Be angry but do not sin.

By mmayer

John 2:13-22

¹³When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ¹⁴In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. ¹⁵So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶To those who sold doves he said, ‘Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!’ ¹⁷His disciples remembered that it is written: ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’^[a]

¹⁸The Jews then responded to him, ‘What sign can you show us to prove your authority to do all this?’

¹⁹Jesus answered them, ‘Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.’

²⁰They replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and you are going to raise it in three days?’ ²¹But the temple he had spoken of was his body. ²²After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the Scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken.

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When Jesus cleared out the animals from the temple, and overturned the moneychangers’ tables, he was angry (John 2:13-22). The same Jesus is also the Lamb of God, who quietly chose to go to the cross, in order to take away the sin of the world. There’s that contrast: red hot anger, and ice cool determination. Both are needed.

It’s ok to feel anger. It’s what we do with it that determines whether we are being self-centered and sinful, or faithful to God and true to Christ. It is never right to just act out our anger, when it is about our entitlement to have things go our own way. We can’t use anger as a way to control and manipulate others.

Anger can just be the tip of the iceberg. It is the feelings that are out of sight that are the important ones. That is why we need to stop, and check what is happening, or we need others to calm us down, listen to us, and then help us work out what is going on for us. If the anger is about sadness, or feeling inadequate or not knowing what to do in a situation, then just acting out the anger won’t help anybody.

One of the issues for Christians is that we often feel we have to be nice all the time. If we don’t know when we are feeling angry, can’t acknowledge that, or don’t know how to express that in good ways, then it will come out in ‘sneaky’ ways.

So we do the ‘check in’ – and we ask, ‘Am I angry? What is this anger about?’ If there is an injustice, or something is wrong, then the feeling of anger can be a vital trigger for us to do something. Recognise the anger and what is wrong, and then act the right way in love.

Finally, do not neglect the gift of tears. If we are so roiled up, and it is not possible to do something about it, then let the tears be a way to bring your situation to God in prayer. Let the tears help to wash away some of that angry helplessness. Be angry, and do not sin.