Jesus reserved his anger for the church establishment

Anger is not generally seen as a useful emotion in the bible. There are more than a few warnings against it. Jesus, accordingly, kept his cool most of the time according to the bible.

So it is telling that it was church establishment, from the Pharisees to his own disciples, that brought forth an explicit expression of ire from him. It says something of the burden of leadership in religion, and also the sense of betrayal Jesus feels when a perversion of his message drives people away from him rather than gathering them closer to his embrace. When the people who charge themselves as custodians of a message of love spawn the opposite in their approach, it appears that Jesus derives a particular anger from such a hardness of heart.

In contrast Jesus was far more patient with the average believer in the street. They were the type to approach Jesus with humility and freely accept his love without qualifying their worthiness through a criteria of works or learning. To be sure they were just as imperfect as the church leadership, but they were probably more in touch with their imperfection as a result. A lack of judgement in their approach to others probably helped them further in understanding how easy it was to accept such a gift of love.

People who represent Jesus with self proclamations of inherent righteousness in their biblical statements and authority in their church positions are held to a higher standard. Jesus’ rebuke of the disciples shooing away the children was a rich metaphor for church leadership, one that could be viewed in part as a warning to the establishment about action that causes unnecessary friction through harsh words and actions that keep people from wanting to hear the message.

Consider what it means to be part of the establisment. Consider how church leaders drew the ire of Jesus by being too established in their views and how they administered the church. Consider how that led them to being deaf to Jesus’ words, and how his message of love seemed even heretical when measured against what they considered their vast store of learning.

Then consider the children, and how Jesus said theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Something to remember next time one looks too quickly to rebuke.