Sermon Tone Analysis
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By Pastor Glenn Pease
John Kindrick was an early explorer of the coasts of Oregon and Washington.
He was probably the first white man to sail through what is known as The Strait of Juan de Fuca.
The circumstances of his death were most unusual.
While he was visiting the Hawaiian Islands a British ship honored him by firing a salute.
It turned out to be more honor than he could take, and he did not survive the salute, for one of the shots hit him and killed him.
History is filled with freak accidents, but certainly it is unusual that a man would be slain in a celebration in his honor.
Something of this nature is the very thing we see in the events of Palm Sunday.
A series of events that led the King of Kings from the honor of the cheering crowd to the horror of the cruel cross.
We call it the day of the triumphal entry, but paradoxically it was the day that sealed his fate and made the cross inevitable.
There is no doubt that this day of great honor killed him, or rather, led directly to his death.
Jesus did so many unusual things on this day.
They were things so different from his normal pattern of behavior.
He had been dodging the traps of the Jewish authorities for months.
He avoided conflict and even contact.
He gave clever answers to their trick questions to avoid head on collision.
Now on this day he suddenly casts all caution to the wind, and deliberately tramples on their feet, and defies their authority, and usurps their place of leadership, knowing it can lead only to his death.
He had always avoided popularity and publicity, but now with pre-meditation he organizes a mass demonstration that stirs up the entire city of Jerusalem.
He had skillfully avoided attempts to be taken by force and made king, but now he deliberately fulfills messianic prophecy and declares himself to be the promised king.
He even excites emotions among the children.
There was no other day like this in the life of Jesus.
It was too late now for mild methods to be of any value, and that is why Jesus pushed matters right to the crisis point.
If the Jews will not accept their king, then the king has no alternative but to establish a new kingdom, and gather to himself a new people.
To open up the door to the whole world, however, demanded that he atone for the sins of the whole world that all may be free to enter his kingdom.
So Jesus played right into the hands of his rejected people that they might, by nailing him to the cross, open the door to a universal kingdom over which he would reign forever.
G. Campbell Morgan says of Palm Sunday, "It is the story of the rejection of the Hebrew nation by the King, not that of the rejection of the King by the nation."
Jesus had wept over the city before he rode in that day knowing that they had already rejected him and would soon be destroyed by the wrath of God.
Palm Sunday was the demonstration of his total and final break with the establishment of Israel.
It is clear, however, that he intended no violence.
His followers carried no weapons, but only palms, the symbols of peace.
He rode on a donkey not a war horse, and the attitude of the crowd was one of festivity.
There was no sign of revolution, and the Roman authorities considered it no more than a parade on one of the great national Jewish holidays.
Like many non-violent events this one too led to some moderate violence, for when Jesus saw the corruption in the temple his anger was kindled, and with indignation he turned the place into a shambles.
He turned over the tables and drove out animals, and threw the place into general chaos.
You have to agree that this is a most unusual picture of Jesus, and a most unusual display of his emotions.
This is the Jesus who held children on his knee and spoke of the birds of the air and the lilies of the field.
This is the gentle and meek Messiah who rode into the city on a meek beast of burden.
Now, however, he is an intolerant king wielding the whip of anger.
Verbal attack was not sufficient at this point, and so Jesus gets physical.
Out of all the unusual things that happened on this most unusual day, this is probably the most unusual of all, and we want to focus our attention on it.
Mark indicates this cleansing of the temple took place the next morning, but Matthew keeps it directly connected with the entry and demonstration of Christ's authority.
Either way it was within a 24 hour period and part of the purpose behind the Palm Sunday demonstration.
What does this picture of the angry Christ have to say to us?
What lessons are here relevant to our contemporary world where there is much injustice to be indignant about?
The first lesson I see here is a theological one.
This picture of an angry Christ teaches us something about God and his attitude toward justice.
The Son of God came to reveal the Father and he brought a full revelation.
We see all of God in Christ.
We see not only the dominant attributes of love, mercy, and grace, but we see also the holiness, righteousness, and justice of God.
Had Jesus never displayed anger at the injustice of man toward man, we might have concluded that God was not concerned about these matters.
We might have concluded that he was an indulgent God who could love and forgive regardless of man's response.
This false theology is shattered by the crash of the tables in the temple.
Jesus whipped that portrait of God right out of the gallery of theological truth.
The prophets had done so before, but once and for all Jesus made it clear that God is a God of judgment as well as a God of salvation.
If his salvation is rejected, his judgment is inevitable.
There is a point in the battle against evil and injustice where force is justified.
When the entrenched evil has been exposed to the light, and offered the pardon and forgiveness of the Gospel, but persists in its evil path, there is no alternative but judgment.
There is always a better way than judgment, but when that better way is rejected, there is no way but that of wrath.
That is why the picture of Christ coming in judgment is of Christ on a white war horse with sword in hand.
It is the opposite of the Palm Sunday picture.
If we do not receive Jesus as the prince of peace, we will face him as judge, and experience the wrath of the Lamb.
But why this anger in the temple?
It will certainly do no lasting good.
They will set up their tables again and go on robbing the poor and helpless masses.
This protest will be of feeble consequences.
Yes, but it was only a symbolic act of the judgment to come.
This was the King's rejection of the established system.
Soon all would be fulfilled necessary to establish a new system, and then, as Jesus said, the temple would be totally demolished with not one stone left upon another.
This act of anger was necessary to reveal Christ's personal attitude toward social and economic injustice.
Gentle Jesus meek and mild,
Why have you suddenly gone so wild?
If its true your house of prayer,
Has been corrupted everywhere,
Why not use the regular channels,
Appoint a committee, discuss it on panels.
This anger will ruin your reputation,
and bring disgrace on all the nation.
Certainly the establishment is causing great woes,
but can't you oppose them without stepping on toes?
The answer of the angry Christ is no! God is a God of justice and he hates injustice.
There is a point where there is no alternative but judgment.
This theological truth leads to many practical lessons for life.
We can sum them all up with the statement, "Get involved in the battle against injustice."
Jesus expressed his indignation in action.
He took the side of the oppressed against the powerful establishment knowing it would cost his life.
Most reformers die young and by violence.
This was what Jesus meant when he demanded of his disciples that they take up the cross and follow him.
Get involved to the point where your life is at risk.
No man can do this without a real dedication, and a real conviction concerning the resurrection.
Jesus hit this economic corruption hard, and made it clear that he could not and would not co-exist with injustice and oppression.
Either he or the system had to go.
He forced them to decide, and by there own choice get redemption or judgment.
The Saducees were in control of the temple, and had an hereditary monopoly on the priesthood.
They did not want to lose this advantage, so they got into the politics.
They made a bargain with the Roman overlords.
If the Romans would not interfere with their lucrative operation inside the temple, they would not meddle with Roman occupation policy outside the temple.
This left them free to control the prices and rate of exchange, and they robbed the people.
The people had no power to appeal to but God himself.
This picture of the angry Christ is God's answer.
Those who pretend that Jesus never got deeply involved in social and political issues have not given much thought to the New Testament record.
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