In Luke’s account of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Jesus’ reaction to all the praise and noise and joy of the people lining his path with their coats and waving palm branches was to weep. The word Luke chose, klaio, means “to sob, to wail aloud.”
But as he came closer to Jerusalem and saw the city ahead, he began to weep. “How I wish today that you of all people would understand the way to peace.” (Luke 19:41-42)
Jesus was ugly-crying for the fate of all those who don’t understand the way to peace, which makes Jesus’s reaction at the Temple make so much more sense:
Then Jesus entered the Temple and began to drive out the people selling animals for sacrifices. He said to them, “The Scriptures declare, ‘My Temple will be a house of prayer,’ but you have turned it into a den of thieves.” (vv. 45-46)
He was already emotionally disregulated, all up in his feelings, overwrought. Which makes it much more likely that he’d amp up the emotion rather than dial it down when frustrated–he is, after all, fully human, and experienced our very human emotions.
He’d seen the commerce around the Temple before. He’d gone there when he was 12 and repeatedly during his ministry to teach and to heal people. It was a normal part of religious life then, just like it’s a normal part of religious life now to sell items to guide our spiritual practices. And his general tendency was to stay calm, even in chaotic and adversarial situations.
But this time, when he was already upset and frustrated with the people who kept not understanding what he was about, he lashed out at the animal sellers and money changers. Literally. John gives more detail*, telling us that Jesus braided a whip on the spot, drove out animals, and turned over tables and shouted, “Stop turning my Father’s house into a marketplace!” (John 2:13-16)
I wonder if Jesus was a little embarrassed after that. I wonder if he had a conversation with God about it.
Father, I know people need animals for sacrifices and they can’t always carry them from home. I know it wasn’t the best way to deal those sellers. I know they reorganized a little ways away from me and were back at it that same day. But I wasn’t wrong. People think they need to have money to approach you, that rich people get more access to you. You and I both know that isn’t the case. But, yes, I didn’t go about it in the way I should’ve. I bet they’ll remember it, though!
And we have remembered it.
When I think of this story now, I will have compassion for a weeping man who couldn’t stop himself from ramping up his anger. And maybe I’ll have compassion for myself when I do the same.
- I know that John tells this story as happening at the beginning of Jesus’s ministry, right after the wedding at Cana. So either Jesus began and ended his ministry by cleansing the Temple or John isn’t fussy about timelines. We cannot know, and I’m OK with that.