Day 10: When Jesus Is Angry (Mark 1:40-45)
Today’s Passage: Mark 1:40-45
If you spend any time in church, sooner or later you will hear, “Jesus was fully human. Jesus experienced all our emotions and trials.”
If these statements are true, and I believe they are, then Jesus experienced anger.
In fact, the Scriptures tell us He did. In John 2:13-22 He clears the Temple. In Mark 11:15-19 He clears the Temple again. In Matthew 23 He calls out the hypocrites.
We read that Jesus gets upset when people turn the place meant to come into their deepest sense of God’s presence- into a marketplace. He also gets upset when He sees so-called religious authorities leading people astray.
There is one other place where we might read that Jesus is angry—and it is here in Mark 1:40-45.
To tell you why this might be the situation is to take you into a field of study called “textual criticism”.
If you read the NIV translation it says in verse 41 “Jesus was indignant”. The ESV and others read “Jesus moved with pity…”. Those are two very different emotions.
Now the great news about the New Testament is that we have hundreds of manuscripts of Mark, and Matthew, etc. and it is amazing how they almost completely agree.
Did you notice I said, “almost completely”? A few of the earliest manuscripts of Mark use a Greek word which is translated “indignant” or even “angry”. The vast majority of manuscripts use a different Greek word and give us the translation as “pity” or “compassion”.
The field of study that examines each jot and tittle of these documents is called “textual criticism”. Criticism not in the negative sense, but rather in the academic sense.
You might be thinking right now, “Why on earth is David down this rabbit hole?”
Good question. Answer: because I wonder if Jesus was angry, and what He was angry at? I don’t believe He was angry at the man asking for help. This man shows great faith in Jesus. He does not say “if you can”, He says, “if you are willing”.
That is a huge difference. This man believes Jesus has the power to heal, it is just a question if He, Jesus, will spend His power on someone that is at the “low rung” of society—a leper.
Jesus of course heals him.
Jesus heals people, not to show His power, but because of His compassion.
I think it is fully possible that Jesus is angry AND compassionate. To me it makes sense that He could be angry. He feels this man’s distress deeply. I know this is speculation, but I believe He was angry that God’s very good perfect creation, this image bearer of God, had been so contaminated by the sin that had entered the world.
Jesus, early in His ministry, gets an up-close, personal encounter with someone who needs to be restored. Moved with compassion, He touches the man—unheard of for someone with this disease.
As humans we are formed by our experiences. Our fully human Jesus was being formed by this experience, formed for the ultimate moment when he will go to the Cross, to defeat the forces of sin which have writhed havoc on His very good creation.
Jesus did that for this leper. Jesus does that for you and me.