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.
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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 once.
It just so happened to be someone I had served with in the United States Marine Corps.
He said something which gave me much 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, just not much talked about. 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? Something Jesus was intentional about, was modelling expected behavior.
Ever wonder why He first preached, taught, healed, and THEN sent His disciples to do so? There are dozens of such examples in the Bible.
Further, scripture teaches something profound on this wise (Ecclesiastes 3:1):
This text goes further to reveal - “a time for war, and a time for peace”, and then “a time to kill and a time to heal.” If Jesus was teaching ‘cheek offering’ as unbreakable command, He is contradicting this scripture, right?
Further, He didn’t always practice this principle!
Remember His temple incursion? Jesus destroyed property, physically chased people away, while swinging a weapon! As hard as it is to accept, there are times when if you refrain from RIGHTEOUS anger, 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 differently.
The eternal view is Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection was meant to reconcile a fallen world back to God.
Should we accept this reconciliation, we will live forever with Him. Should we not, we will spend eternity in Hell, burning and screaming alive. Those aren’t just the words of some ‘fire and brimstone’ Preacher either.
Here is Jesus on Hell:
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 angels who participated, was being cast down to the Earth. We next see him in the Garden of Eden, in Genesis chapter 3.
There are some who say the Bible never identifies Lucifer as the serpent.
I have torn down this false doctrine more times that I care to remember. However, if it is your doctrinal position Lucifer was not the serpent, read Revelations 12 & 20. Beyond even the identifying text in Revelations, 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 the 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.
The biblical evidence says Jesus was intentionally divisive, and in His own words (Matthew 10:34-36):
When this declaration is viewed in conjunction with others, another Jesus emerges. During Jesus’ arrest, Peter, a follower, pulled out his sword and cut one of the arrestors.
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 the same Jesus who said: “why call me Lord and you don’t 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 passivists’ 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, rather “when.”
Jesus was Divisive in Jewish Religious Circles
Even within religious circles of His day, Jesus was controversial and divisive.
Let’s look at examples in the Gospel of John 3:1-17. This records a conversation our Lord had with a religious leader named Nicodemus. Nicodemus was from a group of Jesus’ enemies.
They were the Pharisees and 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.” First, for a religious Pharisee of his stature to call someone not so aligned “Rabbi” was extraordinary.
Next, he was a part of a group, within the sect, who 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 “divider?” Further, when one dares 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 this sinless Lamb, worthy to open the seals in the Book of Revelations, His anger must’ve been righteous. This is at the heart of the confusion about Jesus’s general disposition. Putting Jesus forward as a “loving nice guy,” fails to understand Godly love.
One can be loving, and angry at the same moment.
The Bible clearly says (Hebrews 12:6-7):
It is because of love, that righteous anger manifests. Any disciplined by a parent understands such righteous love.
Let’s try and 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 any doubt 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 for 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 ‘Lucifer was not in the form of a serpent’ 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 God’s created likeness, humankind, has a false sense of who He is.
Here 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 platform. Without such information, nothing would exist. Without this platform existing, “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 inter-personal relationship with the platform’s creator: God.
Jesus’ Anger Manifest Defending Children
Let’s review another example of angry Jesus. In the Gospel of Mark chapter 10, Jesus got angry with those who tried to forbid little children coming to Him.
Even today, there are people who believe there are places, in the house of worship, children should stay away from.
I am not one of those people!
When I was a child, it was forbidden to enter a church pulpit. However, today, As a Pastor, I regularly invite my granddaughter, or anyone else, to come and sit with me. If children were allowed to come to the founder of the church, touch Him, and experience
Him, what is wrong with stepping on a stage?
The Bible says Jesus was “indignant” with those who try to prevent the children coming. This is the second instance of angry Jesus.
Let’s look at one more.
Jesus was also angry with Peter and said: “get the behind me Satan.” This was in response to Peter, once again, trying to rescue Jesus. This doesn’t even consider the wrath He will show forth in the Book of Revelations.
The point is, nice guy Jesus is a myth meant to deceive.
This deception is worst of all. For new Believers, it gives them an impression of Jesus’s disposition which is false. Further, this false image causes evangelistic issues as well.
When confronting people with righteous anger, most of us have heard: “I thought you were a Christian.” This comes about because people believe should be nice. Of course, there is a difference between “nice” and “kind.”
‘Nice’ sees your zipper down and say nothing. They don’t want to embarrass you are themselves. However, ‘kind’ informs you of the issue. The kindest person most have ever known are mother(s).
She got angry yet disciplined in love. Sometimes she was disgusted, yet never threw us away. That is the whole point of righteous anger. It corrects, without abandoning. Speaks hard truth yet is not condemning to hell.
A more thorough, thesis level paper, is required for the topic of this article. However, I don’t have the time to do so. It is important to understand, however, that the myth of
Jesus not being angry, or divisive, is just that: a myth.
There is no biblical support for this position. For any continue in the “nice guy Jesus” lie, means they are willingly deceived.
Seek balance as Jesus’ life demonstrated.
Header Image Courtesy of Unsplash Artist Edward Cisneros