July 21, 2024
Mark 2:23-3:6
Introduction
In verse five Mark tells us, “Jesus looked around at them… (the Pharisees—the religious leaders) …with anger.” We don’t think much about Jesus getting angry or being angry, do we? But it happens. And though we don’t think about it much we know it’s true because we know Jesus got angry in the temple right after his triumphant entry into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday—flipping over tables and driving people out, proclaiming they have turned God’s temple into a den of thieves.
Jesus got angry. Yet we don’t talk about Jesus getting angry. Why is that? Because I believe we need to. And the reason I believe we need to talk about Jesus getting angry is because so many of us today are angry—and we are scared, which we often try to hide with our anger.
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Last Saturday we saw a lot of anger after the assignation attempt on former President Trump. And truthfully, I think we all should be angry—whether you are a republican, democrat, or whatever because there is no place for violence like that anywhere. And while there is no place for violence like what we saw last week, and like we see so often in countless other places, there is a place for anger. However, there are different types of anger—and only one type is appropriate and faithful.
Move 1
Author and pastor, Craig Groeschel, shares in his book, “Weird: Because Normal Isn’t Working,” a real-life story about anger—his own anger. Pastor Groeschel writes…
Just before Christmas, my whole family piled into our kid-moving vehicle and rushed to the mall for some last-minute Christmas shopping before needing to be at a church event. As usual, we were running late, and I was slightly on edge. Entering the mall parking lot, I was overwhelmed by the traffic…but out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a car near the mall entrance, leaving its space. ‘God is so good’ I thought. I punched the accelerator and sped toward my answered prayers where I immediately staked my spot with ‘eye-lock’. (Eye-lock is the ancient practice of claiming a spot by looking directly at it.) Relieved I would avoid the tedium of trolling up and down each aisle, I kept my eyes deadlocked on the spot and prepared for entry. But suddenly, a red sports car whipped in front of me and stole my parking space.
Frustrated beyond words I did something I’m not proud of doing…I backed up my vehicle, pointed it directly at the red sports car, shifted to neutral, then revved my engine…like a drag racer. I then popped into drive and shot straight toward the rear of the enemy car.
It’s hard to know what happened next. Maybe it was my wife threatening me. Perhaps God answered my kids’ prayers. Maybe I realized I was in our minivan and not a tank. Whatever the reason, right before impact, I slammed on the brakes and stopped just short of the red sports car. Then I rolled down the window and shouted at the top of my lungs, ‘What do you think you’re doing? I had eye-lock on that parking spot you red-sports-car-driving idiot!’
We searched for what seemed like an eternity and finally found a parking spot somewhere near the state line. We dashed from store to store, breathing heavy in our rush. As we entered an anchor department store, who should approach us but the driver of the red sports car. Just great. I could see tomorrow’s headline ‘Local Pastor Assaults Man over Parking Space.’ The driver approached me and said, ‘I can tell you’re in a big hurry. But it appears you have more going on in your life than you can handle.’ I could feel my blood pressure rise, then I saw my wife give me the ‘remember-you’re-a-pastor-and-better-behave-like-one’ look as the red sports car driver continued. ‘I’d like to tell you about someone who could really help change your life… his name is Jesus.’”
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We’ve all had moments like pastor Groeschel, right? Moments of “parking spot anger.” Maybe it wasn’t over a parking spot per se, but a moment of anger that was frustrating, antagonizing, and rage-inducing, but then we elevated it, and escalated it, from a molehill to a mountain via dirty looks, “sign language”, and maybe even verbal name calling. I know I’ve had “parking spot anger” that required Julie to give me the ‘remember-you’re-a-pastor-and-better-behave-like-one’ look.
We experience “parking spot anger” when we don’t get our way, when others don’t do what we want, when we feel personally wronged or attacked. That’s true whether we’re three, thirty, fifty, or ninety years old. And I think much of our life, and world today, are characterized by “parking spot anger”. The anger we see from Jesus in today’s Gospel, however, is vastly different from “parking spot anger”. And we not only need to know the difference, but we also must live out appropriately and faithfully those differences when we are angry.
Move 2
In our text for today Jesus is in the synagogue with a man who has a badly injured and diseased hand. It’s dry, damaged, withered, and shriveled—the man obviously needs help. Also there in the synagogue, Jesus asks the religious authorities, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?”—a question Jesus is asking clearly in reference to the man with a withered hand. The answer is obvious to everyone, including us, but the religious authorities didn’t say a word. They saw the man, his hand, his need. It’s not a hard question to answer. And yet, the religious authorities “were silent.” And because they were silent, “Jesus looked around at them with anger…”
But Jesus didn’t have “parking spot anger.” Jesus had “Jesus anger.” Anger that had at its root a real and justified origin because there was a real injustice unfolding. And in this situation the injustice that is unfolding is a massive one…silence.
The religious authorities are asked a simple question, with an obvious answer about the well-being of someone who is afflicted and hurt, but they were silent.
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Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, wrote in his book, The Prophets about “the evil of silent indifference” saying, “There is an evil which most of us condone and are even guilty of: silent indifference to evil. We remain neutral, impartial, and not easily moved by the wrongs done to other people. Silent indifference to evil is more insidious than evil itself; it is more universal, more contagious, and more dangerous.”
Jesus isn’t angry because the religious authorities are committed to keeping the sabbath and religious laws of the day. Jesus is angry with the religious authorities because they are silent and indifferent. Jesus is angry because they have no compassion for the man; because they are unwilling to commit themselves to the healing, well-being, and future of the man. Jesus is angry because they refuse to speak on the man’s behalf let alone do something. Jesus is angry because the religious authorities—those who claim to be most faithful to God— are more concerned about being right than doing what’s right.
Move 3
Jesus anger is different from parking lot anger and Mark shows us one of the biggest ways we can tell the difference. Jesus wasn’t just angry about the evil of silent indifference, he was also, as Mark further says in verse five, “…grieved at their hardness of heart…” Jesus was angry about the silent indifference and Jesus was grieved by the silent indifference. And that is the model for how we are to be angry today.
So let us ask ourselves… What have we been silent about? In what ways are we silent? On what issues, and in regard to who, are we silent? What is becoming of us?
One way of knowing our answers to these questions is by taking note of what makes us angry because our anger says a lot about who we are, our view of others, who and what we most care about, our core values. Today’s Gospel holds up a mirror to look at ourselves and see what makes us angry.
Are we angry for what others are doing to help? Or are we angry because others are pointing out that we are unwilling to help? Who or what are you angry about today? And if you’re not angry, why aren’t you? What is your “parking spot anger” today? What is your Jesus anger today? Are they different? What are the patterns of your anger over the last few weeks, the last several months—the last few days? Is your anger a deep form of compassion, care, and concern for others; or is it a fight for personal gain? Is your anger controlled, thoughtful, and timely; or is it a sudden outburst, reactionary, a temper tantrum? Does your anger cause you to blame, criticize, and judge others; or is it empowering you to respond to injustice and meet the needs of others? Is your anger primarily concerned with your personal offense and sense of being wronged; or with the wrongs being done to others? Is anger how you defend and justify yourself; or is it a way of standing up for others? Is your anger doing good or doing harm; is it saving life or killing?
Conclusion
Jesus was angry, and his anger led him to grieve because he saw how the religious and spiritually faithfully followers of God had lost their capacity for compassion, empathy, kindness, decency, and seeing others as children of God. That is Jesus anger.
What if you and I, First Christian Church of Stow, and our surrounding communities, had more Jesus anger than parking lot anger? How might we do that? What would that take, and what would that look like in our church life today?
We can’t waste our time and energy on being parking lot angry—it doesn’t get anyone anywhere helpful or faithful. Parking lot anger only makes us look like we need Jesus when we already know Jesus… supposedly.
We need to be angry… but angry like Jesus. Angry like Jesus for the sake of those we love and care about; for the sake of our country and the healing we need. We need to be angry like Jesus for the sake of all those who are hurting and being hurt. We need to be angry like Jesus for the sake of our country’s future. And because we need this, I want to be angry…but I want to be angry like Jesus… don’t you? Amen.
Pastoral Prayer, July 21, 2024
Gracious God, meet us, we pray, in all the places we are—whether we are filled with joy or grief, or fear, or confusion meet us—and meet us especially in our anger Lord.
For there is so much of our minds and hearts and spirits tangled up in our anger—anger that is justified and breaks our hearts because of the hardened hearts we see causing injustice after injustice to your children.
And yet, admittedly, there is anger within us that stems from self-righteousness and judgement.
Meet us in our anger and reveal to us what is pointless parking lot anger, and what is world changing Jesus anger.
Holy God, we pray for our nation that is so divided and so angry. And truthfully, there is parking lot anger and there is Jesus anger—yet still so much of it hides our fears.
So we pray you enable us to discern the real truths, and not get manipulated by all the rhetoric, promises and word twisting.
Take our energies and convictions and core values and especially our Jesus anger and give rise through our voices and actions your Gospel of reconciliation so that those of every tribe and tongue, nation and race, would be drawn into your kingdom of grace, truth, hope, and reconciliation.
We pray, as well, for your Church—in such a nation as ours and such a world as this. May we be your church, again, that is a source of the Light of the World, not hid under a bushel basket, but out illuminating the dimness cast by silent indifference. Make us salt of the Earth, not kept hidden in a saltshaker but sprinkled about to flavor and preserve the world with your compassion, truth, grace, and most of all, your love.
Your best for us … that is our desire Holy God. May you show us the way forward to your best in each new day.
These prayers—spoken and unspoken—are the prayers of our hearts. And they are the prayers we lift to you now in this time of Holy Silence.
We lift all of these prayers to you in the name of the one who always shows us the better way, Jesus the Christ, who taught us to pray, saying, “Our…”