"He told them, it is written in the Scriptures. My temple is to be a prayer for all nations, but you have turned it into a den of robbers."
Because Jesus was called the Prince of Peace, Christians sometimes think they are not supposed to get angry over anything, ever. This is not what Jesus taught. There are times when anger is permitted, even needed. The trick for the Believer, then, is to be angry with righteous anger. They are some things in the world that are so repulsive and blasphemous that you better check your sanctification if you do not become angry.
Jesus was angry at those who had turned the temple into a shopping mall. Many of the merchants did not really care about honoring the Lord with sacrifices, but were there to cheat people out of money. Jesus was showing righteous indignation. He saw things occurring that were outside of the Law. So he became angry at the way the Father had been forgotten in his own temple.
We, too, should get angry over some things, such as famine and disease taking its deadly toll on children in Sudan. A butcher, not worthy of the title "Doctor", stabbing, chopping, and vacuuming out the brains of a child made in the image of God! We better be screaming mad about that! Publicly funded blasphemous "art", should get us riled up. The introduction of homosexuality into the highest levels of leadership in some denominations should make us holler, scream, and yell.
If we have the heart of Christ and the mind of God, we can be angry, but sin not, just as Jesus did. It is channeling that anger into something productive that God wants to see. Angry over something? An injustice? The burning alive of Christians in India? Do something about it. If you don’t, you are not only failing to follow in the footsteps of Jesus, you are mocking and dishonoring the sacrifice he made for you
Copyright 2007 Timothy E. Davis