Although little spoken of, Jesus Christ was angry and divisive. Oh boy! I can hear the “weeping and gnashing of teeth” from the “turn the other check” Christian crown now.
Nice Guy Jesus is False Doctrine
As regular readers know, I have an “other side of the coin” ministry. However, this ministry does not mean I introduce “new” doctrine—God forbid!
There is a word for such newness: false doctrine. I once witnessed to a lost person about Jesus, someone I had served with in the United States Marine Corps. He said something that gave me great comfort: “Man, do you know how many times I have heard that?”
His point was clear—you aren’t saying anything new. Praise Jesus!
Another part of my ministry is revealing the “other Jesus.” This Jesus is written about in Scripture but is not often discussed. For instance, we are taught: “Jesus would turn the other cheek.” Yes, Scripture indicates Jesus taught this principle. However, there is much these “cherry pickers” aren’t saying. First, if that was Jesus’ lesson, why didn’t He always model it? Jesus was intentional about modeling expected behavior.
Remember His temple incursion? Jesus destroyed property and physically chased people away while swinging a weapon! As hard as it is to accept, there are times when refraining from RIGHTEOUS anger means you are not serving God. Sorry: the Kingdom needs neither “cupcakes” nor “wimps.” Jesus was neither and didn’t teach His followers to be. If you are weak, you are not following Christ with your whole heart.
Our Lord was the Most Divisive Person in the Bible
Someone once said Jesus Christ came to bring people together. That is a lie from the pit of hell! The weight of the biblical evidence, and His own words, prove otherwise.
From an eternal perspective, Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection were meant to reconcile a fallen world back to God. If we accept this reconciliation, we will live forever with Him. If we do not, we will spend eternity in Hell, burning and screaming alive. Those aren’t just the words of some ‘fire and brimstone’ preacher either.
Why would such a nice guy tell people they are heading to hell? We cannot comprehend Jesus’ ministry without understanding why God sent Him.
Let’s begin in the Book of Isaiah, chapter 14. This well-known text outlines Lucifer, a
Throne Covering Angel, rebelling against God. God’s judgment of Lucifer and the angels who participated was to cast them down to the Earth. We next see him in the Garden of Eden, in Genesis chapter 3.
Some say the Bible never identifies Lucifer as the serpent. I have torn down this false doctrine more times than I care to remember. However, if it is your doctrinal position that Lucifer was not the serpent, read Revelation 12 and 20.
Beyond even the identifying text in Revelation, there are other connecting points between Lucifer and the serpent. In eternity, Lucifer said he will “be like God” (Isaiah 14). Isn’t that the same promise the serpent made to Eve in Genesis 3 after Lucifer was judged?
Jesus’ Mission was not for False Peace
Jesus’ earthly ministry was not a peace mission. Sure, peace was announced at His birth. However, that must be understood in the context of bringing peace through reconciliation to God.
Peace, in this context, was between God and His people through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Yet those in hell have no peace, nor rest “neither day nor night” according to Scripture.
Jesus commanded Peter: “Put away your sword, Peter. For those who live by the sword will die by the sword” (Matthew 26:52). You may be thinking: “That proves that Jesus wasn’t divisive and didn’t want us having swords (guns).” It proves the opposite.
If Jesus was against either the possession of or use of weapons, why were the disciples armed to begin with? Surely, if mere possession were evil, Jesus wouldn’t have allowed it. This is the same Jesus who said: “Why call me Lord and not do what I say?”
Peter stopped swinging his sword because Jesus told him to. Therefore, Jesus was his Lord. Had Peter’s Lord commanded: “Never carry swords,” no disciple would have been armed. Yet they were. How do Christian pacifists explain this? The issue wasn’t swords back then, or Christians with guns today. The challenge is using weapons in the wrong moments.
It was not “how” Peter used it, but “when.”
Jesus was Divisive in Jewish Religious Circles
Even within the religious circles of His day, Jesus was controversial and divisive.
Let’s look at an example in the Gospel of John 3:1-17. This passage records a conversation our Lord had with a religious leader named Nicodemus. Nicodemus was from a group of Jesus’ enemies—the Pharisees, who would be responsible for Jesus’ arrest and execution. However, although some hated Jesus, Nicodemus did not. The exchange in John 3 demonstrates an admiration for the young Jewish preacher.
Jesus split the Sanhedrin religious group. We know there were other Pharisees, besides Nicodemus, who believed Jesus. During the John 3 conversation, Nicodemus said: “Rabbi (Teacher), we know you are a teacher sent from God.” For a religious Pharisee of his stature to call someone not so aligned “Rabbi” was extraordinary.
Next, he was part of a group within the sect that approved of Jesus. Jesus divided the controlling government of the Jewish Temple. With just these few examples, how is it possible to hold onto the false doctrine that Jesus was a “uniter” and not a “divider?” Further, when one dares to speak these truths publicly, they are shunned.
If you are black and want to put your life in danger, openly challenge the hypocritical bond between African American religion and the Democrat party! You will be called “divisive” and false, just like Jesus, for pointing this out.
Jesus Demonstrated Righteous Anger
The Bible says: “Be angry and do not sin.” That text didn’t say: “Do not be angry because it is sin.” Those are two separate paradigms! Anger for the things of God is righteous. I use righteous because if Jesus was angry for non-righteous reasons, He would have been a sinner, unworthy to die for anyone.
Since Jesus is the sinless Lamb, worthy to open the seals in the Book of Revelation, His anger must have been righteous. This is at the heart of the confusion about Jesus’ general disposition. Presenting Jesus as a “loving nice guy” fails to understand Godly love.
One can be loving and angry at the same moment. It is because of love that righteous anger manifests. Anyone disciplined by a parent understands such righteous love.
Let’s try to better understand “angry Jesus.”
One of His greatest acts of righteous anger was the incursion into the temple. Students of the Word understand Jesus chased away moneychangers from the temple. If anyone doubts how hostile Jesus was, the way this outburst occurred should be of interest.
The Bible says Jesus made a cord of whips, overturned tables, and said: “My Father’s house is a house of prayer, but you have made it into a den of thieves.” The same Jesus, just a few days later, would not resist arrest.
When viewing Jesus’ rebuke of Peter for using the sword during His arrest, it may be viewed as hypocrisy. Hardly! Jesus, just several days earlier, became violent in the temple yet, when arrested, rebuked Peter for violence?
One of my purposes is to teach God’s people to see the ‘macro’ (large) view of Scripture. Often, we get hung up on the ‘micro’ (small). This occurs by a hyper-focus on one Scripture, chapter, or even book. This paralysis, often taught as “scripture in context,” fails to see an eternal view. This is how the ‘Lucifer was not in the form of a serpent’ belief originated. I feel terrible for teachers who allow “context” to blind them.
I mean, really, what value is historical or literary context to salvation? Nothing! Nada! Zip!
This is what Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for: “following a camel and straining at a gnat.”
Nevertheless, the Word of God indicates: “There is a time for war, and a time for peace.” This is the mystery of Jesus and the moneychangers versus Jesus commanding a disciple to sheath a sword.
It tears at my heart when believers ask: “What would Jesus do?” and arrive at the wrong conclusions. This occurs because humankind has a false sense of who He is. Another misunderstanding. Scripture indicates: “God is Love.” However, is this ALL God is? This isn’t even the most fundamental characteristic of God! Oh boy—I can hear the calls to “stone him!”
Think about this: Is God’s greatest characteristic love or “information”? God created the universe. Everything is made up of “quantum information.” God gave us a hint of this with the description of how Adam was created.
He also mentioned it to Job: “Have you ever been in the treasures of the snow?”
Information is foundational. Without such information, nothing would exist. Without this foundation, “love” is never revealed, therefore, information is more fundamental to existence than “love.”
Existence, resulting from information, provides a framework for the conscious representation of love to exist. It is only when creation is conscious that love is experienced, and thus defined through the interpersonal relationship with the Creator: God.
Header Image Courtesy of Unsplash Artist Edward Cisneros
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