Episode 2: The Angry Side of Jesus

Erika VanHaitsma: As followers of Jesus we can sometimes wonder, is it ever right to be angry? Well, Erin gives us an example of a story that should make us angry.

Erin Davis: On May 3, 1980, Cari Lightner, who was a thirteen-year-old, a teenager from Faros California, was walking to a church carnival with a friend when a man who had just been released for his fourth DUI arrest, struck her from behind and killed her. He fled the scene of that accident, and he was later arrested and charged with Cari’s tragic death.

I have a thirteen-year-old son. His name is Noble. It is a great joy of my life to look at that boy and imagine the years of life that God has ahead for him. What adventures will he have? What ways will he build the kingdom? Who will he marry? How many children will he have? Well, it’s harder for me to imagine what would I feel if Noble’s life was tragically snuffed out? I know I’d feel grief. I can’t imagine my life without that boy. But I also know I would feel profound anger over what would be taken from him, from us.

Cari’s mom traveled for years with a picture of her daughter. She worked tirelessly to try and turn her story, her tragic story, into something good. She worked hard and succeeded in changing California’s drunk driving laws. Eventually, other moms gravitated toward her, moms with their own tragic stories. And that group of grieving and angry women became M.A.D.D.—Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. 

Erika: This is The Deep Well with Erin Davis. I’m Erika VanHaitsma.

How do you know when your anger is a righteous anger or selfish anger? Erin’s going to address that, helping us to get to know the person who got angry at all the right times but never sinned. This is Episode 2 of the series, “The Other Side of Jesus.”

Erin: We will see as we turn to the gospels today, anger rightly directed at sin and suffering is actually a very Christ-like anger. This entire series was birthed when I realized fairly recently that Jesus didn’t just cleanse the temple once but twice. Somehow in more than twenty-five years of reading the gospels, I missed that little information nugget. And once I realized it, here’s something that my brain just could not seem to let go of. If Jesus cleansed the temple twice, then it wasn’t an outlier. It’s a pattern. He didn’t lose his temper, as we so often say as somebody loses control in their anger, because Jesus never sinned. But on at least two occasions, Jesus directed his anger at those who were busy inside the temple. 

So, what does the other side of Jesus, the angry side of Jesus, mean for you as a follower of Jesus in a day when we no longer worship in the temple in Jerusalem? And what does it mean for me?

Open your Bible to the book of John chapter 2. It’s always good to get the lay of the land before you jump into a passage. At the beginning of this chapter, Jesus had performed his first public miracle at the request of His mama. He turned water into wine at a wedding in Cana. Disciples were starting to gather, and verse 11 of this chapter says they were starting to believe He was the Messiah. After the wedding He did a little bit of traveling with His mom and His brothers. Let’s pick it up at John 2:13­–14:

The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons and the money-changers sitting there.

It’s sometimes hard for us to grasp the time stamps in Scripture because we are not Jews in a Middle Eastern context. But the fact that this happened at Passover is part of how we know it was the first of at least two times that Jesus became angry at those within the temple. 

Jesus went to the temple in Jerusalem like all devout Jews would’ve done in his day. He went to observe the Passover that’s outlined in places like Exodus 12 and Leviticus 23. And verse 14 says, “He found those who were selling.” Now, if you know the character of Jesus, you know He’s omniscient. So, He didn’t just stumble on these sellers and think, I am so shocked! I did not know you were going to be here. He knew they would be there. What’s more important, and what should be more sobering for us, is that Jesus also knew what was inside of their hearts. What was inside the hearts of the money-changers made Jesus angry.

Listen to verses 15–16:

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. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.’” 

Let’s sit in this for a minute together. Let’s imagine all that’s going on. Jesus made a whip. That’s not metaphorical. It was an actual whip. He cracked that whip to drive out these people who were selling in the temple during Passover. Not only did He crack the whip, He dumped out their cash boxes and flipped over their tables! This wasn’t just anger, this was violent anger. Now, I’m not saying that Jesus was physically hurting anyone, because the text doesn’t say that. But this was at least anger put into action: whip-cracking, money-flinging, table-flipping action. 

It’s just a couple of verses; it’s easy to gloss over it. But let’s not. Let’s imagine the chaos. Scripture tells us that there were animals there, specific animals—oxen, sheep, and pigeons. You ever seen an ox? They’re not small. They’re huge! You ever been around a pigeon? They’re not clean. They’re filthy! The temple would’ve been crowded because it was Passover. So I’ve got to believe, knowing human nature, that as Jesus was dumping out the cash boxes that there was some sort of scramble. People were probably trying to grab all of those loose coins. There had to have been a melee of livestock and manure and feathers and people and money. Jesus’ anger had consequences, and they were not pleasant ones.

Let’s do a quick heart check. Does that picture of Jesus, the angry Jesus who causes the melee in the temple, does that line up with the Jesus you think you know? And what was He so mad about anyway? It’s the same thing that He would chastise the Pharisees for so often during His time on earth: hypocrisy. Outwardly it probably looked like these money-changers were doing something pious because they were providing animals for God’s people to sacrifice in accordance with His Law. But 1 Samuel 15:22 gives us a gut check.

Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
   as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
   and to listen than the fat of rams. 

I don’t want us to miss something really important in this story. Jesus loves the money-changers. Three years later Jesus would die for the money-changers. But Jesus hated the sin that was inside their hearts. I don’t know all of what sin was in their heart, but it seems from the passage that they loved money more than they loved God. Jesus knew that they had come to a sacred space, the temple—He called it His Father’s house. They hadn’t come to worship God; they had come to worship money. 

The second time we see Jesus’s anger in the temple, at least the second time we have in Scripture—there could’ve been more—the second cleansing of the temple is recorded in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. I’ll give you the reference. It’s in Matthew 21:12–13, Mark 11:15–17, and Luke 19:45–46. We’re going to focus on the Matthew account.

Part of how we know that this was a second occurrence is the time frame. The beginning of Matthew 21 describes Jesus’ triumphal entry. That was when Jesus was welcomed into Jerusalem with a parade. Look at verse 11: “And the crowds said, ‘This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.’” 

It’s important. Not a word is wasted in the Word of God. They thought He was a prophet, and He was, but they didn’t say, “This is the king.” They didn’t say, “This is the Messiah.” They didn’t say, “This is the one true God.” They didn’t say, “This is the one who is worthy of our lives.” They were celebrating who they wanted Jesus to be. The version of Jesus that felt comfortable. They could conceive He was a prophet, but they missed the other side of Jesus.

It was after that parade that we find Jesus’ anger inflamed again. Let me read us Matthew 21:12–13:

And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” 

Mama, do you ever get extra angry over something you’ve told your kids more than once? Here we see Jesus finding money-changers in the exact same position they were three years before, and again He is angry at their sin. Where the first angry clearing of the temple was at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, right after that first miracle, this one happened near the end. He was so close to the cross at this point. And again, the people He came to die for, the people He came to bleed for, the people that He already knew in this moment He was going to have to suffer for, became the focus of his anger.

And once again, He drove them out. And once again, He overturned their tables and flipped their seats. Listen to what He said in verse 13: “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” 

Let me paraphrase: this temple is sacred. It’s set apart as a place for you to meet with My Father. You’re supposed to be praying. Instead, you’re selling.

As I was soaking in this encounter, preparing to teach this, I was convicted by what prayerlessness really is. At its core prayerlessness is pride. It is a posture that I don’t need to cry out to God because I can handle whatever it is that’s going on in my life. It’s also sometimes a posture of, “I don’t know if God really wants to hear from me.”

I can sometimes picture the billions of people on the earth crying out to God and think, Surely He wouldn’t even listen if I cried out to Him! But He’s told me clearly in His Word, He’s told you clearly in His Word that He wants you to speak to Him in prayer. Functionally, do we live like we believe it?

So, these money-changers instead of seeking the Lord, which is what this space was set apart to do, they were seeking financial security. Jesus knew it, and it made Him angry. 

My grandparents had this little ceramic statue of Jesus that I loved as a little girl. Maybe you’ve seen it, it’s a popular one. It stood maybe ten inches tall and Jesus was seated. He was wearing a white robe with a blue sash. He’s surrounded by children in this statue, and He’s pulled one of the children up on His lap. I can’t even remember if it was a boy or girl. And Jesus was smiling broadly into the face of that child. And as a little girl, I would go to my grandparent’s house, and I loved to go find that statue and look at it and imagine that I was that little girl in Jesus’ arms and that His grin was directed at me. Even as a little girl, I liked picturing Jesus happy, and I really liked picturing Jesus happy with me. 

Perhaps that’s why the other side of Jesus, the angry side of Jesus, is so easy for me to gloss over as I read His Word. Give me Jesus surrounded by smiling children! Not Jesus making a whip and then cracking it! Not Jesus calling names—He said they were turning it into a den of robbers! Not Jesus causing a riot! 

It’s also why I think sometimes it’s easier to separate the character of God into two testaments. The Old Testament God is the fire and brimstone God, right? And the New Testament God is that Good Shepherd, the embodiment of love, who said let the little children come to me. But we must read our whole Bibles to see the whole character of God, including those sides of Jesus that make us squirm.

And as we consider the angry side of Jesus, two things seem very clear in me. Jesus’ anger is always righteous because Jesus is always righteous. In Ephesians 4:26 Scripture says, “Be angry and do not sin.” So, we can use some simple logic and conclude that anger in itself is not a sin. But I think I’ve always read that as, be angry but don’t act on it. Suppress it. Slap on your non-angry face and just get over it. And again, this is why we need to know our whole Bibles.

I think of the psalms. One of the things the psalms do is they give language to the human experience. They are so raw. Any follower of Jesus who has been through a difficult time will tell you about the value of the psalms in their lives. There’s a whole series of psalms called the “Imprecatory Psalms.” That’s the fancy term for them. My Pastor Tim calls them “Get ’Em, God, Psalms.” So it can’t be that all anger is sinful.

Okay, being angry at broken people is one thing. But what if our anger, if we’re honest, is directed towards God? Psalm 10:1 comes to mind. “Why, oh Lord, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” We try to add a sugar coat to the human experience. But I think it’s plausible that the psalmist was writing those words with clenched fists and a set jaw. And the reason I think that’s possible is because I’ve lived a few years, and I’ve had a few moments, more than a few, where I was angry—either angry at God or angry because God let something happen or angry in my hurt. I know that’s a strange thing to hear from a Bible teacher, but it’s true. 

Listen to Psalm 42:9–10:

I say to God, my rock:
“Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go on mourning
   because of the oppression of the enemy?”
As with a deadly wound in my bones,
   my adversaries taunt me,
   while they say to me all the day long,
“Where is your God?”

That’s a “Get ’Em, God, Psalm.” But the psalmist says these are the thoughts He directs toward God. 

I wasn’t in the psalmist’s head when he wrote these words, but I do have access to my own thoughts, and I have certainly felt something like, “What’s the deal, God? Where are You? You promised me that You would never leave me or forsake me, and in this moment that doesn’t seem true!” 

Now, everybody grieves differently. I grieve angry. When I feel sad it usually looks like I feel mad. And so, you can call it anger, you can call it frustration, you can call it sorrow, you can call it stress, you can call it a cocktail of all of those things, but we don’t have to call it sin.

Listen to these beautiful words from Joni Eareckson Tada’s book, When God Weeps: 

Despair that rises in a direct and vertical line to God opens us up to change, real hope, and the possibility of seeing God as He really is, not as we want Him to be. Once we give an inch, God will take a mile. He’ll take a million miles. He’ll soar in the wings of the wind from heaven to here to show you who He is, to embrace you with His love.

God is the one, often the only one, who can do something about the injustices that make us angry. 

Jesus was angry and did not sin. But here’s the second thing I see in these verses, Jesus was angry at sin. We say it so often, “Hate the sin, love the sinner.” It’s cliché, and it’s also true. Our sin should make God angry because He’s holy. And because He’s holy, He cannot tolerate our sin. And because He loves us so deeply, He hates how sin destroys the perfect shalom relationship that He intended for us to have with Him and with each other. 

Mothers Against Drunk Driving is a group of angry mothers—angry at substance abuse, angry at the ways that it distorts the addict’s sense of right and wrong, angry that a young life with decades of potential ahead of her can be snuffed out as she walks to church. God is a Father. He’s a Father against our sin. And while the other side of Jesus might feel uncomfortable at first, in truth we need a Savior angered by sin. 

 

Think about it. Don’t try to wiggle out of it.

• Aren’t you glad that the sexual abuse of children makes Jesus angry?
• Aren’t you glad that the death of women and children caught in the crossfires of political power grabs makes Him mad?
• Aren’t you glad that He’s angered by rape and murder and adultery and abuse?
• If you are, then you can also be glad He’s angry at your sin because He’s angry enough to do something about it. 

Had Jesus looked the other way at the greedy hearts of the money-changers, had He given them just a meaningless warning, He would not have been God at all. Because God’s anger, Jesus’ anger, towards sin actually accomplishes something. And that something that His anger accomplishes is our repentance which leads to our redemption.

I want to end this episode with a quote from a book, The Cry of His Soul.

Pondering the character of God does not pacify anger. It deepens it. Our struggle is never that we are too angry, but that we are never angry enough. Our anger is always pitifully small when focused against a person or object. It is meant to be turned against evil and all sin, beginning first with our failure of love.

Erika: Erin Davis is in a series called “The Other Side of Jesus.” She hasn’t been content to give us a caricature of Jesus. She wants to help us grow in a rounded, biblical view of our Savior, including seeing His righteous anger. 

We’re about to get to “Erin Unscripted,” but first let me remind you that The Deep Well is a production of Revive Our Hearts. That also means the podcast is available thanks to Revive Partners, and Revive Partners are people who pray for this ministry on a regular basis, they give each month to this ministry, and they tell others about this ministry.

Erin: I’m so grateful for Revive Partners, without whom The Deep Well would not be possible.

Erika: If you appreciate hearing The Deep Well and all the other offerings from the Revive Our Hearts podcast family, would you consider becoming a monthly partner?

Erin: You can do that at ReviveOurHearts.com/Partner. 

She’s the co-host, along with her sister Veronica, of a podcast called “The Context and Color of the Bible.” If you love digging into Scripture on The Deep Well, you’ll also love that podcast. 

Erika, I’m so glad you could be here for “Erin Unscripted.” We recorded this under a live audience, so let’s listen to that conversation. 

Erin Unscripted

Erika: When I was younger I remember praying this prayer, “Jesus, I want to see You!” And I didn’t realize how He would answer that. But He brought in—I don’t know if anyone’s ever heard of them—the Matthew videos? They’re word-for-word through the book of Matthew but they’re video. I think it was made in like the nineties with Bruce Marciano, and I saw Jesus come to life! 

In those videos He was laughing with the disciples, kind of joking around with them, and His hair was waving in the breeze. He was hungry, and He was thirsty. And He got so mad! It floored me to see this emotion in Him! And when He cleanses the temple in one scene, He just erupts! And in Matthew 23 when He is blasting at the Pharisees, He ends up sobbing at the end of that scene! 

But what you get through His anger is this deep love, this amazing love that’s not angry at the person. But like you said, it’s angry at the thing that’s separating you from Me. And I think, I love how you brought that out today. Yes, we get angry, and God gets angry. And that’s a good thing, because behind that anger is a deep love. “This is becoming between us, and I want you, and I’m angry at what is separating us!”

So, thank you for sharing about the anger of God. It is good to remember that. But I do have a question for you. One, how do I know when it’s righteous anger? Because I know as a parent, as a wife, as a human being, not all of my anger is righteous anger.

Erin: Right.

Erika: And second, when I’m angry at God, because yes, I have been there too, what do you do with that anger towards God? What’s an appropriate, respectful way to handle it?

Erin: Thanks for throwing me a couple of easy questions here! (laughter)

Erika: Oh, no problem!

Erin: Well, I do think Jesus gave us the pattern. He was angry at sin, so I have this kind of gut check of, when I’m mad at my children in particular, is this a mom preference or does Scripture define this as sin? I have all sons, so try to imagine what the bedroom situation is. It’s not great! And that can really bother me. And it’s not that I can never correct them, never ask them to have clean rooms, that is well within my rights as the person who pays the mortgage. But I ought not blow my top over whether their room is clean or not, because there’s no underlying sin there, unless they’ve been told to clean their room and they didn’t, which is not normally the case. So, I will often give myself a gut check: is this something I know from Scripture makes God angry? Or is this just something that’s annoying me, and try to respond accordingly, not that I ever do it perfectly.

And the same in our marriage, and the same in our friendships. I think we will respond in anger when our pride has been bruised, when we feel humiliated, when we feel hurt, when we’re overtired. You texted me this morning and said, “I get grumpy when I don't have food!” Right? Sometimes we’re just hangry, and that’s not righteous anger. 

So, I think we can just ask ourselves the question, “Is there sin here?” And that is a good reason to be angry as a parent because sin does in our relationship with our children just what it does in our relationship with God. Sin separates us from our children. And so, we’ve got to after those things that cause division. We don’t always have to do it in an angry way. But this has been liberating for me to realize that there is a time and space for anger. 

And what do we do with our anger toward God? I don’t know that there’s a one-size-fits-all answer. But for me, knowing that He always knows that I’m angry at Him so I might as well fess up to that. So to me that’s in my journal. I just wrote it last week. “God, I’m really angry at this situation and how it seems that You’re handling it. I can’t see redemption. I can’t see the good. I don’t know why it’s going on this long?”

So, I’m honest about it. Does it mean that anything immediately shifts? But at least I’m not trying to hide from God. When we’re honest before the Lord, He can work in our lives. I just say, own it.

Woman: I do have two little kids, and they have bigger emotions than I ever planned discipling at this point in my life.

Erin: I feel you. Is one of them two?

Woman: Almost.

Erin: I feel you.

Woman: How did you know? You quoted in Scripture, God says be angry and sin not. What are some ways that you have practically taught your kids, especially when they were younger? I have one who is six and one who is almost two. What are some practical ways to help them work through their anger? We have quoted Scripture with them. “God says be angry and sin not.” We’ve also talked about appropriate ways to act or not act on our anger. And I know in the back of my mind is I don’t know if this is appropriate or not because I myself am so poor at this. Thank you so much for teaching on this. But are there practical things that you taught your kids or patterned for your kids?

Erin: The first verse my children memorized . . . We say things back and forth to each other. I will say, “What is a man without self-control?” And they say, “A city without walls.” And so that comes straight from Scripture. It’s that idea that you can be angry, but you can’t be out-of-control angry. Because when you’re out–of-control angry, you’ve lost all of your defenses. You’re vulnerable. So when one of them starts to spiral, which happens often—mine are two teenagers, a toddler, and a school-aged, so lots of big emotions also at every end of the spectrum—there’s that check. I’m not saying don’t be mad. I hope I don’t say that to them. But I am saying, “Hey, what’s a man without self-control? It’s a city without walls.

I grew up in a house where emotion was bad. Good little girls didn’t express emotions. A loving home, for sure. But as you can probably tell from being around me, I’ve had big emotions my whole life. So, it felt like those were always trying to be kept in check. I try to be comfortable with my kids’ emotions. As a mom, you just want to stop the fit. You just want to stop the whining. It’s grating. You want it to be over. But my children are whole people, and they have the whole range of emotions. I don't want them to think they can never be angry, so I have to let myself let them express their emotion. 

The thing of it is, it’s almost always directed at someone. In my house, my boys direct their anger at each other. So another thing we do is we pull them together, boy to boy, eye to eye, and we’ll say, “Is this worth breaking fellowship with your brother? Is this nerf gun, is this . . .” sometimes it’s a stick, for goodness sake! “Is this stick worth breaking fellowship with our brother?” 

“No, mom.” 

“So, you can be mad at your brother, but you can’t smack your brother because you don't want to break fellowship with your brother, because your relationship with your brother is more important than the anger you’re now feeling.” 

We also do practical things. We have this loop around our house, and our boys do a lot of walking around the loop when their emotions are out of control. Also, three of my four sons have had to do this punishment at some point in their life: first of all, when they sin with their tongue, we use something we call “sassy water” which is vinegar. They have to have a little vinegar on their tongue because they sin with their tongue. 

Also, when they really sin with their words, every single one of them has had to squeeze out a whole tube of toothpaste and then try to put the toothpaste back in with a toothpick. And then we teach them that once words are out of the tube, you can’t put them back in.

So the littlest one hasn’t had to do that yet, but he’s only four. I bet his toothpaste tube days are coming!

And you do know this as a mama, it’s what we model more than what we say. And so I, like all moms, we say we lost our temper. I find my temper very often when it comes to my kids. And what I’ve said, I’ve heard other moms say, “I never had a temper until I had kids.” The reality is, you had murder in your heart and God used your kids to expose it. And so, I do go to my kids when I'm angry, and I get down on my knees, I look them in the eye, and I say, “I’m so sorry.” And then I always say—it chokes me up to think about this—I always say, “This is why mommy needs Jesus so much, because I am a sinner.” 

I think seeing the gospel patterned when we do have anger that is sinful, when they see us repent to those we sinned against and to God, is helpful. They won’t learn the gospel by seeing me be perfect. They learn the gospel by seeing me be broken over my sin.

Helen, I admire your parenting so much. 

Helen: I’m Helen, and I’m a nanna to seventeen grandkids. Most don’t live nearby and some are older, but I have kids at my house a lot. Last week I got to teach a couple of them about God’s anger. And it happened like this: they were wailing away at each other, and I stopped them. I just told them that each of them was created inside their mommy’s tummy by Jesus. He wove them together. They are His masterpiece. He made them exactly the way He wanted to for His purposes. 

And then I switched it to (the six-year-old was a boy), what if you made this amazing Lego creation, (he loves to do that) and what if your sister came and smashed it? What would you feel like? He was like, “I would be angry.” I said, “But you guys are doing that to each other. You’re doing that to God’s masterpiece. He made each of you. And so, when you’re hitting each other, you’re hitting something that God made, and it does make Him angry.” Well, I didn’t tell them that. I said, “So how do you think He feels?” They said, “Angry.” Yeah, and it’s right that He should. So, it was just a really cool opportunity.

Erin: That’s great. Put that one in your pocket, mamas. You’ll need it sooner than you think.

Erika, I wanted to ask you a question. You have five kids. Do you want your kids to just come to you with their happy emotions, or do you want them to come to you with all of their emotions? I think I know the answer, but I’d love to just hear from you because you were asking me about how we come to God. I always think we can learn so much from our families.

Erika: Well, three of my five are girls. One of them, her color’s red. Her personality is just hot, and she’s my sassy seven-year-old. She comes with every emotion, and they’re always so big. I have a fourteen-year-old, and we are up and down. So yeah, I want them to come so I can help them with their emotions. I get it! You’re feeling this! Trust me, I’m a woman. I get it. But it doesn’t have to control you. You can still choose.

Erin: That’s good. As you’re saying that I’m realizing why God didn’t give me girls!

Erika: Oh, Erin!

Erin: I’m not sure, but in my flesh, if I’m honest, on some level I do just want the feel-good emotions. But on a deeper level, I want my children to come to me for everything. I want them to be their true selves. I want them to feel like they can trust me even with the big and scary. And I think it’s helpful for us to realize that God’s the same way.

Erika: Years ago I read an article by Lois Tverberg about how, if you know Star Trek, the first series.

Erin: Can I confess? I’ve never seen an episode! But I think I know the character.

Erika: If you know Kirk and Spock, Spock is this emotionless, logical being, and the article was all about how we often view God like that—as emotionless and full of logic. But when you read Scripture, Erin, God is full of emotion!

Erin: Yeah.

Erika: And that’s what we need to begin to understand. You know, He’s Hosea, that husband calling, begging His adulterous wife to come to Him. He’s in Jeremiah, pleading and weeping with His children to obey. He’s in Isaiah, this fire from heaven that’s just coming to cause people to repentance and purity.

Erin: And He sings over His children with joy!

Erika: Yes! Yes!

Erin: He has a wide range. We’ve been talking kind of in the break of this series. I think a lot of us feel embarrassed or ashamed or silly about the fact that we have a range of emotions.

Erika: Yes.

Erin: And you mentioned that article to me and pointed out that God has a range of emotions. 

Erika: We were created to be like God with a range of emotions.

Erin: Yes.

Erika: You said in one of your episodes that when we cry, we apologize as women. But God didn’t apologize. You know, Jesus, when He wept at Lazarus’s tomb, Erin, did He apologize for weeping?

Erin: He didn’t.

Erika: He didn’t. He felt a range of emotions. Our God is emotion-full! So, if we have joy, Erin, imagine how much joy God has? But if we have sorrow, how much sorrow does our God feel?

Erin: I hope looking at the other side of Jesus, we’ve seen this side of His emotions. But I just wondered if you ever feel that way, as a woman in particular, that emotions are bad?

Erika: Oh, all the time. All the time. I think our culture really tries to, especially as Christians, we feel like we always need to feel like we need to be steady and stable and you can’t have these ups and downs. But I think, Erin, and I was reminded listening to you, it’s okay and normal and healthy to feel these ups and downs. But what you do with them can be where there are issues. But having the ups and downs is life.

Erin: Right, and it’s in those that often we turn toward God.

Erika: Right.

Erin: When our emotions are off-kilter or something affects us in a way that makes us respond emotionally, it is a bit of a warning to turn to the Lord. Or it might be what causes us to think of Him in a new way. Now, are there nuances there? Sure. Can we sin in our emotions? Sure.

Erika: Right.

Erin: Are our emotions sometimes a signal that we are not coping with life by trusting in the character of the Lord? Sure. So don’t listen to this and then go home and say, “I can act however I want!”

Erika: No, no.

Erin: I just think, take comfort. Jesus felt things too. He felt things deeply.

Erika: Right.

Erin: Let’s stop apologizing for having emotions.

Erika: As we look at the other side of Jesus, we are going to get into the happy side of Jesus, correct, Erin?

Erin: That’s right. I want to get there, too! But first we’re going to talk about wrath.

Erika: That can be a painful topic. I hope you will listen to the entire series, “The Other Side of Jesus.” All the episodes are available now. 

The Deep Well is a production of Revive Our Hearts, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ. 

*Offers available only during the broadcast of the podcast season.