Angry Jesus

Everyone it seems is angry about something today. If emotions are not boiling over about politics, it’s religion, or ecological / environmental disasters, or gross economic mishandling, or injustice. Road rage, domestic disputes, personal vendettas, even our fast food is angry! Some anger is justified, some is not.

The Gospels, which are the closest pieces of literature we have to a biography on the life of Jesus, record several instances when Jesus Himself demonstrated anger. The most notable incident was the cleansing of the Temple when He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves because they were exploiting the poor by price gouging. But there is only one instance in the Gospel record that specifically mentions that Jesus was angry.

In Mark 3:5 we read that while Jesus was in confrontation with the self righteous religious leaders of the day who were looking for reasons to find fault with Jesus, the text says that, “He [Jesus] looked around at them in anger, and [was] deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts…”

To His credit, Jesus was not angry at the religious leaders for attempting to find fault with Him and then plotting to have Him killed (Mark 3:6). Jesus was angry that these self righteous men with their “stubborn hearts” could have cared less about the plight of the man with the shriveled hand in their midst. Rather than find ways to help this man or his family due to his obvious disability, the religious leaders were so self absorbed with their self righteous religiosity they were literally of no good, for anyone or anything that comes in opposition against Jesus and His work comes in the spirit of antichrist. Jesus overcomes their evil intentions and stubborn hearts by doing good and heals the man’s hand completely.  The good news is the disabled man was made well.  The bad news is the hearts of the "religious" people became worse.

The response of Jesus is still our best response to justified anger – doing good. The apostle Paul in Romans 12:21 tells us that we overcome evil with good. God’s people are not to be angry as we are told numerous times in the New Testament to rid ourselves of anger, among other things. But in those times of justified anger when the weak or poor are neglected or disenfranchised, it becomes our greatest opportunity to overcome evil by doing the most good!