Is Jesus A Perfect Revelation of God’s Nature? Part I: Violent Jesus
When we say that Jesus is the perfect representation of the Father’s nature, many thoughts arise. What about the places where Jesus seemed violent, angry or even cursed? A major event that readily comes up in the minds of men is Jesus’ “cleansing” of the Temple in John 2:13-22. Let’s examine this particular narrative. Shall we?
Matthew and Mark actually record this same event in their Gospel accounts as well (see Matthew 21:12-17 & Mark 11:15-18). Now, many have used this to oppose God’s perfect goodness as revealed in Christ. But examining this CLOSELY, we would observe a few things:
One, no HUMAN BEING was harmed throughout the turnout of events. How do we know this? Well, if Jesus had hurt anyone, He would have been arrested and executed by the Jewish authorities who sought to destroy Him (Mark 11:18). They would have had cause to arrest Him for He would have broken the Law! It is not recorded that Jesus harmed any human being, He simply knocked over the money changers’ table and drove them out (vs. 15) Why? Because they were thieves, exploiting God’s people and hindering worship! (Mark 11:17). Jesus’ action was FOR the people!
Secondly, notice what happened immediately after Jesus “cleared” the Temple of these exploiters; healings took place and worship went to the Father (Matthew 21:14-16) — this TOTALLY negates the “Violent Jesus” persona which many attempt to coin from this portion of Scripture. Instead we see a Jesus, violent in saving from an oppressive and exploitative system.
The third issue is that of Jesus “making whips” and flogging the moneychangers. Interestingly, giving a careful observation to the narratives would help you realize that Matthew and Mark’s account do not mention Jesus making a whip to flog the thieves out, this is VERY key. Only John’s account records this detail. Based on the law of double mention in Bible interpretation, we could READILY discard John’s record of this. But we would refrain from doing so for the purpose of this article, a more careful look at HIS account would help clear things up.
John 2:15 (NKJV)
15 When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables.
The issue here, really, is a POOR grammatical construction of the text done by the NKJV translation of the Bible. It makes it seem as though the whip was for the moneychangers and businessmen. But far from it! Let’s go back to the original Greek text and see what it says.
John 2:15 (Original Greek Manuscript)
And having made a whip of cords, all He drove out from the temple, BOTH SHEEP AND OXEN; and of the moneychangers He poured out the coins, and the tables overthrew.
See that? Who was the whip made for? — “both sheep and oxen,” not men! The construction in the original text is in reference to LIVESTOCK and not HUMANS! It could only be referring to livestock because in the next verse (vs. 16), Jesus speaks ORALLY to the traders. He doesn’t use a whip!
“But wasn’t Jesus being cruel to the animals?”
No way! They would have been sacrificially executed had He not driven them out. So if anything, He was giving them the chance to see another day. That’s our perfectly good Saviour! You can NEVER find a single instance to fault His perfectly good nature! To use this event in an attempt to say Jesus endorsed violence is undue. All His actions, when examined, are all actions of love!
© Josh Banks Ministries. 2020.
