Jesus & Anger

What stirs Jesus’ anger, and why his response is different.

In a synagogue, Jesus displays an act of compassion, restoration, and healing in the midst of a contextual tension similar to what we looked at yesterday. Those who think they want to uphold righteousness are keen on catching Jesus doing something wrong. So keen that they can’t see exactly what is right. Mark seems to say to us that Jesus - out of his anger - performs this restorative miracle as a bit of a demonstration. In our passage from James, he says that this kind of thing is not possible (righteousness out of anger). This is yet another situation where knowing the context is important.

Not completely as an aside, James’ warning should give us pause. If James is right - and he is - what are we to make of Jesus’ anger?

The answer cannot be that anger is simply justified when the outcome is good. James is not talking about effectiveness, but formation. Human anger so often arises from wounded pride, fear, or the desire to control. It corrodes rather than creates. But Mark presents something different in Jesus. His anger is not self-protective or reactionary. It is joined to grief, a grief at the sight of human indifference to suffering and the human desire to control. Jesus’ anger is directed not toward dominance, but exactly against it and toward liberation. It gives way not to destruction, but to healing. If people don’t like it (and they don’t) - it’s honestly just too bad. Nothing would stop Jesus from doing what was right.

What this moment also teaches us is something about how scripture works. The Bible does not always resolve tension for us. At times, it places truths side by side that force us to slow down, pay attention, and grow in wisdom.

James is right to warn us about anger. Mark is right to show us Jesus acting in anger. These are not contradictions to be solved, but realities to be discerned. James speaks to ordinary people whose anger so often springs from fear, pride, or the desire to control. Mark shows us Jesus, whose anger is inseparable from compassion and grief, and whose response leads not to harm but to healing.

This brings us back to what we considered yesterday: faithfulness requires knowing the situation. The religious leaders see a rule to be protected. Jesus sees a person in need. Scripture does not contradict itself here. It forms us, teaching restraint where we are quick to react and courage where we are tempted to remain silent.

The question is not whether anger ever appears in the life of faith, but whether our lives have been formed enough to respond as Jesus does when the moment demands it.

Mark 3:1-6

Jesus returned to the synagogue. A man with a withered hand was there. Wanting to bring charges against Jesus, they were watching Jesus closely to see if he would heal on the Sabbath. He said to the man with the withered hand, “Step up where people can see you.” Then he said to them, “Is it legal on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they said nothing. Looking around at them with anger, deeply grieved at their unyielding hearts, he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he did, and his hand was made healthy. At that, the Pharisees got together with the supporters of Herod to plan how to destroy Jesus.

James 1:19-22

Know this, my dear brothers and sisters: everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to grow angry. This is because an angry person doesn’t produce God’s righteousness. Therefore, with humility, set aside all moral filth and the growth of wickedness, and welcome the word planted deep inside you—the very word that is able to save you.

You must be doers of the word and not only hearers who mislead themselves.

Prayer

God,

You know my capacity for anger. You’ve really helped me with it over the years. First, as a sibling, then later as a spouse, and even now as a parent. Anger has been the thing that has caused me to sin perhaps more than anything else. (Perhaps.)

With your help, I have been able to direct my anger better in recent years. In fact, I feel like the compassion you’ve grown in me is better directed in action because of who you’ve shown me Jesus to be. My first request is that you continue to inspire this in me - I want to be a doer of the Word.

But if my first hope is to add more responsive compassion, my second request is for your help in reducing those moments when my anger does not result in good things. Keep me from a boiling blood that results in thoughts or even words that tear down. Especially in my fatigue, I become weak. So help me, God: Give me Jesus in these moments. Help me breathe deeply, which is to receive your Spirit. And then help me to respond lovingly, which is to reflect Christ.

By your Spirit & in Christ, indeed,
Amen.