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It was a controlled anger

When Jesus drove the money-changers out of the temple during His last week (Mark 11:15), it is sometimes wondered if this was some uncontrolled, knee-jerk, flying-off-the-handle reaction that He had to the indiscretions of these money-hungry guys. Or, is it possible that His response was more calculated, thought out and measured than we might realize?

There is an interesting statement four verses earlier. In Mark 11:15, “Jesus went into the temple and began to drive out…” That was on Monday. But look what happened the evening before. Verse 11 states (regarding the closing events of Sunday), “And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the temple. So when He had looked around at all things…” Do you suppose that Jesus saw something similar on Sunday that He saw on Monday? If so, why didn’t He just deal with it on Sunday? Why did He wait until Monday? Did Jesus need to walk away from the scene, deal with His anger and then come back with His passions under control? Perhaps. It would do us well to walk away sometimes and first get ourselves under control (cf. Jas. 1:19).