Jesus Was Assertive and Aggressive
I had a recent conversation about assertiveness and aggressiveness which got me thinking and then I saw the trailer for the upcoming The Chosen episode that excited me. Too many people read Jesus into the embodiment of the Beatitudes. That's not the point of his Beatitudes and if you remember from my sermon on the Beatitudes, he mentioned each of those characteristics for people who are already there to have inclusion in his kingdom. He was not telling us to be meek or to mourn or be a peacemaker or go out and be persecuted. He was saying, if this is already happening, if you are already in these situations, and this is the life you live, live it for God’s kingdom because God welcomes you into his kingdom if these the situations you find yourself.
Sounds different, because it is different.
I mean, why wouldn't we want to go out and make peace right? Sure and we should be people of peace, but that's not what Jesus is presenting here in the Beatitudes section of his Sermon on the Mount. What Jesus is doing is being assertive. He's asserting these notions to call out people who are already there, to elevate them, and to welcome them into his kingdom with open arms. Those Beatitude people were the ones who were shunned by society then and tend to be sidelined by society now.
Instead of having the mental image of Jesus, in our mind as this gentle, meek, flower of a guy walking around just loving it on people all day long, of course, he did that in his way, but that's not all he did. He was calculated. He was direct. He was assertive. He was premeditated in certain situations of what he did for a particular purpose. He called people out for their BS. And he certainly wasn't going to take any crap from anyone who profaned the name of the LORD or brought disruption to the pathway of approaching the Father.
That's why he got so upset and threw down the tables* at the temple. People were getting in the way of a relationship with the Father, monetizing that pathway, and bringing their own self interests to corrupt what should have been something beautiful and sacred between them and God and them in community with others in corporate communion with God.
Jesus Was Calculated
Jesus knew exactly what he was doing, and he asserted himself to get the attention of everyone. All eyes were on him and this was a big deal— so big it was recorded in the gospel narratives and Jewish synagogue and governing leaders wanted to kill him. You don’t plot to kill someone if it’s not serious.
As he walked the streets from Galilee to Jerusalem, and beyond, he got people's attention because he asserted himself into the corrupt and callous lifestyle of following other entities to take the attention off of Yahweh and put it onto themselves. It wasn't gentle or meek to cast out demons and if we read the gospel of Mark, he did more exorcisms than any other miracle. That's why he came. He came to take back what was rightfully his.
But as Paul said, we don't wrestle against other humans (Ephesians 6:12). Sometimes humans get away so we need to be assertive as we read Jesus did in the temple courts that day. Sometimes we need to get aggressive when the demons flare up their ugly face manifested through other humans. Satan is alive and well in the church and Jesus modeled how to get him out. To do that, we need to be aggressively assertive in the name of Jesus.
Jesus wasn’t just making a scene in the temple for shock value.
This was a direct fulfillment of Malachi 3:1-3—God himself coming to "purify the sons of Levi," refining them like fire. The temple was meant to be a place of prayer, of encounter with God, but instead, it had become a marketplace of exploitation. Jesus wasn't throwing a tantrum. He was restoring holiness.
And this wasn’t just a one-time thing. Jesus’ entire ministry was an act of assertive, holy confrontation. Whether it was calling out religious leaders for their hypocrisy (Matthew 23), rebuking Peter for thinking in human terms instead of God’s (Matthew 16:23), or even refusing to answer the Pharisees’ traps directly (Mark 11:27-33), Jesus never backed down from truth.
But here’s the part we often miss—his assertiveness wasn’t just about tearing down corruption; it was about making way for something better. When he cleansed the temple, the next thing that happened? The blind and the lame came to him there, and he healed them (Matthew 21:14). He cleared out the distractions so that real kingdom work could happen.
So what does that mean for us?
Being assertive isn’t about being reckless or abrasive. It’s about removing the barriers—spiritual, cultural, or self-imposed—that keep people from experiencing the fullness of God’s kingdom. It means calling out the lies, the distractions, the sin that distorts who we were made to be. It means standing in the authority of Jesus to push back the darkness—starting in our own hearts and then in the spaces we are called to influence.
It’s time we stop treating Jesus like a passive teacher of life lessons and start following him as the King he is—the one who came to take back what belongs to him. And if we’re following Jesus, that means we step into that same boldness, that same holy assertiveness, to make way for the kingdom here and now. Let’s go in the name and the way of Jesus!
*Read these Biblical references for Jesus overturning the tables in the temple.
Matthew 21:12-13
Mark 11:15-19
Luke 19:45-48
John 2:13-25
As you go, make disciples who follow Jesus!
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