3/17/63

Scripture: Mark 3: 1-6.

If any of us has a notion that the Christian religion is not a religion of controversy, we ought to re-study our faith drastically. We do not have to read far in the New Testament gospels before we come upon the marks of controversy.

There was a Sabbath day when Jesus and his disciples were walking through the fields. They had not had much to eat; and when the disciples passed near enough to the ripening heads of grain, they shelled out a few kernels and ate them from their hands. It was a simple sort of thing that I have done many a time, as has almost anyone who is familiar with summer wheat fields or other fields of grain.

But this day was the seventh day of the week, the Jewish Sabbath. The slight effort of shelling out heads of grain into the hand was looked upon as labor. And no unnecessary labor was permitted on the Sabbath, for it was a holy day of rest and worship. And so some of those Pharisees who were watching said to Jesus: “Why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” It was a challenge to Jesus -- somewhat angry in tone. Jesus answered promptly: “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry? He and those who were with him? How he entered the house of God -- and there ate of the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat? And also gave it to those who were with him?” And Jesus said to the Pharisees, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath; so the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” [Matthew 12: 1-8].

There was very soon another conflict between Jesus and his critics. It is recorded in the incident which became our Scripture reading for this morning. Jesus went into a synagogue. There was a man present who had a bad arm -- the gospel of Mark calls it a “withered hand.” By this time people were ascribing quite a reputation to Jesus as a healer. There were those who watched with particular, critical interest, to see if Jesus would heal that man’s withered hand on the Sabbath day.

Jesus was aware of the situation. And he made an issue of it. Seeing the withered hand, he said to the unfortunate man: “Stand forth” or “Come here.” Then he looked around the room and asked: “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” There may have been a technical point in Hebrew law here. Healing on the Sabbath was forbidden by the later rabbis, except in cases of dire necessity. This was no case of immediate emergency. It could have waited for 12 or 24 hours without endangering anyone’s life. According to the scholar Jerome, the man in this account was a mason, who depended on his hands for his livelihood, and who begged Jesus to heal him so that he be spared the shame of begging for his living. Luke adds that it was his right hand that was afflicted. But the affliction could have waited another day, if indeed the Healer had still been there, in order that the Sabbath law be not broken.

But Jesus had scant patience with such technicalities. He looked around the room with his question as to whether it was lawful to do good on the Sabbath, or to do harm? No one answered. Jesus looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart. Then he said to the unfortunate man, “Stretch out you hand.” The fellow stretched out his hand; and it was well! According to the story, Jesus hadn’t even touched it, nor manipulated it, as he sometimes did in his treatments. Of course the Pharisees were angry too, at what appeared to them to be open, defiant, breaking of their law. They went out and began talking with certain Herodians how they might destroy this Jesus who was such a blatant breaker of the Hebrew law! Consider, then, this passage. See how intensely indignant Jesus could be, and how his wrath could dare the hostility of people who had the power to kill him.

Many an artist’s picture of Jesus depicts him with wan, sad face. Many writings have emphasized his meekness and humility -- which characteristics certainly were a part of his personality. But let no one believe that quiet peacefulness was necessarily the dominant feature of the Master. He could be intensely indignant over the perversity, the stubbornness, the rigidity, the smug self-righteousness of people. And, after all, this kind of anger is part of a great character’s equipment. Consider this outburst of the Psalmist:

Hot indignation hath taken hold upon me,

Because of the wicked that forsake Thy law.

I hate every false way.

I hate them that are of a double mind;

I hate and abhor falsehood.

I do not, myself, hold any very comprehensive brief for anger. I think that a great deal of human anger is ill-advised, and expressed in harmful ways. Nonetheless, there is a wholesome and righteous quality in the kind of anger that Jesus showed now and then. His anger was righteous indignation. It was shown in a variety of circumstances. There are the sayings of Jesus reported by Luke when he said, “It would be better for one to have a millstone hung around his neck and be cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin.” [Luke 17: 2]. And, again in the hearing of all his disciples, he said: “Beware of the scribes, who like to go about in long robes, and love salutations in the market places and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widow’s houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” [Luke 20: 46-47].

Would the Master ever have to regret his indignation over children wronged or widows robbed and swindled by oily hypocrites? One of the Christians of a recent generation who had a great social concern for people living in a city used to be infuriated over the foul character of some of the men he knew. A friend of his remarked: “I have seen him grind his teeth and clench his fists when passing a man he knew was bent on destroying an innocent girl.” Does such anger ever call for remorse?

Is not our anger often personal resentment because of some private wrong we think was done to us? When our wrath is altogether selfish it may issue in outbursts of personal resentment over which we may become ashamed. But Jesus’ wrath never showed in words of anger when others brutally mistreated him. His indignation was aroused over the abuse of others. It may be this latter to which Paul referred when he wrote, “Be angry and sin not.”

Matthew reports Jesus’ thoroughgoing indignation over some of the leaders of the Jewish people when he exclaimed: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith; these you ought to have done without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of extortion and rapacity. You blind Pharisees! first cleanse the inside of the cup and of the plate, that the outside also may be clean. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.” [Matthew 23: 23-28]. These are sayings of a thoroughly indignant man! He would be a most uncomfortable prodder of conscience anywhere, anytime, in our own neighborhoods now as well as in the neighborhoods of nineteen and one-half centuries ago.

Sometimes Jesus’ anger showed in one of the stories he told. There was his story of a rich fellow named Dives, who had fine clothing and sumptuous food every day. A certain miserable beggar named Lazarus was laid at his gate every day to plead for crumbs from the rich diner’s table. The beggar’s body was covered with sores and dogs came to lick the sores as he lay there begging for bread. The beggar died and went to heaven. The rich fellow died and went to Hades where he lifted up his eyes in torment. [Luke 16: 19-31]. Jesus’ story illustrates his indignation over callous unconcern for suffering and its causes. Can you and I live with no community concern to help where we can?

The gospel of John reports the classic example of Jesus’ wrath: “The Passover of the Jews was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers at their business. And making a whip out of cords, he drove them all, with the sheep and oxen, out of the temple; and he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, ‘Take these things away; you shall not make my Father’s house a house of trade.’ His disciples remembered that it was written, ‘zeal for thy house will consume me.’” [John 2: 13-17]. Here is Jesus’ anger over a great public evil, a system of legalized graft, housed in God’s temple!

In a day when part of one’s worship toward the Creator was a burnt-offering sacrifice of some of one’s blessings and benefits, it was natural to assume that one could worthily sacrifice only what was perfect. It would be mean and shoddy to sacrifice the runt of the flock or the blighted grain or the rotted fruit. But this worthy motive became commercialized in an offensive way. Since people coming from a distance could hardly bring a perfect sheep or ox for sacrifice; and many who wanted to worship and offer sacrifice did not raise livestock anyway; the authorities at the temple did a thriving business in procuring and selling (for handsome prices!) animals that were judged unblemished. Those who were too poor to buy and sacrifice an ox or a sheep, could get a pair of pigeons for that purpose.

And as for money for the offering, everyone knew that one of the Ten Commandments forbade any graven image! So a coin with Caesar’s inscription on it was an evil gift. In the temple, one could only offer money that was entirely smooth -- minted with no image upon it. Few people had this kind of coin. So the civil money had to be exchanged for temple money -- at a commission, of course!

And all of this commerce was set up in the outer court of the temple. One can imagine how quiet and reverent was the atmosphere in the inner court, even the holy of holies, in the temple with the sound of a stock yard, a stock exchange, and commercial hawking going on within the entry court! Jesus’ reaction to it was the same as it would be today at evidence of corruption in a city government or at corruption of democracy by graft. His action was that of sweeping, cleansing, wrath!

There are other evidences of Jesus’ anger. Matthew [7: 1-5] reports that Jesus taught: “Judge not, that you be not judged.” This suggests “judging” in the sense of “condemning.” “For with the judgment you pronounce,” he said, “you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you will get. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.”

Jesus loved people. He tried to see all the good he could discover in them, before he condemned their evil. Even righteous indignation was not to run away with him. It may be that among his followers, even righteous indignation over evil will do no good unless our fellows feel that we judge ourselves as severely as we do others; and appreciate their good as well as hate their wrong.

Jesus took a strong attitude toward evils that he hated, and to the perpetrators of wrong. And he took no mild attitude toward evil suggestions that tempted or tested him. He hated them also. You recall how abruptly he rebuked Peter on one occasion. Peter could not accept Jesus’ warning to the disciples that they must be prepared for his passion, his trial, his death, his resurrection. Peter protested that no such things should ever happen to Jesus. And the Master said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not on the side of God, but of men.” [Matthew 16: 21-23]. Even temptation such as this was repelled with spirit!

One may wonder a bit at this side of the Master’s nature. At first sight, anger seems to be the opposite of good will. Is Jesus therefore as magnanimous as we thought in last Sunday’s meditation? Jesus, in a synagogue meeting, where elders were more anxious to have their law observed than to have a sick man healed, looked around on them with blazing anger. He faced the organized grafting system in the temple courts with such hot indignation that he actually used a whip of cords to drive out the money-changers and their wares. And the apparent hypocrisy of so many of the scribes and Pharisees infuriated him! How shall we reconcile what we observe about the Master’s good will with these outbursts of tremendous wrath?

It may be said, philosophically speaking, that all great virtues are the result of two moral forces pulling in opposite directions. For example, liberality is merely weak and unintelligent toleration, unless, with broad sympathies on one side, there are positive convictions about truth on the other side. Fosdick remarks that “Conviction without sympathy makes the bigot; sympathy without conviction makes the sentimentalist; together they make the truly liberal man.” That is to say: abhorrence of evil can become bitter and hateful. But without abhorrence of evil, kindness can become undiscriminating and spineless. But kindness together with abhorrence of evil can make the magnanimous person!

In India, one may see a statue of a Buddhist saint sitting in a great temple contemplating the Infinite and feeling benign good will toward all creation. The great Indian religions preach love and goodwill. But they do not advocate lifting a finger to help another person. There is no stir of indignation at the evils of the land. When a typical Christian cares, love and good will mean a different thing. They involve positive abhorrence of the apathy which leaves millions of people uneducated, hungry and hopeless. A good Christian is a man of some anger, whether in India or America or Europe. He has heard the injunction of Paul: “You who love the Lord, hate evil.” This attitude is a direct inheritance from Jesus. Because he pities the unfortunate, he is angered by the callousness of those who are responsible for the unfortunates’ condition or who will take no concern for corrections. And no long prayers will completely suffice when action is needed. The two must be combined, or they fail.

Love like that of the Master is terrible! It looks at Lazarus with compassion and pity -- and then it looks at Dives! One might better call on the mountains to cover him than to stand defenseless before the indignation which that love creates. A distinguishing mark of Jesus’ indignation is that he is never angry at wrong done to him as an individual. His indignation is always unselfish. This freedom from personal resentment, on the part of one so capable of indignation, far surpasses all we can imagine of ordinary human nature. However, let anyone harm another, and Jesus is profoundly stirred. When it is our cheek that is to be turned; our cloak that is to be shared; that is one thing. But when it is someone else who is being unfairly buffeted, perhaps a little of the lion becomes us better than the lamb within us.

And we do well to remember that Jesus’ indignation stands out best in contrast to his great appreciation of any good discoverable anywhere in people. Condemnation by itself, in unjust and injurious. It is therefore necessary to see Jesus’ righteous indignation balanced by his eager desire to discover and applaud even the faint beginnings of goodness in any person. For Jesus was the most appreciative spirit that ever lived. He could be terribly stern with Peter. But he saw possibilities in Peter that the big fisherman himself never dreamed of. And it was not wishful thinking, either. Peter did prove to be quite a man!

Jesus appreciated the poor widow, putting all she had into the temple treasury as her gift. He appreciated even young men who were not earnest enough to follow him. He understood the father who could still see good in the prodigal son. In the light of this appreciativeness, we can see how Jesus ranks as the great encourager of people. For this is the quality which makes his indignation so effective. His wrath is turned only against wickedness that is proud, impenitent and unrelenting. At the first sign of repentance his wrath melts into tenderness.

Here then, are the marks of his anger: (1) He hated evil tremendously because he loved the people whom evil was ruining; (2) His wrath was always unselfish; he was never angry at wrong done to him; (3) His indignation followed his attempt to find something praiseworthy in one’s life and was always ready to cease when the first sign of repentance appeared. Such anger is one of the “sinews of the soul.”

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, March 17, 1963.

Also at Waioli Hui’ia Church, March 18, 1973.