Anger

“And ‘don’t sin by letting anger control you.’ Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil.” (Ephesians 4:26-27 NLT)

What makes you angry? And yes, we All get angry, and so we should, because we’d sin by NEVER getting angry. Notice Paul isn’t telling us not to get angry, but not to sin WHILE we are angry. Anger at the right time and in the right way is perfectly right and normal for a believer.

Perhaps a reasonable question would be, was Jesus ever angry and if so, what was the cause? Injustice caused Jesus to get angry. When we put a higher priority on religious or political “rightness,” than on the needs of people, it upsets the Lord. Consider the man with the deformed hand in Mark 3:4 when the religious leaders were indignant because Jesus wanted to heal someone on the Sabbath. Jesus asked them a question: “Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?” Jesus WROTE the law, He above all others knew its intent. Then, in His holy and righteous anger, He healed the man’s hand, even though He knew it would lead His accusers to plot His murder.

Again, in chapter 10 Mark records a time when the Lord’s anger was aroused. When parents brought their children to Him to touch and bless them the disciples scolded the parents for bothering Him, but the Lord discerned what was happening and the Bible says: “When Jesus saw what was happening, He was angry with His disciples.” He loves children, as we should, but more to the point, we should embrace and invite them, not push them away from us or the Lord.

A small child in his parents’ arms was very fidgety and distracting this morning in church. They were sitting right behind me and, admittedly, at first, I was annoyed. But as the service continued the Lord checked my spirit and reminded me of Jesus’ words in the above context when He told His disciples: “Let the children come to Me. Don’t stop them! (even if they’re noising and distracting 😊) For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children.”

Another instance, perhaps the most notable for it’s mentioned in all four Gospel accounts, is when He became angry upon seeing the merchants profiting from those who came to worship. The biggest issue wasn’t their providing needed resources for the coming worshippers, even though their prices were no doubt exorbitant, it was that they set up shop in the space that should have been reserved for the worshippers themselves.

Some Pastors and “profiteers” perform a similar disservice when they so focus on someone’s giving, they overshadow the very purpose of that giving – to worship and honor God, not the “servant” who uses millions of the people’s giving for their own profit and the building of their own “kingdom.” Which relates to the last major issue that ruffled our Savior’s “feathers,” sickness and death.

In Mark 1 a man with leprosy comes to Jesus, kneels in front of Him and asks to be healed. Then the Bible says in most translations some form of “Moved with compassion”, but some manuscripts use the word “anger”, but why? Why was Jesus angry? Could it be the human condition? The fact that something as horrible as leprosy has to even exist? Or worse, sin, which is often compared with leprosy? Perhaps Jesus’ frustration with the human condition arose from His knowledge of what His original intent was in allowing humans to be created in the first place. How far we’ve strayed, leading to such a tremendous cost to God the Father in allowing His only Son to be sacrificed as the only remedy to our sin and disobedience.

The realization that our sin put Him on the Cross should be enough to make any Jesus lover angry – angry enough at Satan to love everyone to Jesus that we possibly can.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊