This was the lesson I did for small group on Wednesday the 25th. It is not perfect, I did change it some when I said it, but here is what I had to read and go off of.
Intro
1. Anger is a powerful thing. Have you ever gotten so angry that you ended up destroying anything? I have a story for you about a time when Jesus got angry.
Read and Explain
Mark 11:15-19
On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, 16and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written:
” ‘My house will be called
a house of prayer for all nations’[a]? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’[b]”
18The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.
19When evening came, they[c] went out of the city.
So this story is pretty simple. Jesus on reaching Jerusalem enters a temple or church, gets upset and starts throwing tables and yelling, (pause) but there is more. When I read this story I ask a few questions.
To start off I look at the first part, “On reaching Jerusalem”. (Pause) “On reaching Jerusalem”……. Did you catch that? There was no pause. No lounging around. He went right to work. Jesus enters Jerusalem doesn’t stop for anything, heads to the temple and starts clearing tables. Why? Maybe, because he was on a mission.
Next it says
“Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves”
Now I don’t know about you, but I’ve been taught that throwing tables is never a good thing. And that anger is a bad thing. So then why does Jesus get to be angry? The answer; righteous anger, but what is righteous anger? Well according to Dictionary.com Righteous anger is this
1. Characterized by uprightness or morality: a righteous observance of the law.
2. Morally right or justifiable: righteous indignation
3. acting in an upright, moral way; virtuous: a righteous and godly person
So he was angry without sinning. He had a reason for being angry and it was justifiable. Now what about anger? Dictionary.com defines anger like this
2. a strong feeling of displeasure and belligerence aroused by a wrong; wrath;
So you put the two together and it makes sense. God was very displeased with what is happening, but what really is happening?
Well it says Jesus “would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts”
You might think this is normal. I mean how can you carry items to be sold in the church if you can’t go through the church, but what you have to realize is the courts were outside the church. Basically people who weren’t even selling items at the church were using it as a shortcut to get to the nearby mountain. Since the temple was sacred, Jesus must have been pretty mad.
Jesus then said.
“My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’[a]? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers”
Well how you say? Basically picture it like this. If you came to my store and bought an item, lets say a stick of gum and it’s $5.27. So I take your $6 you give me and give you back a quarter change. Then you leave. Well you might notice two things here. One your stick of gum was WAY overpriced, and two, I gave you the wrong amount of change. I cheated you out of your money. When Jesus showed up he knew this, and got mad because the people coming to worship his father were being taken advantage of by the teachers of the law.
Then it says at the end
The “chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching”
So why did they want to kill him? It says because they feared him; but why? Why were they afraid of him? It’s not like he had been well known for violence and throwing tables.
But then you read the last part “because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching”.
Now at first this seems like an irrelevant point. But looking further into it you realized their reason. The “crowds” were their people. The “crowds looked up to the teachers of the law and chief priests. When Jesus came in and threw their tables, he presented 2 problems, 1. He was violent and ruining their business. 2. He was taking their followers their group of admirers. So why were they so enraged they wanted to kill him? It was because their hearts had been so skewed by sin and their emotions, that they could not see
any alternative. I would guess that you can relate by thinking of a time in your life
when you were so skewed in your ways that you thought rashly about the situation and thought of hurting someone, or possibly even killing them to get revenge. This was how they were acting.
So….. you may be hearing all this and going, “that’s great Spencer, but how does this connect to me?” Well can you think of a time when you were mistreated? How did you feel? Upset? Angry? Mad? Well let me tell you 2 stories about how this happened in my life.
When I was in 5th grade there happened to be a girl. For now we will call her “Polly”. Well as you’ve probably guessed, I had a crush on Polly. It was a elementary school crush so of course I couldn’t think straight about anything and soon stopped liking her, but that is beside the point. Anyway, one day I was in the library organizing books when some of the Pollys friends came in. They began bugging me about who I liked and of course being an elementary school student I was not the politest in disregarding there question. The conversation went something like this.
“Who do you like?”
“No one”
Who do you like?
No one
Do you like Polly?
No
Really
Yes
So you do
No
Are you sure
Yes
Really
No, er, what?
Basically I didn’t tell them, but they had bugged me so much that the next day I approached one of and told her who I liked, she promised me that she would not tell anybody, but of course soon everyone knew. Now, you may think this story is funny, and it kind of is looking back on it, but at the time I felt mistreated, upset and angry. You may think of a similar time when you were mistreated. How did you feel? But maybe you are sitting there thinking that you weren’t mistreated, maybe you were the one mistreating others. I have another story about a time I did that.
So back when I was in 6th grade I had a group project in one of my classes. It was actually a really big project. During the course of it I was asked to do many things, such as help….. as you can guess, I did not. The most I remember doing the whole time for that project was bringing my group members tape, glue and scissors. Though nobody mentioned it, when it came time to grade each other on our group participation, I got a really bad grade. Though none of my group members mentioned it, I am sure they all felt very mistreated. I hadn’t done my part and so they were angry with me, and rightly so. I hadn’t upheld my end of the deal, I had slacked off, and done what I wanted. This was exactly how the teachers of the law had acted. They had been given a job, a very important job of showing love to God’s people and leading them in worship. Instead they did what they wanted, and used the people for their benefit.
Remember that feeling when you were mistreated. That’s how God feels when we mistreat others. When his people were being taken advantage of, and his house being used to gain money he got very angry. God gets angry when his people are mistreated, but he will forgive you if you ask forgiveness. He want’s to forgive you and will if you ask. Just keep in mind next time someone mistreats you, or you are mistreated, that God get’s angry when his sons and daughters are mistreated, and if he gets mad enough, he will start throwing tables.
