Jesus’ Godly Anger
How do you deal with anger?
It’s on display in sitcoms, dramas, the news, and reality TV, but real anger is intense, visceral, and powerful.
It’s an emotion some avoid.
It’s a reaction that can overtake us.
And we all have experienced-based opinions on how it ought it be handled.
Whether we like it or not, we all come equipped with the active emotion of anger in our personality.
Things irk us.
We know when we’ve been wronged.
We feel it.
And we manage it.
And sometimes we leak it.
But in Jesus, we see anger expressed in Godly defiance.
And honestly, Jesus’ anger ought to disturb us, at least a little.
His anger clarifies what He cares most about.
He’s not just a soft and sweet Savior, He’s also ruthless and fiery.
His anger is personal.
And if we want to know His heart, then we ought to glimpse what is in Jesus’ anger…
In John 11, Jesus feels anger deeply, literally “deeply moved,” two times at the death of His friend Lazarus, once before He weeps and once afterward. "Deeply moved” is better translated "indignant,” which means intense anger at an injustice—in this case the injustice of death as He heads toward death on the cross.
Jesus also displays His anger on a public scale as He rushes at the injustice of temple corruption, he even fashions a whip and drives the temple profiteers out like cattle! (John 2:12-22 & Matthew 21:12-17)
And in Matthew 23, Jesus unleashes His anger. In this moment, it’s intentional. He cries out “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in” Matthew 23:13.
In this scene Jesus drills into the religious hypocrisy around Him, and how their controlling religious motives are cutting out those who are hurting and hungering to enter the Kingdom.
This infuriates Him!
He spends most of the chapter pointing a finger to the corruption within the leaders who are currently plotting His death!
And what’s fascinating is Jesus doesn’t diminish His anger in this moment, but raises the temperature!
He uses anger to expose corruption, and to reveal the Heart of the Father for all to see.
His anger teaches His followers, and all who would listen, the cost He is about to pay so that the barred-gateway to the Kingdom of Heaven is thrown wide open! It will cost Him everything.
His anger is uncomfortable.
It’s revealing.
It’s hard to watch.
It’s Jesus.
And it’s His intentional move as He paces one more step Toward the Cross.
Will we go with Him?
Let’s see what He wants to reveal to us and in us this Sunday,
Pastor Dave