Roll Up: Jesus’ Fierceness & Protection are 2 Sides of the Same Coin
Let’s look at the flip side of Jesus intensity or fierceness in 3 or 4 different events. Surprisingly you will find His protection under the surface!
I want to do a second Summary or Roll Up of the 4 passages we just looked at but on a different theme. We just did a summary on the theme that Jesus corrects His disciples for failure and sin but does not reject them. Jesus doesn’t correct them because He is fault finding or trying to tear them down. Jesus corrects them so they will learn and grow. He wants us growing in health and goodness!
However, as we work through these passages of Jesus’ correction, even His intense correction, another theme emerges. Consider Jesus getting indignant with the Disciples for blocking the little children (and parents with babies) from coming to Jesus (Mk 10:13). Jesus is intense. The word indignant means something close to furious. Once we realize He isn’t attacking the disciples nor rejecting them we are free to gaze deeper into the God-man. Consider what His intense correction for the disciples looks like to the children. “Wow, Jesus is pushing back those mean men so we can be with Him!” I don’t know exactly how a child would experience it, but they would feel an oppressive force being moving out of the way so that they can get close to Jesus. It is basically protecting the children’s ability to connect with Himself! Protection is directly related to Jesus’ fierceness and correction. Strange huh?
What about Jesus “rebuking” or disciplining James and John for being offended that the Samaritans would not let Jesus say the night? (Luke 9:56 Footnote in some bibles) “The Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them.” It is Jesus’ correction to James and John but it is raw protection for the Samaritans. For years I never saw this. And it is delightful when you realize it!
What about the Matt 16:23 where Peter attacks Jesus desire to sacrifice Himself for the entire Human Race? The parallel passage in Mark 8:33 says that while Peter is “rebuking” the Lord, Jesus turns His back to Peter and “looks at His disciples.” THEN He says to all of them, “Get behind me Satan!” (Notice the exclamation mark! This is fierceness!) “You do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” It is intense for Peter. It is intense for all the other disciples. But once you get the “fear of rejection” out of the picture… think about what it really means. Jesus is protecting His eternal plan to rescue humans from the evil they have done. Jesus is delivering them from the final power of the enemy. Somehow the enemy is attacking Jesus THROUGH Peter. But Jesus is the Rock! Thank God He doesn’t waver! He rebukes Peter and protects all of those who will be saved through His sacrifice! Raw protection, nothing less!
What about Jesus challenging and even correcting the disciples when they fall asleep 3 times in the Garden of Gethsemane? Jesus correction is really His protection? Why? Jesus is trying to engage Peter in Prayer SO THAT he will not fall into the temptation of fear and deny knowing Jesus before the servant girl. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.” (Matt 26:41) It is basic protection. Get it? Jesus knows what is coming for Peter and is trying to protect Peter from the coming failure and sin.
I didn’t get it for 20 years of being a Christian. My biggest problem with God came after got saved. Now I had to figure out WHO I was trying to trust. My dad was crazy and I feared that God was similar in Character. (Now, I never “told” God that, I was too afraid of Him to be “honest” about how I felt about Him.) It was years later of Him working on “how I saw Him” that I grew enough in health to see His protection and it really delighted me! Think of David in Psalms 27:4 saying, “One thing I desired of the Lord, to gaze on His beauty.” [Paraphrase] Jesus goodness IS His beauty.
Got time for one more? Ever think about Jesus’ fierceness when He kicks out all the money changers and the sellers of the animals in Temple? He intensely attacks this money stealing system setup by the Pharisees that is charging rates that are too high for changing regular Jewish money into the temple money. They are also charging too much for lambs, rams and birds for burnt offerings. Jesus, in a radical show of strength and intensity, kicks over the tables of the money changers scattering their coins everywhere. He releases the animals. He makes a whip out of cords and drives everyone out of the temple. And it says He (one single guy) prevented anyone from carrying merchandise through the temple. But what was the result of all this fierceness? Matt 21:14 says THEN “the blind and the lame came to Him at the temple, and He healed them.” He protects and heals the weak and crippled – just what the Temple was meant to be the whole time! And He is protecting all the people who are coming from all over Israel to seek the Lord from the extortion, cheating and stealing! The Pharisees were “spitting in the face of those coming to God” by stealing from them. That is why Jesus went “wild.” In fact, He isn’t going wild at all… but He reveals His passion for His people who desire Him and are coming to Him! Raw protection!
Take Away:
To really process and internalize the WORDS of Jesus, we have to know WHO is saying them. We have to know ‘what kind of person’ is speaking the WORDS that shape our entire perspective on life, death and eternity. If the person speaking those words is like Satan, then we read the WORDS filled with accusation, condemnation, attack and hate. But if the person speaking those WORDS is good and fully committed to caring for us “like dumb sheep without a shepherd” then we can really open ourselves to His words and hear them in a clean and healthy way. Seeing Jesus’ good character brings health to our reading of scripture!
Most people’s image of God (mine included) is so filled with fault finding and accusation, we mis-read, mis-interpret or mis-color His words.
God Is Just Like Jesus:
2 Corinthians 4:4 says, “…the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Jesus is the “exact” image of God (Heb 1:3) Since protection is the other side of Jesus’ fierceness, then so it is with God the Father! God is fierce about His children coming to Him! He wants to protect those kids! God is passionate about James and John not using their spiritual authority to destroy the Samaritans – even if they insult His beloved Son! He wants to protect the Samaritans. God may sternly correct His leaders, (Get behind me Satan!) but it is to protect the people under them! God may challenge and corrects us (when we fall asleep or sin) but He does it to protect us from greater failures and suffering!
1st Commandment Prayer: Jesus! I had no idea your fierceness had any good in it! I never saw your protection! I never saw your passion and concern for the people being threatened! I love seeing your protection as the other side of your fierceness! Your goodness exceeds my ability to understand! It warms my heart and makes me want you more! And it makes me want to BE like you more!
