Does anger change us? Jesus opens his ministry after the wedding miracle with anger. I identify with this. Wanting to move the church with righteous indignation and sweep out all the offending people and practices. Then I realize I would have to throw myself out. Who is worthy of staying?  

I wonder if the money changers in the synagogue continued to extort during the three years of Jesus’ ministry, or were they removed for a while? Is this one of the reasons the Pharisees hated Jesus? Did the scribes and priests profit from the sales of doves and animals?  

I think of this when I think about the churches full of people singing hymns and praising God only to buy and sell slaves the rest of the week. Does the church attract the worst because it is a safe space to feel holy? 

I miss Dad when I think about these questions. We would have had a moving conversation.  

As I look at Jesus’ trajectory, he leaves his anger as he heads to the cross. Jesus is not full of anger and righteous indignation during his trial. He is silent. He is mistreated. He doesn’t beat but is beaten. He doesn’t drive out anyone. He doesn’t overturn any tables or stalls.  

And yet He overturns everything.  

For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. – Colossians 1:13-14 

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