In your anger, sin not…:  Mark 3:1-6

Sermon by Pastor Dennis Gleason -- February 5, 2006

“Another time he went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “stand up in front of everyone.” Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent. He looked around at them in anger and , deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.”

Mark has been telling us about the Pharisees, teachers of the law who were Pharisees, who have been dogging Jesus footsteps. They have been criticizing him for his teaching, for his healing of the sick and afflicted, and for his disciples “harvesting” on the Sabbath day. They  have even now, according to our text for today, formed an un-holy alliance with the Herodians. The Herodians were non-Jews who were rulers over Israel at that time. And the Jews who prided themselves on their separation from the heathen world around them have now violated their own principle of separation in order to find a way to do away with Jesus.

And so they were spying on Jesus. They were looking for a way to accuse him and to bring a public charge against him so they could destroy him.

It is in the synagogue once again that they wait for him to do some thing they can accuse him for. And Jesus throws down a challenge before them when he sees the man with the withered hand and commands him to step out into the midst of the room.

The Pharisees would by virtue of their position as Pharisees have the “chief seats” in the synagogue. They would have been right down in the front. And so Jesus tells the man with the withered hand to step out into the midst of the group gathered there, right in front of the Pharisees who are watching him.

Jesus raises the question in that gathering, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or evil?” What he is asking is this: Is it lawful to do the normally good thing to someone or for someone?

We have just read Mark’s version of Jesus’ statement that the Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Man is the important part of the equation when it comes to the Sabbath. Yes, there were requirements they were responsible for that were designed to keep the Sabbath day special and different from every other day. It was a holy day. It was a day that was set apart from all the other days of the week. They were to honor it. They were to observe it. But the reason for that was for mankind and not for the day itself.

J. Vernon McGee tells this story about a man who wanted to argue about the Sabbath. The man said, "I'll give you $100 if you will show me where the Sabbath day has been changed." McGee answered, "I don't think it has been changed. Saturday is Saturday, it is the seventh say of the week, and it is the Sabbath day. I realize our calendar has been adjusted, and can be off a few days, but we won't even consider that point. The seventh day is still Saturday, and it is still the Sabbath day." He got a gleam in his eye and said, "Then why don't you keep the Sabbath day if it hasn't been changed?" McGee answered, "the DAY hasn't changed, but I have been changed. I've been given a new nature now, I am joined to Christ; I am a part of the new creation. We celebrate the first day because that is the day He rose from the grave." That is what it means that the ordinances have been nailed to the cross, Colosians 2:14. J. Vernon McGee.

Jesus tells us that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. And now as he confronts the Pharisees who are looking for ways to accuse him of wrong doing, he shows us that the real evil here is not to do the good that is within your power to do for someone. To omit to do the good, even on the Sabbath, is evil.

Think about the Pharisees. What were they doing for the man with the withered hand? Were they interested in him or his need? Were they trying to find some way to alleviate his disability or assist him in coping with the withered hand? No! All they saw was an opportunity to accuse Jesus. All they saw was the possibility that he would violate the Sabbath if he chose to heal the man. All they saw in this man and his need was that he was bait…Bait dangled before Jesus to see if he would do something to break their Sabbath rules and regulations.  someone to be used to trap Jesus. They were so blinded by anger against Jesus and so consumed by legalism they couldn’t see human need right before their eyes.

Notice that Jesus never touches the man to heal him as he did on many other occasions. He does not say, “Be Healed.” There is not much they can criticize him for…when all he does is say, “stretch forth your hand”.

And the Pharisees are speechless. Mark says that they were silent. The text literally says, they “kept on being quiet”. It is an action in the past that has continuing results of effects into the future. Essentially it becomes continuous action or effects. How could they argue against what he was doing? But their anger simply grew so much that they formed an unholy alliance with those Herodians we spoke about earlier.

Mark then tells us that Jesus then looked around on them “being grieved with anger.”

There are three Greek words for anger:

1.      Thumos…a sudden outburst of anger that cools of quickly.

2.      Orge…which is an abiding, settled state of mind, not active all the time but becoming active when the situation demands it.

3.      Parorgismos…or anger in the sense of exasperation.

Ephesians 4:26 ( “In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.”) forbids this kind of anger.

            The second, orge, is permitted but the qualification is that we be careful that there are no sinful elements included in it. It is Orge that Mark uses in this passage. There are circumstances in which what we call “righteous anger” is not only permitted, but required.

Jesus’ anger is tempered by his grief. Being grieved in this situation is a continuous state of grief at the sins of people.

He is deeply distressed at their stubborn heart. This is the hardened heart that Mark alludes to here. The word he uses for hardened hearts is one that comes from a word that means “to cover with a thick skin, to harden by covering with a callus”. The obvious implication of this is that the callus causes one to be insensitive to the needs of others.

Note also that the word heart is in the singular. It is as if a whole class of people had one heart among them…that is, they had one type of heart and it was hardened. How tragic that these religious leaders saw only something to use to trap Jesus and not a real human being whose need cried out for help, for care and compassion. But their hardened heart saw none of that. They did not seek to help him, or to pray for him.

And so Jesus simply commanded the man…”stretch out your hand.” And it was returned to its former state, Mark says. It became as whole as his other hand.

And they began plotting with the Herodians how they might destroy Jesus.

Many years ago a senior executive of the then Standard Oil Company made a wrong decision that cost the company more than $2 million. John D. Rockefeller was then running the firm. On the day the news leaked out most of the executives of the company were finding various ingenious ways of avoiding Mr. Rockefeller, lest his wrath descend on their heads.

There was one exception, however; he was Edward T. Bedford, a partner in the company. Bedford was scheduled to see Rockefeller that day and he kept the appointment, even though he was prepared to listen to a long harangue against the man who made the error in judgment.

When he entered the office the powerful head of the gigantic Standard Oil empire was bent over his desk busily writing with a pencil on a pad of paper. Bedford stood silently, not wishing to interrupt. After a few minutes Rockefeller looked up.

"Oh, it's you, Bedford," he said calmly. "I suppose you've heard about our loss?"

Bedford said that he had.

"I've been thinking it over," Rockefeller said, "and before I ask the man in to discuss the matter, I've been making some notes."

Bedford later told the story this way:

"Across the top of the page was written, 'Points in favor of Mr. _______.' There followed a long list of the man's virtues, including a brief description of how he had helped the company make the right decision on three separate occasions that had earned many times the cost of his recent error.

"I never forgot that lesson. In later years, whenever I was tempted to rip into anyone, I forced myself first to sit down and thoughtfully compile as long a list of good points as I possibly could. Invariably, by the time I finished my inventory, I would see the matter in its true perspective and keep my temper under control. There is no telling how many times this habit has prevented me from committing one of the costliest mistakes any executive can make -- losing his temper.

"I commend it to anyone who must deal with people."   

Bits & Pieces, September 15, 1994, pp. 11-13.

The hot anger of Jesus arose out of a heart warm with compassion for those who suffered and that compassion spared even His enemies for a time.

1. He felt distress because of their stubborn hearts. Remember, He cared even for them as much as for the crippled man.
2. No matter what men did to Him, He never got angry about it. He even stood silent in Pilate’s hall as He endured ridicule, injustice, and death. He became angry when other were mistreated by those who claimed to represent God.
3. He became angry when men sentenced themselves to Hell because of stubborn hardness of heart.
C. You see, there is a place for righteous anger. There are some things about which w need to get hot enough to do something:
1. We should be angry about children being abused and neglected.
2. It should make us hot under the collar to think about 4000 abortions every day in the United States.
3. We should be steamed about those who peddle death to our children even on their school playgrounds.
4. We should be angry about political corruption and opportunism and go to the polls angry and in a mood to do something about it.
5. It should upset us that “safe” sex, Islam, and evolution can be taught in our public schools where the Bible cannot be legally read.

CONC.: Jesus knew what He was doing. He was setting in motion events that would lead to Calvary. He put His life on the line for this sufferer. Isn’t that exactly what He did for us?

Let me close with this thought:

A person who is angry on the right grounds, against the right persons, in the right manner, at the right moment, and for the right length of time deserves great praise. 

Bits & Pieces, May 27, 1993, p. 1.

There is a place for the right kind of anger. Lets make sure that in our anger we sin not.

 --Dennis Gleason