Luke 19:41-48 "Jesus Gets Emotional"
I’ve seen a bunch of Jesus movies a lot of the older ones portray Him as a pretty weird dude. Walking around like He’s in a holy trance. Personality somewhere between Adam West’s Batman and Mr Spock. Deadpan. Emotionless. So serious. I grew up loving both of those characters and then when I became a Christian, as soon as I saw the 1977 Jesus of Nazareth movie, I added Him to the mix I thought being more Christlike meant giving people logical reasons to “live long and prosper” by believing in His teachings, and KA-POWING them with Jesus zingers. “Holy Trance Batman!”
I’d be talking to someone about Jesus and then say something like, “That is not logical. You say you do not believe, but when you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
And they’d try to lighten things up, “Why so serious?”
So I’d say, “Why are you so serious? Good grammar is important. KA-POW!”
I read this intro to Kim and she said, “They’re going to think you’re just kidding.” Nope. She was there. Ha
But Jesus wasn’t a robot on the spectrum. Today we’re going to see a very emotional Jesus. Unlike us, He’s going to be filled with emotions and not let it drive Him to do stupid things.
It’s good to have emotions, it’s part of what makes us human. The trick is to not let those emotions control our behavior—to not let our emotions be someone else’s problem.
Last week we looked at the previous verses where Jesus finally gets to Jerusalem after His long journey from northern Israel. His timing is perfect, of course, because He shows up just in time for Passover—the biggest holiday they had. Think of it as a combination of Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, and the 4th of July—except it also happened to be commanded by God for everyone to go to Jerusalem and celebrate like it was New Year’s Eve in New York City.
So He met up with a bunch of pilgrims coming to Jerusalem for Passover and a lot of them joined the Jesus Messiah bandwagon. Luke calls it a multitude.
He rides into the city on a donkey, which not only fulfills a bunch of prophecies about the Messiah, it’s also a way of telling everyone who He is and what He came to do, all with His mode of transportation.
Like when a bunch of high school kids get a limo to go to prom—they’re sending a message: tonight’s a special night. Or when someone drives around in a muscle car or a monster truck… or a Sherman Tank—you know they expect you to get out of their way.
I imagine there was a strategic meeting before leaving Jericho to go to Jerusalem:
Peter says, “So, Lord, do you want us to get you a suped-up camel, all decked out with chrome hump pads and WWJD mud flaps? Something to really make an impression.”
Jesus ignores him and tells a couple of the disciples to borrow a baby donkey instead.
“Trust me. This is going to get their attention.”
Entering Jerusalem riding a donkey meant He was the Messiah, the promised King—it was big. It was a red carpet event. The multitude of people were singing, shouting, chanting, worshiping and praising God. It was as joyful a moment as the world has ever seen. Everyone’s happy. Laughing. High-fives. Hopeful expectations through the roof. Even Vulcans like me were getting into it.
This was the moment when the Messiah, the Son of God, finally showed up after all those years to make peace between heaven and earth—between heaven and you.
But not everyone was thrilled. The Pharisees make their final appearance in the Gospel of Luke, push their way up to Jesus and tell Him to shut His disciples up. Jesus says, “No. if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” We talked about the layers of meaning behind those words last week. The stones refer to the Gentiles, to all of creation praising God, but also to the coming judgment. Judgment was coming for anyone who did not recognize God’s Messiah now that He’s here. That’s where we pick up our story for this week. Luke chapter 19…
VERSE 41:
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” Luke 19:41-44
Jesus goes from absolute joy with all His people singing and celebrating to sobbing. It wasn’t just the criticism and rejection of the Pharisees.
He looks at Jerusalem and it breaks His heart. Jerusalem means “city of peace,” but it doesn’t want peace—it’s not interested in peace. Doesn’t recognize the Prince of Peace standing at the front gate. This is the city that kills the prophets. It’s blind to peace. We’re only told of two times when Jesus cried: here and when He heard His friend Lazarus had died—which was just a couple of days before. It’s been an emotional weekend. He’s feeling all these things deeply. He’s sobbing. This is an ugly cry. The religious leaders and people of Jerusalem who knew the Scriptures were more interested in business as usual than what God was doing to save them. This is a visitation of the Creator of the universe. This was peace and salvation. But they weren’t interested, they couldn’t see it—and Jesus knew what that was going to mean.
Because of their rejection, peace was not coming to Jerusalem. Instead, the city would be destroyed, the temple was going to be scraped off Mount Zion and not one stone would be left standing. The stones were going to cry out—in judgment. In pain. In protest.
The people had made an idol out of Jerusalem and the temple. And the religious leaders wanted things to stay as they were. They wanted to keep their power. Their control. Their influence.
They didn’t understand that Jesus came to finish all that. He was the final sacrifice—God will not be requiring any more animal sacrifices. He was the Temple now, the Holy of Holies, the special presence of God in the world. And very soon, after the cross and the resurrection, after He ascends back to heaven—very soon the Temple was going to be wherever His people gathered together for worship. The church was going to be the special presence of God on the earth. They didn’t understand any of this. So Jesus wept.
In 70 AD, about 35 years after the resurrection, a few days before Passover, three Roman Legions came to Jerusalem with 10 ballistas (ancient missile launchers like a giant crossbow) and 55 catapults that could throw stones weighing over a hundred pounds more than a quarter mile—and destroyed it as completely as a modern shock and awe military campaign—it was flattened. The city became a pandemonium of chaos, then the Roman army surrounded it and cut off all supplies for the next four months before they marched in and slaughtered everyone. Jesus had already said that it would be better for the people of Sodom than for those in Jerusalem who rejected Him.
So, that’s what He’s thinking about as He enters the city. It broke His heart.
Think about that. Something that was prophesied 1,000 years ago—it’s not new information. Then Jesus is sitting there on that donkey, thinking about the impending doom of the city He loves—it tears Him up. He feels it.
It’s like us sitting here in the middle of a city that’s mostly ignoring God. They’re just going about their lives, business as usual. We know Jesus is coming back. We have a pretty good idea of what’s going to happen when He gets here. It’s not new information to us. When are we going to let ourselves feel it? When will our hearts break for those who don’t believe? Who haven’t received His Word? Who haven’t understood their need for the Gospel. Who haven’t responded to Jesus with true belief and true repentance? We need to pray that God will give us a heart for the people in our lives. Pray that He will give you the courage and the wisdom to share your hope with them before it’s too late.
So, Jesus goes from very joyful to very sad.
Pretty emotional day and the day isn’t over.
VERSE 45:
And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.” Luke 19:45-46
Jesus enters Jerusalem and immediately goes to the temple. The first two chapters of Luke center around the temple with His uncle Zechariah and the angel, going to the temple for His presentation and His mother’s purification. Twelve-year-old Jesus stayed behind after Passover to hang out with the teachers in the place He called “My Father’s house” — the temple. It says Jesus and His family went to Jerusalem for Passover every year.
It’s Passover again. Lots of people are in town for the holiday. Part of what they came to do was make some sacrifices at the temple—they were going to need to buy some animals for that. Also, they were here to pay their tithe—10% of any increase in crops, livestock, or earnings over the past year. They could pay with money but the only currency the temple accepted was shekels—Hebrew coins. They had to exchange all their Roman money to shekels and the exchange rate was pure robbery. Especially during festival weeks.
They had set up a bunch of tables like vendor booths at the state fair—right in the temple’s outer courtyard. A place that was supposed to be for non-Jews who were interested in praying to Yahweh. Seekers. Tourists. Greeks and Romans who wanted to see what worship in this beautiful temple was all about. Mark tells us Jesus said the full quote from Isaiah, “My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations!” The religious leaders had no interest in allowing the Gentiles a place to pray. So they figured it was a perfect spot for vendors.
Jesus didn’t think so. He flipped over the tables, spilled the coins on the ground, and drove everyone out.
John tells us he made a whip and chased all the animals out with it—maybe even the people.
The word for “drive out”/”cast out” is the same word used for driving out demons. “Ekballo” (ex-ballo). Where we get our word exorcism. The money changers in the temple are the equivalent of unclean spirits. This is Jesus cleansing the temple. Making it holy so He can spend the next few days proclaiming the word of God there. Teaching. Matthew tells us when the money changers were gone, a bunch of blind and crippled people came in and He healed them.
All this just made the religious leaders even more angry with Him, of course. No one likes a hostile takeover.
VERSE 47:
And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words. Luke 19:47-48
So the pilgrims that came to Jerusalem for Passover found Jesus in the temple teaching—and a lot of them believed. The people were falling in love with Him in equal proportion to the religious leaders panicking and trying to kill Him—which made it tricky.
Jesus has gone from joyful celebration, to brokenhearted sadness, to furious anger. He experienced all these extreme emotions and He did it without sinning.
Jesus is 100% man and 100% God. He was tempted in every way that we have ever been tempted but without giving in to sin. All these emotions and He didn’t sin.
I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about it this way but our emotions are what get us into so much trouble. Our emotions drive us to sin more than anything else. They’re like video game controllers for demons to manipulate us. And when we give into them—act out on our emotions—we make it easier and easier for them to push us around.
It’s fine to have emotions, it’s part of what makes us human. But we can’t let those emotions control our behavior.
We get sad. Which is fine. Jesus wept, too. But we let that sadness take over our lives. Push people away. Isolate ourselves. Withdraw from friends and family. Ignore our faith. Just roll over and give into despair. Self-medicate to take the edge off our sadness, which eventually only makes it worse. We feel sorry for ourselves and blame other people for our problems.
Sadness can be a trap. We fall in and the demons use it to drive us deeper into the pit.
But happiness can be even worse. It’s great to be happy and joyful but it can also lead us to sin. We over-celebrate. Eat too much. Drink too much. Laugh at other people’s expense. Make fun of people. We think the pursuit of happiness is the most important thing—right along with life and liberty, right? The devil grabs that game controller and hard-presses the happiness button: Make life about pleasure-seeking, selfishness. If this relationship isn’t making me happy, then I’ll go get another one. I deserve to be happy. We buy things to make us happy. We don’t have any use for other people unless we can use them for our happiness. We make happiness our top goal—an idol.
But the big red button on that controller is anger. That’s the one they really like to mash.
Sometimes people say, “What Would Jesus Do?” Then they remember that day in the temple and think, “Well, flipping over tables and getting out a whip is always within the realm of possibilities, I guess.”
Righteous anger is a good thing, right?
I’m not so sure about that—not for you and me. In Ephesians 4:26 St Paul says,
“Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.”
You’re going to get mad, it’s part of the human condition, but when you do—don’t sin. Don’t let the devil control you with that big red button—give him no opportunity. Don’t go to bed mad. Don’t give in to your anger. Don’t speak from your anger—don’t yell at people. No angry words. No cussing people out. No putting people down. Bite your tongue until it bleeds if you have to. You’re going to get angry but you don’t have to do anything with it. The anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God. If you're going to be inspired by Jesus driving out the moneychangers at the temple then let it inspire you to drive out your angry demons so you don’t grieve the Holy Spirit who dwells in you. He goes on… ) Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” I don’t know how he could have been more clear. Anger leads to bitterness, wrath, more anger, clamor (which is shouting), slander, and malice (which is wicked, hateful, evil.)
In the sermon on the Mount, Jesus says to be angry with someone is the same as murdering them. No distinction between being angry and sinning.
How you feeling about that temper of yours now?
A lot of times, anger is just included in a list of sins. In 2nd Corinthians 12:20 it’s listed with quarreling, jealousy, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder. In Galatians 5:20 it’s even worse—sitting right there with other sins called “works of the flesh” such as sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity (which is deep-seated hostility), strife (which is heated conflict), jealousy, fits of rage, rivalries, dissensions, division, envy, drunkenness, and orgies—with a warning that people who live this way will not inherit the kingdom of God. Anger is clearly not something God wants us to be embracing. It’s completely contrary to what He wants us to be doing in the world.
But we’re still going to get mad, so now what?
Be angry and don’t sin. That’s why He said it.
But isn’t there such a thing as righteous anger? God gets angry. Jesus got angry. Yeah, and didn’t sin.
God is righteous by nature. He can’t sin.
Jesus is 100% God and 100% man. He got angry and still didn’t sin—so it’s possible.
Admit it, most of the time when we get mad it’s for completely selfish reasons. You get angry when you feel disrespected, when someone threatens you, when you’re frustrated with things not going the way you want them to, when you’re disappointed, when you feel powerless, when someone betrays you or hurts you, when you feel misunderstood, when something gets broken or spilled or annoys you—when you’re running late and stuck in traffic. Those are all selfish reasons to get angry—and I’m really great at all of them.
By “great, I mean, “not so much.”
I like to think of anger as my spider sense. I feel the anger start to tingle and I know something is wrong. It’s like a smoke alarm—something’s on fire, I need to figure out what it is and put it out. Before the sun goes down. Before everything burns down.
Jesus turned over tables and drove people out of the temple once. If you want to insist that to be more like Jesus you have to keep a whip handy then okay—you get to use it once. One time in your life you can go with the myth of righteous anger. But every other time you get mad, though—be angry and don’t act out on it.
I spent a good amount of time talking about this because I know it’s a problem for us. I know it’s a problem for me. I have a temper and when I’m mad I’m hardly ever tempted to say wise or loving things to anyone. We live in an angry culture. Everyone’s mad all the time like the Incredible Hulk—and it makes us as stupid as it makes him. Even Christians. Maybe especially Christians. We need to repent. We need to stop justifying our anger with cherry-picked Bible verses. We need to follow Jesus in His example of humility. Bringing peace, not war.
We have a seriously ambitious goal at NewChurch. To grow our congregation to an average size of about 200 people each week. We’re not quite halfway there. We want to have our own building where we can be open all week for eating and drinking with other sinners like us—people who need the forgiveness of Jesus just like we do. A place where we can show up and hang out with each other and anyone else who happens to wander in. A place where conversations can happen and connections are made. Conversations about the hope we have in Jesus. How His words of life have given us hope.
We’re not going to be able to do any of that if we don’t learn how to control our temper. If we hand our emotions over to the demons and their game controllers to play with us. At the slightest indication that someone might not see the world the same way we do, we get mad and say all the things? Fight with people about politics. News. Differences in theological understanding? It’s ugly. It’s not going to do anything good.
Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying we shouldn’t have strong opinions. Anyone who knows me, knows that my opinions are as strong and bold as a pot of coffee that’s been left on the burner overnight. But we can have our opinions without trying to shove them down people’s throats.
So we have to get better at this. Not let our emotions control our behavior or our words—not make our emotions anyone else’s problem.
We need to drive out these demons who want to get their hands on those emotion controllers—we need to drive them away. Don’t give them anything to hold onto. Jesus drove out the wicked people who were using the temple as their den—their refuge, a place they felt safe. All of us, we’re the temple now. The church is the temple of the Holy Spirit. We’re the special presence of God on the earth. We need to be in a constant state of repentance—true belief and true repentance. Belief and repentance, these are gifts of God that are only found in Christ. The church is a place for sinners but it is not a safe haven for our sin. We need to understand the difference. Your sins are forgiven but they are not welcome to stay.
Repent of your selfish emotions getting the best of you. Repent of letting your sadness keep you from doing what God has called you out of the world to do. Repent of making happiness your number one pursuit. Repent of your anger and all the ways you let it hurt people and destroy your life. And take this to heart: All your emotional sins are forgiven because of Jesus. It’s a promise.
This is a place where we hear the promises of Jesus. Hear His word—and fall in love with Him all over again every week.
Jesus still weeps over Jerusalem’s present blindness and future fate—Jerusalem and every other lost city. His heart still breaks for those who have not yet received His Word. Pray for your family, friends, and neighbors, that they would receive the One who came in compassion to seek them, and save them, and give them peace. AMEN.
Prayer: Lord, keep us from worldly distractions from Your Word. Help us to hang onto it—cleanse our hearts by faith in Your Holy Word. • Cleanse us, Lord, from everything that would separate us from Your Holy Word and our faithful response to it. Amen