Anger is acceptable…for these four reasons
Is passion an unspiritual thing? Are there ever circumstances where anger is justified?
We know that senseless, stupid anger and wrath are “works of the flesh.”
However, even Christ got angry on several occasions.
Maybe we have been too “gentle and cozy” with things Christ had no time for!
Could there be even a correlation between righteous indignation and faith?
Let’s look at four times Christ became passionately angry…and at whom:
Christ got angry at unbelief (Mark 3: 5)
“And he looked around them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart…”
Christ wanted to heal a man on the Sabbath. The religious leaders were adamantly opposed to Sabbath healings, deeming them “work.”
Imagine leaving a donkey in a well or a cat without water because it was the Sabbath.
Religion can be ridiculous. He immediately healed the man, effectively saying, “DEAL WITH IT.”
2. Christ got angry at the merchandising of the Gospel (Mt. 21:13)
There is certainly nothing wrong with not making everything free in the work of the Lord.
The Pharisees, however, were marketing animals and doing “money exchange” throughout the temple. Christ called them a “den of thieves” and started turning over their tables with a whip in hand!
His anger was a righteous indignation. It was HIS HOUSE. He forcefully threw them out of HIS HOUSE!
The Gospel is not intended to be a worldly bazaar. Christ immediately began to heal the blind and the lame in the “house of prayer.”
3. Christ got angry at sickness (Mark 1:41)
“And becoming angry, he stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be made clean.” (LEB)
Some translations use the term “compassion,” while others use “anger.” Why would Jesus be angry at leprosy?
Leprosy was usually a nine year disease that gradually ate up your entire body. It was horrible.
The leper asked Jesus “Are you willing to make me whole?” Jesus’ anger was at the terrible effects of disease upon those He loved. He touched the man (making Him ceremonially unclean!) and said, “I am willing, be made clean.”
Faith for healing may begin when we get furious at the disease and the devil who brought sin upon mankind in the first place.
4. Christ got angry at religious hypocrisy (Mt. 23)
“Woe to you…blind guides…blind fools…blind men…hypocrites…serpents…brood of vipers!”
Not a very “cum ba ya” message!
The Lord had no time for religious philosophers who counted your steps on the Sabbath and laid religious burdens on the humble.
Let’s be extremely careful about having so many religious rules that no one can keep them.
Jesus gave us the two main rules: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Mt. 22:37-39)
Go ahead, get angry. Just make it at the right thing!