When Jesus walked into the temple and saw tables full of money changers, He did what any self-respecting, perfect, holy Son of God would do: Drove them out with his handcrafted whip snapping over their heads as He was flipping tables.
“And making a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables” John 2:15 [ESV].
We often think of Jesus as peaceful. Loving. Kind. A healer. A transformer. We think of Him with the Samaritan woman, we see Him protecting the woman about to be stoned or healing the blind and the crippled. We think of Him surrounded by children. We remember Him bearing our sins to the cross.
But we rarely think of Him as angry: flipping tables, scattering animals, and chasing people out with a whip.
Jesus and the Pharisees
From the moment Jesus started His ministry, He ruffled feathers. Mostly, the feathers of the religious leaders who thought they spoke for God. With their rules, they gave themselves more and more power, determining what was holy and what was not; what was acceptable and what was a sin.
They had taken God’s word and twisted it.
Even the money changers in the temple were there originally as help. It was meant so that people coming in from long distances could purchase animals and supplies for sacrifices and change their foreign money into local currency.
But rather than be a service, they exorbitantly overcharged for the convenience. They would inspect animals for sacrifices and falsely find blemishes so that people would be forced to pay more for a different animal. They’d charge intense interest rates to exchange currencies.
In short—they made profit off of people’s faith.
Culturally, it was known and accepted. Per the Pharisees, they were doing the right thing.
But Jesus would not stand for it. He disobeyed His culture—and stood instead for what was right.
Commands of Jesus
Following Jesus often requires us to “disobey” modern culture. By following Jesus, we’re often swimming upstream. Think of some of His examples and commands:
- Denying yourself to follow God [Matthew 16:12]
- Removing the plank from your own eye before taking a splinter from someone else’s eye [John 7:1-5].
- Tearing out your eye if it causes you to sin [Matthew 18:9]
- Loving your enemy [Matthew 5:44]
- Eating with tax collectors and sinners [Luke 15:1-2]
- Redeeming a shamed Samaritan woman [John 4]
- Disobeying Sabbath traditions to heal people [Matthew 12:9-14]
In each of these commands, Jesus saw the culture as it is—the Jewish culture, the religious rules and traditions, and even our own American and church culture here today—and called His disciples to do better.
Following Jesus
Running counter-cultural and rocking the boat does not always guarantee smooth sailing. Jesus understood this well.
“And the chief priests and the scribes […] were seeking a way to destroy Him, for they feared Him” [Mark 11:18].
The Jewish leaders saw Jesus’ act as a challenge to their authority in their most sacred space. Jesus flipping tables is our example—when we break cultural norms to love people and display God, we’re also flipping tables.
However, even when we experience pushback for living unashamedly and counter-culturally, we don’t have to fear. “Take heart,” Jesus said. “I have overcome the world” [John 16:33 NIV]. We know who we’re following, we know His example, and we know that we’re running our race well.
Jesus flipping tables
Disobedience is a big word, with a lot of meaning behind it. Often we think of it as negative and disruptive. It isn’t always though. So when you ask yourself what would Jesus do?, flipping a table is an option.
Here is your calling: disobey culture, disobey norms, disobey yourself. Instead, run fully towards Jesus, following His example of perfect obedience to God and shining a light of love, compassion, and healing to a broken world.
Disobey like Jesus did—and change the world.
