The story of Jesus turning over tables in the Temple is familiar, both inside and outside of the Christian faith. What I have found, however, is that familiarity doesn’t always result in acceptance.  We tend to overlook the fact the reality that our Lord and Savior made his own whip (what was he thinking while he made it?), probably cracked it a few times to get everyone’s attention, ran after people and animals with it all the while turning over tables and hollering at the people selling their goods at them.  Jesus was in a holy huff.

I think one reason we overlook Jesus’ anger is that we at times struggle with the humanity of Jesus.  Yes, we admit that he was human, but prefer to dwell more on his divinity.  Humanity is messy.  Divinity is predictable.  Another reason we overlook Jesus’ anger is that we have our own misunderstandings about anger.  We remember times anger has caused us pain or we think of a child in the line at the grocery store throwing a tantrum.  We also may think anger is too strong an emotion to engage.  Christians are to be meek and mild, never showing a frown or any kind of unbridled emotion.

Jesus, however, shows the right kind of anger.  I’ll explore this and how it relates to us on Sunday.