Thursday, February 11, 2016

Question:  The Jesus I saw in the Gospels seemed much edgier and angrier than the kind and loving Jesus of my childhood. 

Okay, I guess this is not technically a question, but there is a very important question embedded in the above statement.  What is the deal with Jesus anger, and how are we to reconcile that with His compassion and mercy?

This is a very important question - one that will help to see Jesus as He truly is, and not just as we have imagined Him to be from our half-remembered childhood Sunday School lessons, or from the half-baked representations of Christ on the History Channel.

On the one hand, we really should not be surprised to discover that Jesus got angry.  Since Jesus was human “in every way that we are, except without sin” (Hebrews 4:15), it is not surprising that He showed anger. His anger never ran wild, however, and He was never blinded by anger or led astray by His rage.

Many times, we think of anger as a selfish, destructive emotion that we should eradicate from our lives altogether. However, the fact that Jesus did sometimes become angry indicates that anger itself, as an emotion, is not necessarily sinful. Ephesians 4:26 says, “in your anger do not sin” and not to let the sun go down on our anger. The command is not to “avoid anger” (or suppress it or ignore it) but to deal with it properly, in a timely manner.

One of the most important things for us to do in answering this question is to examine closely just what exactly Jesus got angry about?  Jesus often got angry at His disciples, especially Peter. He got angry with the Pharisees. Jesus got angry with the priests and publicans of the temple. It is very revealing what ticked Jesus off.

Jesus got angry at Hypocrisy

Jesus dealt harshly with those who appeared pious on the outside but had hearts that were far away from God.   Speaking of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees in His own day, he said in Matthew 23:27, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.”

Jesus got angry at Greed & Corruption

Nothing is more telling of Jesus’ outward expression of anger than when He drove out the money changers from the Temple Courts. Using the church as a vehicle for economic gain , instead of helping people to encounter God broke Jesus’ heart, and made Him see red!  Matthew 21:12-13 tells describes his reaction this way, “Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.”

Jesus got angry at Hard-Hearted Legalism

There are several places in the gospels that describe Jesus encountering religious teachers and leaders who refused to see the gracious work of God right in front of them because their hearts were hardened by their own self-righteousness.  Mark 3:2-6 describes one such scene as follows, “Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.” Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent. He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.”

Jesus got angry at Injustice and Oppression

There are many places where we see Jesus calling out the oppression of the poor and the defenseless.  One of the places that this shows up most clearly in Jesus, is in how He treated children.  If you want to really make Jesus mad, then do something to hurt a child. Luke records Jesus ominous warning for us, “If you harm one of these little ones, better for you that a millstone be draped around your neck and you be dropped into the depths of the sea” (Luke 17:2).

Here’s a question - what makes you angry?

If we are called to imitate Jesus, and if Jesus occasionally angry, then perhaps we should get angry at the things that made Jesus angry.

Ask God to help free you from your anger over petty slights and minor inconveniences, and move to your heart for what moves His!

Pastor Jeff Frazier