Sometimes people think of Jesus as the quintessential "nice guy". We have this picture of Jesus as someone who got along with everyone. Who made friends everywhere he went. Someone who was constantly loved by all.
He is the guy that never caused trouble.
Who quietly sat on the sidelines and made friends with those others who felt excluded by society.
Now, it is true that Jesus was kind and caring, especially to those cast out by the rest of society.
But a "nice guy" who never caused any trouble?
Hardly the picture of Jesus that John gives us in his gospel. This is an image of a man on a mission. One who does things to attract huge crowds who follow him, only to be told doing so means death and hardship. Here is a man who makes extreme claims about himself that enrage the religious people around him.
Right from the start John wants to eliminate the “nice guy” image from the minds of his readers, so the second act of Jesus’s ministry that is recorded in John is the clearing of the temple.
“When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!”” (John 2:13–16, NIV)
Jesus walks into the temple during the time of the Passover Feast, when thousands of pilgrims have flooded the city and there are vendors everywhere trying to help these pilgrims get what they need for the religious ceremonies they were to perform.
He sits down.
Makes a whip out of leather cords.
And chases all of the livestock from the temple area.
The whips cracks over the heads of a herd of cattle in one corner of the temple mount. They start running. Pushing their way through throngs of people, not really sure why this guy is chasing them, but certain they want to get away from that whip. Coins clatter and scatter across the stone pavement as tables are knocked over. The bleating of sheep joins the bellowing of cattle and the braying of donkeys as more and more animals are released from their pens and sent rushing through the open gates of the temple.
When the dust settles, there stands Jesus. Sweat dripping from his brow, his chest heaving, the whip hanging limp by his side.
Vendors and religious leaders fuming at the audacity of this man.
Jesus did many miraculous signs and many people followed him, but that wasn’t Jesus' goal. He did not come to be popular. He did not come to be pleasant. He did not come to be the “nice guy” that everyone likes. He had a different mission.
He came to confront the powers of sin and death, which can often be found in the hearts of good solid religious folk.
Confrontations are often uncomfortable, but are usually necessary.
Where is Jesus confronting you?