Article
Table Flipping and Righteous Anger
What is the place of anger in our ministry, if any?
“Even Jesus flipped tables.” If you, like me, have ever uttered these words in defense of your own anger (or heard someone do so), then I am writing to you. The story of Jesus driving out the money changers from the temple is recorded in all four Gospels. Jesus’s anger is forceful, loud, and inexorable. And many a man (it seems to be almost always men) has used this story as a justification for our angry words and actions. But our anger, and our glib justifications of it, deserve some scrutiny.
What is the place of anger in our ministry, if any? Is it a motivator? Is it a communication tool? Is it a sin? To what degree is anger playing with fire, and to what degree is anger a means of purification and pursuing holiness?
When Jesus Got Angry
Church Planter, let’s examine the anger of Jesus that we so flippantly claim as our example and our justification.
While imitating Jesus is the best rule of life, we can only truly do this when we are submitted to Jesus and have the heart of Jesus. When Jesus cleansed the temple, that is exactly what He did—cleanse. He was making His Father’s house holy. When we rage, we raze and rampage.
Jesus was motivated solely by the glory of His Father and intended to see that His name was not taken in vain. When anger wells up in us, are we explicitly and solely glorifying our Heavenly Father in our ire? Of course, our motives are never completely pure, but are we even primarily interested in representing Jesus well, or are we venting from a place of self-justification, grandiosity, and superiority?
Jesus took offense that His Father’s house was being turned into a “den of thieves” (Matthew 21:13), and He targeted the money changers and those who sold pigeons. Jesus wasn’t roaring through the temple blindly chucking furniture. He was incensed at the extortion of the vulnerable. Money changers took advantage of foreigners who had traveled to worship, exchanging foreign currency at an exploitative rate. Pigeons were sold to those who could not afford the sacrifice of a lamb, so these merchants were gouging the poor. It wasn’t the commerce itself that so infuriated Jesus; it was the exploitation of the foreigners and the poor in this place that was to be “a house of prayer for all the nations.” (Mark 11:17) Injustice enraged Jesus, and His anger was on behalf of others. Can we say the same, or are we tempted to make an issue about ourselves and use our anger to prop up our own reputation?
It wasn’t merely injustice that so angered Jesus. The exploitation of foreigners and the poor was a direct denial of the will of God. It was a denial of the gospel Jesus brought. Israel was to be “a light to the nations” (Isaiah 49:6), pointing people to salvation by their love of God and faithfulness. Instead, they denied their God by their actions and created barriers to His presence. Jesus knew Himself to be the true and better temple, where the presence of God dwells with humanity, and through whom believers can enter the presence of God (John 1:14; Revelation 21:3; Hebrews 10:19). His anger was at the affront to salvation and to the gospel. He was defending God’s plan of salvation and the gift of grace. So, again, I ask: Are we angered by the same things that angered Jesus? Is our anger motivated by the same things and aimed in the same direction?
When You Get Angry
Now we arrive at an uncomfortable place of self-examination where, if we are honest, we must admit that most of the metaphorical table flipping we have done has been with mixed motives at best, and often more for ourselves than for Jesus. This is not to say the feelings of anger we have are inherently wrong—far from it. Rather, the free rein we have given our anger has run into sin. We must heed the words of Paul: “Be angry and do not sin” (Ephesians 4:26). How? Consider four questions
What angers you?
When you are pastoring, are you angered at people or at sin? Jesus drove the money changers from the temple because of their sin, and then a few days later, He laid down His life on the cross to save them. He hated injustice and saved tax collectors, Pharisees, and Roman centurions alike. So what moves our hearts to anger? Is it personal offense, and affront to our dignity or reputation, an inconvenience, a challenge to our authority, OR is it those things that grieve the heart of our Savior?
How do you express your anger?
John 11 tells the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, and two phrases stand out: “he was deeply moved” (v. 33) and “Jesus wept.” (v. 35) “Deeply moved” is a diluted interpretation of a phrase that means He was deeply indignant and sorrowful. Jesus was angry at death and the destruction it wrought. And Jesus wept over the death of one friend and the grief of others. He expressed His anger, not through rage, but through tenderness and the declaration of truth: “I am the resurrection and the life” (v. 25). He channeled His anger into giving life. While you and I cannot raise the dead, we can declare the one who does. We can combat evil with the truth and hope of Jesus.
How do you use your anger?
Martin Luther purportedly said, “When I am angry, I can write, pray, and preach well, for then my whole temperament is quickened, my understanding sharpened, and all mundane vexations and temptations depart.” The singular focus of anger, the adrenaline-driven rush it brings, are tools that God can use so long as they are tempered by wisdom, humility, and prayer. At times, anger is the tool God uses to cut through the fog of foolishness in someone’s life—jarring them from their spiritual lethargy and calling them away from a path of destruction. We do not want to be angry pastors but rather gentle ones. And when we are known for being gentle, judicious anger can be an effective tool.
What do you do when your anger overwhelms you?
Sometimes we are surrounded by evil and overrun by injustice, maybe in our congregations or maybe in the world around us. We pray, we reflect on the work of Christ, we remember the immeasurable mercy shown us at the cross, and we remain incensed. Maybe justifiably so. What then? Then we remember Romans 12:19: “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord’” (ESV). God will handle His business. Every sin will be paid for either at the cross or at the final judgement. Jesus is the Lamb and the Lion.
God has given us the capacity for anger, and sin has twisted it into an incendiary threat. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and James all urge us to be slow to anger. James also tells us that “The anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (1:20, ESV). When we are tempted to justify our anger by casually claiming the actions of Jesus, we must remember this. What is more, we must consider whether our selfish anger is actually the very kind of thing at which Jesus takes offense. So, brother church planter, is your anger righteous? To answer that, we must look at the heart of Jesus rather than our desire for exoneration.
