Meekness is not weakness

Meekness does not necessarily mean weakness. There’s an interesting incident in the Bible about Jesus that is interesting because it’s interesting:

John 2:15 So he took some rope and made a whip. Then he chased everyone out of the temple, together with their sheep and cattle. He turned over the tables of the moneychangers and scattered their coins.

I was thinking how could a person who had all the fruit of the Holy Spirit could do such things; “Chased everyone out of the temple and whip their asses off…” I could never imagine a person who has love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control do such thing.

Maybe its because I am thinking that if a person possesses all the gifts of the spirit he/she will become a pokerfaced, cold as to be unhuman and more like a zombie, afraid of showing any emotions lest he showed immaturity. I was thinking, maybe a person who possessed all the gift of the Spirit is a wimp, afraid of not offending anybody; and a cartilage-less jelly fish, unable to decide and unwilling to take a risk.

It’s this picture that I usually visualized about a person who possessed all the gift of the spirit. Of course, Jesus was a meek person but he is also a strong person, and he could be tough (rough) when the need came. David Jeremiah has this to say about Jesus in the temple: “Jesus is the prime example of a meek person. Was Jesus weak? Well, go back and watch him as He cleans out the temple. With a whip made out of cords, he drove everyone out of the temple courtyard in extremely short order. No one struggled with him. No one challenged him. I find it hard to believe some wimp could have accomplished this. No one wanted to mess with the Man from Nazareth…

I was reading a commentary from Wesley (thanks to e-sword) and this is what he says.” Having made a scourge of rushes - (Which were strewed on the ground,) he drove all out of the temple, (that is, the court of it,) both the sheep and the oxen - Though it does not appear that he struck even them; and much less, any of the men. But a terror from God, it is evident, fell upon them.” Ha, ha, ha, I can only imagine the terror of the temple money changers and the peddlers experienced.

I believe this verse showed the very humanity of Jesus. It’s good because at least I know that he is completely human (as well as God) and it shows that he too experienced anger justified as it is, still the incident shows that Jesus was not a stoic. His explosion showed his strength and authority. Of course it wrong to make a rule out of what happened in the temple. (Whip people when you’re angry because Jesus had done it…no, that’s wrong.) I am just imagining how Jesus must have looked then. But still it’s comforting to know that our Lord not only felt and showed pain, love, hunger but he also showed anger, truly amazing.