Whenever the topic of anger comes up in Bible Studies most people are aware of Jesus flipping the tables of the money-changers in the temple and driving them out with whips. It doesn’t actually say that Jesus was angry but in today’s Gospel reading it does actually say that Jesus was angry. Listen again as Jesus asks the Pharisees a question: “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart. Jesus was angry at the Pharisees not because they were disrespecting the synagogue like the money changers but because they were neglecting the needs of a fellow human being with suffering.
As Jesus entered the synagogue (their place of worship) there was a man there who had a withered hand. What Jesus is confronted with is the dilemma. According to a strict interpretation of the law you were not supposed to do any work on the Sabbath. Healing was considered an act of work. On a similar occasion the Pharisee leader yelled at the people – “There are six days when one has to work. So come to be healed on one of those days, and not on the Sabbath day” And it was this neglect – this hardness of heart – that caused Jesus to be angry – that the Pharisees were more concerned about their traditions than the suffering of a person. But it’s how Jesus reacts that I want to look at:
Jesus doesn’t react by flipping tables or driving them out of the synagogue with whips. No. Jesus reacts with love and compassion by completing the act of healing without fear of what they might do to him: He says: “Stretch out your hand.”
The man stretched it out, and his hand was restored. As Jesus said to the Pharisees – what is the real breaking of God’s commands – Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill. Which is why when Jesus was asked what is the greatest commandment he said – to love God with all your heart AND to love your neighbour as yourself.
Jesus is not breaking the commandments of God here but upholding them.
It’s interesting to compare the response to anger – Jesus responds with love and compassion by helping the man with suffering. The Pharisees respond by plotting to destroy Jesus. Sometimes we get angry at a situation and we are cautioned on how we react. At times, in anger, we can say and do things that hurt people. Just as Cain was cautioned by God when he was angry at his brother Abel: The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” And this is what Paul warns about in Ephesians – in your anger do not sin giving the devil a foothold.
We look at the world and we see things that we are not happy about. We see the injustices around the world and we keep asking – why doesn’t someone do something about it. The question is – in our concern about a situation is God perhaps wanting us to do something about it. Maybe the “someone” to do something is “me”. Has God stirred up our heart with compassion in the same way Jesus’ heart was stirred up with compassion. Is God perhaps niggling you as he was to Samuel? Three times God called out to Samuel. Each time Samuel was unaware that it was God calling him and ran to Eli for help. On the 4th occasion God called out – Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
It’s not always easy to respond to such requests, as Samuel showed. And sometimes it takes a while to realise God is calling us to do something. Sometimes I feel a bit like Jonah who instead of going to Nineveh with God’s message jumped onto a ship going in the opposite direction. But sometimes the call from God is not to go to a particular situation but rather to accept a certain situation that God has placed on us.
Samuel’s 3 callings remind me of St Paul’s prayer where 3 times he prayed to God to take away his suffering – his thorn in the flesh, as he called it. And it was after that 3rd prayer, just as Samuels understanding came after the 3rd call, that God responds about his Paul’s suffering – my grace is all you need.
The number 3 is interesting in the Bible. We have the 2 situations I’ve just mentioned with Samuel and Paul. But Jesus also prayed 3 times in the Garden of Gethsemane to his Father about the cup of suffering that he was to endure. We have Peter’s 3 times denial of Jesus and then Jesus 3 times asking of Peter if he loved him when he restores him as one of his apostles.
So sometimes the challenge and the struggle is that God doesn’t always respond in our time frame and when he does it’s not in the way we might have expected and we might get angry about the situation. And so we are reminded that when we are concerned about things in the world then our first action is to bring it to God in prayer and wait. And sometimes not just once or twice but continually and to not give up, or become disheartened or angry when things don’t change straight away.
And not to expect how the outcome is going to be, as with Paul who didn’t receive physical healing but spiritual understanding of his situation.
And in our 2nd reading today Paul reminds us of exactly that when he says: We have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies.
We don’t always understand God’s ways but we pray, as Jesus did, who also didn’t understand all that he was going through – not my will but your will be done. Paul doesn’t deny that part of our Christian calling may be to suffer but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed. And we remember that in all this we have our Lord Jesus who has great compassion that he seemingly broke the Sabbath Commandment in order to bring healing. And Paul reminds us that our suffering is limited – limited to this life time: For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.
Jesus shows us in our Gospel reading that he has love and compassion for those who suffer. He also knows what it means to suffer as the book of Hebrews says: For we have a high priest who is able to empathize with our weaknesses, one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. We don’t always understand God’s will and why he acts in certain ways but we see through Jesus’ actions today that God’s will is to love and bring comfort. And Paul reminds us that even though at times we are afflicted in every way, that we are not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.
In those dark times God’s light will shine out of darkness to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ or compassionate and loving saviour.
