Be angry, and yet do not sin… (Ephesians 4:26)

Anger is a funny thing. It causes us to close up and lash out, to tremble with fury, say hurtful things, and “take a swing at….”  Psychologists tell us it is the source of most depression.

Was Jesus ever angry?

When I have asked that question, without fail, people point to His Temple cleansing episodes in the Gospels as expressions of His anger, His righteous indignation. Yeah, not exactly.

In none of those accounts (Matthew 21, Mark 11, Luke 19, John 2) does the text say He was “angry.” In fact, in none of the accounts does it say He even raised His voice. (And we know other times He certainly did “cry out with a loud voice” – e.g. at Lazarus’ tomb. But NOT at the Temple.)

My question is this: How do you picture the scene? Honestly now, in your mind’s eye, don’t you see a man filled with fury, raging around, racing from table to table, throwing them over, making a scourge, whipping people and animals as they fled, shouting at the top of His lungs, “STOP making My Father’s House a house of merchandise!!!” Spittle flying, eyes bulging, face crimson. You know, really angry.

Why would that be the image we have of Jesus cleansing the Temple? I fear it’s because that’s how WE would do it. I guess we think it would take a furious, loud, immense, and violent presence to send money changers, priests, and herdsmen fleeing for their lives, leaving their goods behind. Jesus in full rage!

But that seems more akin to how James and John react in Luke 9:54 (when Samaritans refuse to welcome Jesus), wanting “fire to come down from heaven and consume them.”

In James 1:20 it is even clearer: “… for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.” A revenge-fueled, impulsive, and vindictive explosion is not characteristic of the Son of God.

A revenge-fueled, impulsive, and vindictive explosion is not characteristic of the Son of God.

Try this “re-imagination:”

Jesus, the Master of the moment, comes to the Temple of the Living God. In the outer Court of the Gentiles surrounded by the colonnade of Solomon’s porch, He views with a disturbed countenance the “emporium.” People selling “Temple-approved” sacrificial animals, others exchanging money at exorbitant rates. Avarice rampant. Most “worshipers” joyless, just going through the motions of “celebrating God” as if they were frantic mall shoppers on Christmas Eve.

This is not what God desires. This is not worship.

Godly Anger vs Human Anger

Unhurried, but purposeful, Jesus collects pieces of cord and weaves them slowly into a scourge. It may even be that in the bustle of the moment, His quiet, slow, deliberate behavior attracts attention by its very novelty. A crowd may gather in curiosity. Then He speaks, softly, almost inaudibly. People push closer and strain to hear. “Stop making My Father’s House a house of merchandise.” (This seems the technique He uses in John 8:1-8.)

He moves to a table filled with coins and simply tips it over. Opens a cage of doves and releases them. Without rancor, He repeats His command to stop. He steps toward a small collection of lambs and sends them skittering by the mere resolution in His voice and countenance.

Yes, it says in John 2:15 that He “drove” them out. But the text doesn’t tell us how He did that. We suspect, I think, that because He had made a whip, the scourge, that He used it to strike animals and (potentially) people indiscriminately. But, again, it doesn’t say that He hit anyone or anything.

Have you ever seen the figure decorating the top of an Egyptian pharaoh’s sarcophagus? Usually, his arms are crossing his chest and in each hand he holds an object. One is a scepter, a symbol of his kingship; the other is a flail, a scourge – an implement representing absolute authority.

Imagine this: the Son of God arrives at the Temple Mount. In His purity and righteousness there was no one like Him. By the sheer, stark contrast of His holy presence among a sinful and wicked people blithely, rudely, greedily using the practices of worship for personal gain, He causes those who notice Him to pause with an unrecognizable sense of dread. Then He raises the symbol of holy authority in the House of God and speaks.

“Stop making MY Father’s house a house of merchandise.”

Instantly, terror strikes the crowd. Who is THIS!? And people flee from His holy presence with His holy message piercing their ears, searing their consciences like lightning strikes.

Compare this with how Peter reacts when confronted with the miraculous draught of fish in Luke 5:8 – “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” Or the reaction of everyone in Revelation 6:15-17, calling the very mountains to fall on them as they seek to hide from the “wrath of the Lamb.”

Was Jesus Angry When He Cleansed the Temple?

I have the view that Jesus calmly walked from table to table, from cage to cage, instantly changing the order of “business as usual.” And that He did so with tears.

Jesus weeping at the foolishness of people is but a continuation in one instance of what He began on the Mount of Olives perhaps only minutes before (Luke 19:41-44).

So, let me ask the question again: Did Jesus ever get angry? If He did, what would it be like? We know there is a kind of anger that is without sin – Ephesians 4:26. What would that look like?

There are only two places in Scripture where it actually says Jesus was angry. Both are in Mark. It is no surprise that in one He is angry with Pharisees (Mark 3:5). In the other, however (Mark 10:14), it is His own disciples with whom He is angry – when they began acting like Pharisees.

In the first instance a very neutral word, orge, is used for anger. But the context gives us a sense of the quality. “Looking around at them in anger, He said, grieved at their hardness of heart….” In the second, while translated anger, or indignation, the word aganakteo (agony) actually means “much grief.”

What Does Righteous Indignation Mean?

I contend that God’s righteous indignation actually feels like grief, NOT the rage we associate with the emotion we call “anger.” As such, it is not sinful. The kind of anger that God expresses toward us, His genuine righteous indignation 1) is rightly stimulated by sin – injustice, immorality, wickedness of every color, evil motives, hatreds, etc. – but feels like grief and 2) acts to confront and condemn the sin, but in order to restore the sinner.

This “sinless or godly” anger is most profoundly and effectively seen at the Cross, where “the wrath of God was satisfied” and which concludes with the Son of God asking that we be forgiven, and not destroyed for our foolishness, rebellions, and perversions. Thank God!

This is a vastly different apprehension of what the term “anger” is commonly understood to feel and look like in our culture. Perhaps we should reconsider using “Jesus at the Temple” as divine justification for our own oftentimes unrighteous human rage.

Perhaps we should reconsider using “Jesus at the Temple” as divine justification for our own oftentimes unrighteous human rage.

 Copyright © 2026 Len Crowley. All rights reserved.