Title: Why Did Jesus Look Around with Anger?
We all know that God is good, and God is love. Then, can God be angry? Isn’t Jesus the representative of God’s love? Can a man be angry? Or, can a Christian be angry? Isn’t it a sin to be angry? Let’s think about this topic today and learn what the Bible says to us.
- Jesus was full of anger
In Mrk 3:1-6, it says that Jesus look around with anger. Greek word for ‘anger’ is ‘Olge’ which means ‘wrath, anger, vengeance, temper, violent emotion.’
When Jesus cleansed the temple, He made a scourge of cords, drove them out of the temple, poured out the coins, and over turned their tables (Jhn 2:13-16). If Jesus nicely and gently told them to move out from temple, would they have listened to Him? When Jesus looked around at them with anger, He wasn’t modest but expressed His anger in full. And if Jesus was full of anger, we can understand that having anger is not a sin against God. Rather, the founding pastor said that anger becomes a power to drive ourselves.
If temperature of water goes up, it produces steam: This steam becomes a source of power to move machines such as a train or a ship. Likewise according to sociologists, temper becomes a source of power that drives a man. However, on the other hand, anger is destructive. Therefore, anger must be controlled. Great athletes or great men in the history were not the people who were without anger but who controlled anger properly. It is said that well controlled anger is courage (Gal 5:22-23). Mature Christians are not the ones without anger but who controlled anger well. Let’s see how Jesus controlled His anger.
- Why was Jesus angry?
According to today’s scripture, Jesus met a man with a withered hand: The hand was dried and curved. And the people were watching whether Jesus is going to work and heal the sick on the Sabbath Day. Jesus healed the sick and said to the people, ‘Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save a life or to kill?
Jesus, knowing the heart of the people, tried to teach them and give them the right understanding, but their ears were closed because their hearts were hardened (Mrk 3:5). This is what Jesus was angry with: the hardness of the heart. Our understanding of controlling anger is to tone down the level of anger. However, Jesus didn’t tone down but burst in full to the hardened hearts. Why?
1 Sam 15:23 “For rebellion is as the sin of divination, And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has also rejected you from (being) king.”
See, rebellion (the hardness of the heart) is the sin of divination (the sin of worshipping idol). Outwardly speaking, Jesus was bursting with anger but inwardly, Jesus was breaking the idolatry and divination that were in the heart of the people.
- Redemptive Historical Lesson
We are watching and hearing the news during the pandemic that the number of accidents of hatred and the situation that unable to control anger has increased.
We cannot just keep suppressing anger and pretending it is not there, because the suppressed anger will become an emotional time bomb that destroys the society we belonged to or causes sickness to our body.
So, we should express our anger but not accordingly to our fleshly thought but according to spiritual thought.
If you are fed up with a certain situation, use that anger as the source of power to determine that for 2021, I will wake up 30 mins earlier and make sure I read the Bible as the first task I do every day or pray for 10 mins or worship God for 20 mins. I will pray for a certain person daily until he/she joins our church.
According to this view, the cross of Jesus was the result of Jesus’ anger, because Jesus’ anger was based on loving people and with the desire to save people. However, the cross of Jesus became the result of the Jews’ anger, too. They were fed up with Jesus Christ, couldn’t control their anger properly, and expressed their anger in wrong way. Finally, they crucified Jesus on the cross.
For Jesus, it was the cross of love but the Jews, it was the cross of anger. It was the door of salvation, but it became the door of judgment for those who couldn’t control their anger well.
So, let’s conclude with the statement the founding pastor said during this sermon. Righteous anger is based on great love. Let’s have some spiritual anger and be angry for all the will of God. So that we may be filled with energy to go forward and overcome the time of difficulty and do the work of God.
The Lord's Covenant Church Malaysia 