Matthew 21:12-22 January 11, 1998
Jesus's Anger at Emptiness

Who were your heroes growing up? One of my heroes was a guy named Spock - not Dr. Spock, the baby doctor, but Mr. Spock, First Officer of the Starship Enterprise. The pointy ears were great, I would’ve loved to do the Vulcan mind-meld, or even better was that trick where he temporarily paralyzed his opponent with a mere pinch to the neck and shoulders. I tried it numerous times on my brother only to have him winch in pain and then turn and punch me in the stomach. But more than all that, I would loved to have been a Vulcan so that I could have complete control of my emotions. Spock was the only really stable character on the show. Dr. McCoy was far from stable and always annoyed at Spock for being a heartless alien (which wasn't true - it's just that his heart was in a different place) and Kirk always seemed to be at the beck and call of his hormones. But Spock was always under control. There were no angry outbursts from Spock, no bursts of laughter, no tears of grief, no moments of passion. About the only show of emotion we ever saw from Spock was when he raised his one eyebrow. When he was amused, he raised his eyebrow. When he was confused, he raised his eyebrow. When he was pleased, he raised his eyebrow. And you couldn't help sit there and watch Spock and think to yourself, "Boy, can this guy act!"

Passionless intellect may be attractive for aliens, but is it ideal for those created in the image of God? When we consider the character and nature of God does He portray Himself devoid of emotion? When Christ came as the incarnate Son, do we see a kind of Jewish Spock? Our images of Jesus are often less from the pages of Scripture than they are from Sunday School artists who render Jesus as beatific, benign, and bucolic: Jesus praying in the garden, hands clasped in earnest prayer, eyes rolled earnestly toward heaven; Jesus holding the little lambs and leading the adoring sheep; Jesus presiding graciously at His Last Supper, with the beloved disciple resting at His shoulder. That is about as much emotion as we think. Nothing more intense than that.

Last week we looked at how Jesus entered Jerusalem. We saw there Jesus as the King coming in majestic meekness as He entered on a donkey. If there is any emotion, it is compassion. But is there more? This morning in Matthew 21 we see a side of Jesus that we often dismiss; we see an indignation, an anger that may make us uncomfortable because of its intensity. But this is a great passage to answer the question: “What really ticks God off? What will elicit anger like nothing else?”

12.  Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. 

 13.  "It is written," he said to them, "`My house will be called a house of prayer,'  but you are making it a `den of robbers.' " 

 14.  The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. 

 15.  But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they were indignant. 

 16.  "Do you hear what these children are saying?" they asked him.   "Yes," replied Jesus, "have you never read, "`From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise' ?" 

 17.  And he left them and went out of the city to Bethany, where he spent the night. 

 18.  Early in the morning, as he was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 

 19.  Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, "May you never bear fruit again!" Immediately the tree withered. 

 20.  When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. "How did the fig tree wither so quickly?" they asked. 

 21.  Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, `Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done.

 22.  If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." 

FIRST WE SEE THAT PRAYERLESS PRAISE ANGERS JESUS.

Prayer is a predominate topic in this portion of Matthew. The mother of James and John petitions Jesus for special treatment of her sons in the coming Kingdom; the two blind men in Jericho use a prayer as they shout to Jesus as the Son of David to have mercy on them; the crowds likewise call out “Lord save us!” as they wave palm branches as Jesus enters Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. Prayer is an issue in this passage as Jesus refers to the temple as a house of prayer and then later after cursing the fig tree He explains the important role of prayer.

But in the cleansing of the temple the issue of prayer seems a bit hidden as we try to understand why Jesus becomes so enraged at the money-changers. But as we look at what He says, we’ll see that His anger is focused not so much that business was being transacted in the temple, but that the business interfered with prayer - their worship was a fraud, a pretense.

When Jesus enters Jerusalem, He comes into the temple area. It is important to get a feel how the temple area was laid out. Picture a series of concentric circles. At the center is the inner sanctuary, surrounded by a series of courtyards. The inner sanctuary was the temple itself. No one except the specific priests could enter that area. Surrounding that was the Court of the Priests for those who participated in the daily sacrifices just outside the temple. Then came the Court of Israelites, where Jewish men were allowed, then came the Court of Women, then outside of that was the court of the Gentiles.

It was in the outer court that the temple authorities arranged booths to provide animals approved for sacrifice and to exchange foreign currency for coins acceptable for paying the half shekel temple tax. The animals were necessary for the sacrifices and especially since people would have to travel great distances, for the sake of ease and convenience, they provided, for a fee, animals which were clean of defects for the sacrifice. The money changers provided another important function. In order to buy and sell in the sacred temple area, one could not use defiled money imprinted with Greek or Roman gods. Also, to insure fair dealings in money, the rabbis tells us that the temple tax which was to be paid each year was to be paid with a high-quality silver Tyrian coin called the tetradrachma.

There was good reason for what they did, but all this took place within the only area available to Gentile interested in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. This activity transformed a place of solemn worship into a market where the hum of trade mingled with the bleating sheep and the cooing of doves.

It is at this point Jesus begins house cleaning. Overturning the tables, scattering the coins, knocking over the benches on which sat the merchants. At this point He states His reasons for these actions: It was to be a house of prayer.

3.  Let no foreigner who has bound himself to the LORD say, "The LORD will surely exclude me from his people." And let not any eunuch complain, "I am only a dry tree." 

 4.  For this is what the LORD says: "To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose what pleases me and hold fast to my covenant-- 

 5.  to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off. 

 6.  And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD to serve him, to love the name of the LORD, and to worship him, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it and who hold fast to my covenant-- 

 7.  these I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations." 

 8.  The Sovereign LORD declares-- he who gathers the exiles of Israel: "I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered."

Isaiah 56:3-8

Notice the context here in Isaiah as those who had traditionally been excluded from worship of God are promised access to God. The purpose of the temple was for the worship of God; it was coming to God with prayer. But with the commercialization of the sacrificial system taking place in this area, the non-Jew could hardly pray.

But they had made it a den of robbers.

1.  This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 

 2.  "Stand at the gate of the LORD's house and there proclaim this message:   "`Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the LORD. 

 3.  This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. 

 4.  Do not trust in deceptive words and say, "This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD!" 

 5.  If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, 

 6.  if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, 

 7.  then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever. 

 8.  But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless. 

 9.  "`Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, 

 10.  and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, "We are safe"--safe to do all these detestable things? 

 11.  Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the LORD. 

Jeremiah 7:1-11

Jesus then makes reference to another Old Testament passage to describe what is wrong. Instead of being a place for the non-Jew to worship, it has become a hide-out for thieves. As Jesus makes this reference to Jeremiah, we see that the problem is much greater than the probable shoddy business practices which were going on. The problem was their perspective on how God is to be approached.

In Jeremiah there is a false belief that the protective power of the temple would enable them to sin and get away with it. Verses 4-7 explain how the people looked to the temple and gave God empty worship. While they offer God wonderful words of piety, they think that they’ve paid their dues and are now free to do as they please. For that reason they are called a robbers den. Jesus sees what they are doing is robbing God. They offer worship, but it is a worship that is thought to protect them against God’s wrath, rather than a worship that is seen to be a response of praise. What galled Jesus was that people believed they could at least partially buy God. The temple was to be a house of prayer where people sought God’s Word and said their prayers. But when the temple became a place where, for a fee, one could be assured of divine pleasure and so continue in one’s old way of living, the purpose of the temple’s existence was fundamentally skewed.

The formalism of prayerless praise angers God for it misuses God in order to commit fraud. While Christ comes gently riding a donkey to those who trust in Him, He is appalled when we merchandise and market Him like a hot product.

But it is not just the commercialization, but the same ire will be raised whenever we politicize Jesus for our own ends. When we reduce the gospel to a Republican or Democratic agenda, when we take the freedom from sin offered to us in the gospel as a self-help means to raise happy kids, we’ve twisted the intent of God’s forgiveness so that we might live a life of ease and personal satisfaction.

By way of juxtaposing the prayerless praise of the those who market God for a prophet, trusting that being covered by a tissue layer of piety will sufficiently keep God at bay, there are others in the temple Jesus shows compassion toward - the lame and the blind. This is the last mention of Jesus healing and it takes place in the temple, probably within the court of the Gentiles. It was not uncommon for the chronically ill to beg at the entrance (Acts 3:2); but where the lame, blind and deaf could go was restricted. The Court of the Gentiles was open to them all. But restrictions were imposed when the handicap required certain kinds of cushions, pads, or supports that might introduce uncleanness.

Most authorities forbade any person lame, blind, deaf, or mute from offering a sacrifice. Some even made it clear they could not be part of God’s people. But Jesus heals them, thus showing that one greater than the temple is here. He Himself cannot be contaminated, and He heals and makes clean those who come into contact with Him.

This action only makes the religious leaders more indignant. Seeing Him do these wonderful things (not just the healing of the lame and blind, but the response to the merchants in the temple area being thrown out) does nothing to bring the leaders around - they only see red themselves. But what really set them off were the noisy kids.

The Talmud tells us that children were always present at religious festivities and were often front and center. During the Feast of Tabernacles any child old enough to be handed a palm branch was obliged to wave it with the rest of the family. But what upset the leaders so much was that the children continued to ascribe to Jesus the status of God as they called out “Hosanna (God save us), Son of David.”

But notice how Christ responds to their praise - again he quotes the Old Testament, from Psalm 8. This is more than an Art Linkletter moment of “kids say the darnest things!” When He uses this passage He is affirming not only their right to say this, but that what they say is true. In Psalm 8 the praise which infants and children speak is that the Lord is majestic. That is what these kids were doing.

We far too often underestimate and belittle the praise of children. It is not better because they are more pure, but, as before in Matthew 18, because they know they have nothing to offer. The faith of a child is faith that comes having nothing to offer. On occasion Christine Rank has sung with her Dad, leading us in worship. Should that seem odd? On this day in the temple, the entire worship team was composed of children.

SECOND WE SEE THAT POWERLESS PROFESSION ANGERS JESUS.

The next day Jesus returns to the Temple, but on his way from Bethany, over the Mount of Olives, walking toward Jerusalem, He sees a fig tree and goes to pick a fig for breakfast. But as He goes up to take some, He finds it has nothing, so He curses the tree and it whithers. Once again it seems as though Jesus is out of control. Once again Jesus is angry, but we need to know why. Fig trees are common in Palestine. In spring they produced small and immature figs called taksh, which were edible but not highly esteemed. The good figs came out in August. At this time of the spring, one would expect small figs, a promise of a later harvest. But all this tree had was leaves.

Why does Jesus curse the tree? It was lying, as much as a tree can lie. If there are leaves, there should be figs. This is illustrative of what just happened. If the tree is going to be barren, then it might as well wither and die. To the disciples, this response is more than just Jesus being hungry and, like those of us who don’t get their coffee early enough, we chew off the head of the nearest person. Rather this is a parable acted out on the tree. Jeremiah 8:13 uses the figless tree as a way of describing those whom God has given so much, but they refuse to evidence His grace in their lives. Even what they have He will take from them. Jesus curses those who make a show of bearing much fruit but are spiritually barren. Just as Jesus cleanses the temple, but does not reject the praise of the children in the temple, Jesus deals with the hypocrites; they are those who are cursed.

Hypocrites may look plausible for a time, but, having no principle, no root in themselves, their profession will soon come to nothing; the gifts wither, common graces decay, the credit of the profession declines and sinks, and the falseness and folly of the pretender are seen by all. This image should lift us from our complacency and challenge us to look at ourselves: Are we just all show, but no reality? We offer promise, but refuse to follow in obedience.

What is the alternative to this external show of religion but having no reality of it in our life? We need to understand the context of the saying, because it has often been misapplied. Everyone who has made a difficult prayer request, and who has honestly mustered as much faith as possible and then been disappointed, has read this verse or verses like it and been hurt. And sometimes, like vultures or Job’s counselors, the spiritual are on the scene with their “you didn’t have enough faith,” and the wound festers.

It can be seen in the crass televangelist whose book How to Write Your Own Ticket with God, says, “If anybody, anywhere, will take these four steps, or put these four principles into operation, he will always receive whatever he wants from Jesus and from God the Father. There are more sophisticated versions of this message (e.g., possibility thinking and motivational seminars). The problem with positive thinking is that it is not the same as Christian faith; it falls way short - it does not leave room for the concept of sin.

Instead we need to understand that this is not a lesson in telekinetics. To a person steeped in Old Testament there is as much prophetic meaning to the moving of a mountain as there is to the shriveling of a fig tree. Read Isaiah 2:14-17 and Isaiah 40 - every mountain and hill made low. The Jews spoke of leveling mountains when they describe the person who could make the complex understood, and, by their teaching, help others to understand truth.

The miraculous work you and I are called to do is to cast mountains into the sea. But look at the context here: with words you will speak and the fig tree withers, with words the mountains will be cast into the sea. The miraculous work which Jesus is describing here to the disciples is not the glitz and show of the Houdini, but just as Jesus did in the temple and with the tree, there is the pronouncement of what is to be. This is not a name-it-and-claim it wishful thinking; rather it is the heart of what it means to proclaim the good news of Christ.

When you and I pray for the mountains whether they be governments arranged against God’s truth, whether they be false religions or philosophies or the bondage of sin in the lives of those we love, against those mountains we can pray and not doubt because we know God can crush those mountains and give glory to His name. It should be our prayer that the pride of man might be brought down and the glory of God lifted up. (2 Corinthians 10:3ff)

This is not promoting the use of a mantra to obtain what our selfish desires seek, but that God will use us as the means by which we may see His name glorified. God has ordained to use weak and paltry people like us to tear down the strongholds of Satan.

What angers Jesus? While any sin or disobedience deserves God’s wrath, we see here more than all else it is the false profession and praise that you and I so easily fall into. It is that lifestyle of the Christian, enjoying the morality, promoting godliness but denying its very power.