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An Emotional Man (4)
An Emotional Man (4)
Of all the pictorial images man has made of Jesus, the best image are His emotions pictured in the Bible. His sorrow and joy show us the truth of what Hebrews 4:15 says. “For we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with feelings of our infirmities…” Christ’s many signs of emotions are displayed throughout scripture. Each one has a lesson with them teaching the Christian how best to use the emotions we express each day.
His Anger
Jesus was angered with His disciples for turning the children away from coming to Him (Mark 10:13-15). The same anger is expressed in Matthew 23:13, when Jesus said, “But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because ye shut the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye enter not in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering in to enter.”
The most well-known case showing Jesus’ anger is John 2:13-17 and Matthew 21:12-14. Jesus goes into the temple where holiness should abound, but there is cheating of the poor, shutting out the Gentiles, and defrauding God honor in the temple by turning the worship and service to God into a business, a “den of robbers”. Jesus did not take his whip to a man but to the things they used to make merchandise of the temple of God. Jesus stirred up the anger in the hearts of the chief priests and scribes who “sought how they might destroy him…” Their anger, unlike that of Jesus, was a selfish revenge for what Jesus did to their dishonesty and mockery of the temple.
Why such anger at these people? Mark 3:5 tells us Jesus knew “the hardening of their heart”. They were calloused. The truth had not pricked or softened their heart to obey. It drove them more toward their pride and hypocrisy.
The reason for Jesus’ anger is obvious. It was a matter of truth vs. error, right vs. wrong, righteousness vs. unrighteousness. Such an emotion is due to the holiness of God (1 Peter 1:17), who does not lie (Titus 1:2), cannot be tempted (James 1:13), and is of “purer eyes than to behold evil” (Habakkuk 1:13).
God is deeply dissatisfied with sin and is pained by our disbelief. As a result, His anger is witnessed. The anger of Christ was evident in Matthew 23 as He examined the heart of hypocrisy in the lives of the scribes and Pharisees. After pronouncing WOE upon their works of evil, Jesus asked in v.33 how would they escape the judgment of hell. This judgment Jesus proclaimed would come is the ultimate demonstration of anger. When reading Romans 2:2-10, a person sees the basis of godly anger as “according to truth” when man “..despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering…”
When we become angry, does it look like this? Is it initiated by personal hurt or caused by love and concern for others and for righteousness sake rather than by the frustration of our own desires?
