Did Jesus have a temper? Ever get angry? Can we honestly say that He ever was violent, even a little bit--righteously so, without sin? (We know the Bible is clear, He never sinned; He was always in control.) The answer may be surprising:
Early in His ministry (He was still only 30), one day He seemed to the people around Him as One possessed, so unlike Himself. It was so strange, someone could have asked Him, "What's eating You?" While they watched Him in this uncharacteristic mode, His disciples remembered that it was written (in Psalm 69:9), "The zeal of Thine house hath eaten Me up."
What "ate Him up"? His holy concern for the Jews' Temple, which was then the house of His Father "for all people." They were desecrating it with profane, hard hearts. It was His first Passover since beginning His ministry. As He watched the worldly, selfish, commercial bargaining in the holy House itself, the selling of the cattle and doves, He was overcome by the horror of this massive hypocrisy at the very headquarters--heart of the true church of God in all the world for that day. All the righteous indignation that will flare forth in the final Day of Judgment blazed in His human eyes (He was "Emmanuel, ... God with us"!). He "made a scourge of small cords" with which He never touched a soul physically, but brandishing it He "drove them all out of the temple" and in the process grabbed their tables, turned them upside down, scattered all their money helter-skelter all over the floor. Get out of here! "Take these things hence." Strangely, no one could argue or linger; all ran for their lives (John 2:13-21).
A display of temper? You better believe it! Divine temper, yes. You and I don't want ever to face it--either now or in the last Day. Let's walk softly.
Such holy fear is not sinfully selfish. It's common sense. How can we say we believe in Jesus unless the "zeal of [His] house hath eaten [us] up" too? His agape "constraineth us ... henceforth" to live not for self but for Him (see 2 Cor. 5:14, 15). Total oneness with Him. Anything short of that is sin to be deeply ashamed of at last.
Copyright © 2009 by Robert J. Wieland.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.------------------------------
