jesus, this is usual practice!”

King Josiah, back in 2 Kings 23, removed the altars of other deities and deposed the Priests; Judas Maccabaeus, over in 1 Maccabees 4:36-59, cleansed the Temple when it had been desecrated by Antiochus Epiphanes IV. This Temple symbolised the relationship between God and the people. So it was natural that any hope for renewal should be directly linked to the Temple. Recall that John is writing some decades after the destruction of the Temple itself by the Romans in 70 CE.

Jesus shouts out his frustration “Zeal for your house will consume me“, or more accurately in Hebrew for this verse is from the MSS text of Psalm 69:9, ‘has eaten me up‘. Jesus, and it is suggested, joined by his followers, then, using a whip of cords, removes the sheep, the cattle, the doves/pigeon fanciers sellers, the money lenders. As the Court of the Gentiles, above, was quite large and this was a once a year event – good for the income – this must have been quite a task. Or perhaps symbolic.

What might have the money lenders done when Jesus’ anger had passed and he had moved on?

Anger

Why did Jesus get angry? According to John’s account it is because of the trading within the Temple; whereas in the Synoptic account it is down to the dishonesty of those traders. He also cites that the Temple has been under construction for 46 years. We know from Josephus [1] that King Herod began rebuilding what was left of the Temple back in 20 BCE, suggesting that Jesus is speaking around 26 CE. Some have suggested that Jesus was 46 years of age at the time – hang in there – so that 3 years later he would be 49, which is 7², or perfect squared. This then ties in with John 8:57 where it says “you are yet 50 years old…” suggesting that he was over 40. [2] Not crucial but Quite Interesting?

Here, we can focus upon the whip of cords, the anger of Jesus perhaps, or we can look again at why did Jesus get angry?

From Malachi 3:3 we note that corruption was ever present within the Temple, the priests taking a cut of what was provided. ‘They rob God in the Temple as surely as they have robbed the poor outside’. [3] Was Jesus signifying the cleansing and renewal Jesus brings to Judaism?

Perhaps Mark and Matthew are trying to get readers aware (again) of the power struggle between the Temple authorities and Jesus, which have been present from Day One. Jesus has been turning the tables – literally here and metaphorically previously – with the Scribes, and now the Chief Priests. He has healed people but as we may have read it was all about where was the power? It wasn’t with the Scribes who abused that power, but with God. The end is nigh here for Jesus. John is portraying this as a sign – for that is what the Jews or possibly more accurately the Judeans – desired (John 2:18). It’s about that cleansing of the Scribal influence. I stress here that Jesus was a Jew – this is not anti-Semitic in any way.

Beneficial Anger?

There is also that discussion about righteous anger. Isn’t anger a normal human trait? There are instances of anger which weakens the immune system, Righteous anger is grieved, not merely infuriated, by evil. It is in tine with God’s desire to bring about the Kin_dom. We must be wary to hear the Spirit, to know whether that anger is of God, or from us.

And Today?

So how do we cope with Jesus getting so angry? Were those traders strictly essential? We consider the impact of the lockdown restrictions with the closing of trading for non-essential and essential shops for a time. What of the charity stalls we might have in church – are they strictly necessary?

What of the charity events which might throng our Churches at times throughout the year? I am not saying that they are intrinsically wrong – think of the impact in our local communities.

This passage wasn’t about the society but directly is focussed upon the ‘church’ of the day. So what of our ‘church of today’? Whether it be a traditional physical church, or a digital online variety or even a hybrid form of church, all this still applies. How are we worshipping our loving God? Is it fair to the poor? Do we offer that ‘preferential option for the poor‘?

Jesus cast out the traders within the area dedicated to the Gentiles, do we extend our Church to those not typically considered as members?

There’s much more here than initially we might read.

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[1] Josephus, Antiquities XV. 380.
[2] Sanders, JN., Mastin, BA., The Gospel according to St John, (London : Black , 1968) Footnote 2, p 119
[3] Hooker, Morna., The Gospel according to St Mark, (London: Black’s, 1991), p. 264