What made Jesus angry? "Judge yourself first"

Story Summary (Mark 11:1-21)

Jesus arrives triumphantly in Jerusalem, he enters riding a colt, and people shout a liturgy while they spread their cloaks and palm branches on the road in a celebratory fashion. As the day nears its end Jesus pays a visit to the temple, what he observes provides the grounds of his actions that were to follow the next day. Jesus stayed the night in Bethany just outside of Jerusalem. The next day as Jesus and his disciples were heading back into town, Jesus is said to have been hungry so he attempts to get some food from a fig tree. The fig tree doesn’t have any figs on it, and then Jesus decides to curse the tree saying “May no one ever eat fruit from you again”. Then Jesus returns to the temple, there he forcefully drives out all vendors and merchants; he flips over tables and refuses to allow merchandise to be carried through the temple courts. He then explains the reasoning behind his actions saying “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations, but you have made it a den of robbers”. This caused a reaction of astonishment within the crowd, and a stir within the chief priests and scribes who decided they’d like to kill him. Jesus again returns to Bethany for the evening, and then embarks for Jerusalem the following day. The next day the disciples noticed that the fig tree which Jesus had cursed was now withered.

My thoughts

It is interesting that in the most popular story about Jesus’ anger, his anger is directed not at the Gentiles but at his own people. It is safe to say that what made Jesus angry was the letdown of his own people. It was the fact that they were so absorbed in themselves that they didn’t even recognize their messiah, they didn’t respect his house, and most importantly in great parallel to the fig tree, they were not producing fruit. God had revealed himself to them for a purpose, they were to be a “royal priesthood” (Exodus 19:6). They were supposed to be God’s representatives to the world, and they weren’t even allowing the Gentiles their spot to pray in the Temple courtyard. When the priests and scribes who were viewed as “religious” or “God’s chosen” to the community didn’t act accordingly, his patience had run out, Jesus got angry. In the same way those who have a personal relationship with Christ (Christians) today have a responsibility. We are as 1 Peter 2:9-12 says “a royal priesthood” intended to declare God’s praises to the world. It is then our responsibility because of the gift of salvation we have received to live in such a way that others might see God through us, if we do not we are not fulfilling our intended purpose we are justifiably subject to God’s anger. Even more does this not imply that we should reserve our judgment first against ourselves (Christians), ensuring that those who claim to be in a relationship with God act accordingly, instead of judging against the actions of those (Non-Believers) who do not claim to know God?

Thus the way to of Jesus is to judge yourself first, to ensure you are reflecting Christ before you condem someone else as not.