Justifiable Anger

"In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers at their business. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all, with the sheep and oxen, out of the temple; and he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, "Take these things away; you shall not make my Father's house a house of trade." His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for thy house will consume me"
John 2:13-17

In another version of the story in Matthew 21:13 Jesus puts it this way, "My house shall be called a 'house of prayer'; but you make it a den of robbers."
 
For the first time I felt the same anger that I believe Jesus felt when he went into the temple and overthrew the tables. Not only was Jesus' anger for the people inside the temple justified, but it was selfless. I had always thought about the anger Jesus felt as justified, but never as selfless. It's an anger that is rooted so deep inside of you, the origin can ONLY come from the Holy Spirit. It makes you tremble from the inside and makes you sick to your stomach. This anger is not an anger for revenge, for pain, for self reconciliation, it is for God. It is the anger knowing that God's people are interjecting their pride, their agenda, themselves in God's name, God's word and God's message and therefore corrupting it. There is NOTHING like the power of conviction when it involves the justice of The Almighty! In the notes of one of my study Bibles it says this in reference to this story, "Not an outburst of temper, but the energy of righteousness against religious leaders to whom religion had become a business".

"to whom religion had become a business"

This is the perfect way of putting where my anger lies, in those who have made religion, made God into a business. This has happened more than once in the the history of Christianity.

In the early 1500's Martin Luther was fighting against the selling of indulgences by the church. The church was a profitable business, selling people good merit to get back into good favor with God. People literally paid for their salvation. The leaders of the church had changed the message of Jesus for personal gain; for personal profit, for pride and unjustified authority. Martin Luther became angry. I believe God gave him the "energy of righteousness" against the church leaders of his time. He famously wrote the 95 Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences and nailed them to the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, Germany on the eve on All Saints Day in 1517. This was what credited as starting one of the greatest Christian reformations in all of history, the Protestant Reformation. He got angry and stood up for God's true message and reminded people that only God has the power to forgive and salvation is granted through grace, not by good works; both revolutionary ideas at that time.

Now we do not literally sell salvation as the church did back in the 1500s, but Christ's message has still become corrupt and self centered. We mistakenly think that God needs us to spread his message. Our pride gets a hold of us and we think that we are so vital to God's plan for the world that He cannot do it without us. We start "selling" salvation to the lost. We start counting the "souls saved" and everything become for the purpose of saving souls. Your complete purpose in life becomes for the purpose of saving souls. Jesus did not preform miracles "for the purpose of saving souls" Jesus preformed miracles because he saw a need. Jesus saw the needs of the people; the hurting and the lost, and because He loves, He provided a need. THAT is the message of Jesus! People were healed BECAUSE of their faith (like the centurion's servant in Matthew 8 in which Jesus says, "Go; be it done for you as you have believed.") and Jesus often told the witnesses to tell no one of what they saw (just as he does when he heals two blind men in Matthew 9, Jesus warned them sternly, "See that no one knows about this."). Jesus was about love, about relationship and fulfilling the need, not about trying to achieve a goal of converting as many people as possible.

It was not Martin Luther's intent to start a revolution and create a new sect of Christendom with his 95 Theses. He saw the corruption of the people in the church and Christ's message going by the wayside. His intent was to draw attention to this corruption and fix what was broken. He questioned the church and its intentions. He wanted to start a discussion so that the true message of Christ was not missed. The Roman Catholic Church wanted no part in this discussion and that is what fuel the flame for the Protestant Reformation. Just as Martin Luther's intent was for discussion, mine is as well. My intentions are to make you think, to make you question, to make you dive into scripture and discussions to find your answers. Are we missing Jesus' message? Was Jesus all about “saving souls” or about loving people and being in relationship with them? Are we providing the needs of “the least of these”? Or are we like the people that James talks about in James 2:15-17, “Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead,” by just simply telling the needy, the hungry and the lost to “be blessed”?