ANGER

QUESTION:  I understand that anger leads one to sin.  Why did Jesus have anger when He found people selling and buying goods in the church?

ANSWER:  None of the accounts of Jesus cleansing the temple mention that Jesus was angry (Matthew 21.12-17/ John 2.13-22/  Mark 11.15-19)   Buying and selling was not to go on in God's holy temple.  The merchants were desecrating what was sacred and a stop had to be put to it.  Jesus taught them that the Scriptures declare "My house will be called a place of prayer for all nations,"  But, He said "you have turned it into a den of thieves."

God's temple was not to be turned into a market place.  After this happened, Jesus' disciples remembered this prophecy from Scripture:  "Passion for God's house burns within me."