It is somewhat consoling, even encouraging, to know that Jesus got angry and expressed his anger on occasions. Jesus was a passionate man and he felt deeply about the things that were important. Using the Temple in Jerusalem to make money was something that offended him. His anger was not intended to hurt the money changers themselves, but to damage their trade.
Anger is a human emotion. We get angry. The anger we feel on occasions is natural and cannot be helped. What we have to learn to do is channel our anger in the right way, like Jesus. If we allow our anger to cause harm or hurt to other people then we have lost control of ourselves.
There is of course another more important message in the dialogue between Jesus and the money changers in the Temple. It has to do with the fundamental question about where we meet God. Is there a special place where we encounter God? For the Jews of Jesus’ day it was the great Temple in Jerusalem. The Temple in Jerusalem was holy ground, a sacred place, God’s home on earth. Jesus challenged this belief. While not denying the value of buildings for prayer, Jesus insisted that there is now a new place to find God. “Jesus said, ‘Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple: are you going to raise it up again in three days?’ But he was speaking of the Temple that was his body” (John 2:19-21).
At the heart of Christianity is the belief that the unique place where we meet God is in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. It is in the humanity of Jesus where we find God. This means that if we are to get to know God we need to get to know Jesus. A Christian can be described as one who has found God in the life, the teaching, the death and the resurrection of Jesus.