Danger: Apathy at Work

Read and reflect on John 2:13–17.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. – Matthew 5:6 (NIV)

It must have been quite a scene. If there had been newspapers in the first century, the headlines would have announced: “PROPHET FROM NAZARETH GOES BERSERK: MERCHANTS CLEAN UP AFTER MIRACLE MAN TRASHES TEMPLE COURTS.” 

It’s hard to imagine gentle Jesus – the One who, on trial for His life, said not a word in His own defense; who healed, consoled and preached peaceful living – brandishing a handmade whip, driving out cattle and sheep, overturning tables, and flinging coins in anger. Temper tantrum? Hardly. Jesus Himself gave the reason for His actions and wrath: “It is written, ‘My house will be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it ‘a den of robbers’” (Luke 19:46).

The apostle John adds to the account: “His disciples remembered that it is written, ‘Zeal for your house will consume me’” (John 2:17).

On another occasion, the Son of God delivered a scathing chastisement to the Pharisees for their hardened hearts and hypocritical lifestyle, and for preventing people from believing in Him and entering the kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 23:1–39). Few instances of Jesus’ anger are recorded in the Gospels, but each time His anger was for a just cause. 

While the Bible warns us against the dangers of harboring anger and allowing it to control us, we should get angry when we see the innocent suffer because of the guilty. Righteous anger – anger for a just cause – differs from selfish anger – anger born of thinking only of ourselves and wanting our own way. 

Righteous anger spurs us into action. Corruption spurred Martin Luther to nail his 95 Theses to a German church door. Prejudice spurred Martin Luther King to dream of a society in which all people of every race and color would enjoy the same privileges and respect given to the whites. Spiritual apathy spurred Jonathan Edwards to pen his famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” and John Wesley to launch a spiritual revival in eighteenth century England. 

More recently, outrage against euthanasia and a belief in the sanctity of life spurred an outcry against removing Terry Schiavo’s feeding tubes.

Look around. Declining moral standards and spiritual apathy abound. Greed, corruption and selfishness run rampant. Prime time television spews filth that corrupts the minds of small children. Blatant profanity and lewdness lace the lyrics of popular music. It’s okay to use God’s name in vain in public, but don’t you dare pray in public. It’s okay to wear T-shirts and display bumper stickers that offend others with obscenities, but you’d better cover up the Ten Commandments.

Schools are closing because of declining enrollment. The Social Security system is in danger because there are fewer workers in the work force to support the retiring baby boomers. Yet in 1973, the Supreme Court said it was okay to take the lives of unborn children. If those babies had been allowed to be born, would we have the crises we have today?

This is nothing new. The writer of Judges noted that “every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). What Isaiah wrote centuries ago still applies to us today: “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each one of us has turned to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6).

There’s a story about a young man who traveled a far and dangerous route to ask a sage, reputed to be the wisest man on earth, how he could attain such wisdom. He found the sage, who led the young man to a stream then held his head under the running water until the young man, after a struggle, broke free.

“Why did you do that?” the young man gasped. “All I wanted to know was how to become as wise as you!”

“When you desire wisdom as much as you needed that breath of air,” the sage replied, “you’ll find it.”

When we want righteousness as much as we need the next breath, we, too, will allow righteous anger to spur us to speak out against the wrongs around us and point the way to the only hope we have: God.

Place in me a righteous anger, O God, so that it will spur me to make a difference for You in my world. Amen.

From God, Me, & a Cup of Tea, Vol. 3 © 2019 Michele Huey. All rights reserved.