Why Was Jesus So Angry?

Matthew 21:12-13

¹² Then Jesus went into the temple of God and drove out all those who bought and sold in the temple, and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves. ¹³ And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a ‘den of thieves.’”

When I read Jesus actions and words, I believe He was extremely angry. We know that Jesus never sinned so obviously here, His anger was justified. But let us consider what exactly caused Him to be so angry. We know that Jesus was in the temple frequently, and that He argued, or talked with the religious leaders in the temple often, but never showed this degree of displeasure. What exactly made Jesus react so?

I do not believe there is one, easy answer to this question.

A couple of ideas come to my mind.

The temple was the place that God had commanded His people to worship (until after Jesus was crucified and risen). This was the place where man met with and worshipped God. The temple represented God’s holiness. When the people came to worship (through prayer, reading of the scriptures, and giving of tithes and offerings) they could only go so far in the temple. Only the priests were allowed into the Holy of Holies (where the ark of the covenant was). The people brought their sacrifices to the priest, who then made the sacrifice on behalf of the person. The priests were those God had chosen (and blessed) to teach His laws and lead the people in their worship, but they had perverted this office. They had slept with women who came (I Samuel 2:22-25), they were in business to make money (Matthew 21:12-13) rather than lead people to the Lord. They stole from the widow and the poor, they even tried to cast out demons (Acts 19:13-14).

Two of the worst offenses they committed were their rejection of God through the long awaited Messiah, and their leading others astray. Jesus said that they would win a proselyte and cause him to go to hell (Matthew 23:15). Basically what all of this has in common is, all of these things are done in God’s name, by the teachers, but everything they do is of the devil.

I think of how Jesus showed love to so many, even the un-Godly. He welcomed them and showed mercy to them. There was the woman caught in adultery (John 8:3-11), the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:5-42), the woman with an issue of blood (Matthew 9:20-22 ), the Centurion (Matthew 8:5-13), The demoniac (Mark 5:1-20), the ten lepers (Luke 17:11-19), the thief on the cross (Luke 23:39-43), the list goes on and on.

The thing that sticks in my mind is that Jesus never responded to the other people the way He did to the teachers and religious leaders. They know, or should know better. I believe God expects the non-Christian to act like non-Christians, but He expects the Christian leaders/teachers to act like Him. As much as I have stated here, I do not feel that I have adequately stated this message. I pray that we all would search the scriptures in this matter as only the Holy Spirit can convict our hearts of God’s truth.

In closing, I will state my opinion; we do well to reject false teachers. We do not condemn them, as we do not know if like Saul, they will turn and follow Him, but,

we cannot sit idly by and allow them to lead others to hell.