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The Emotional Life of Jesus | Anger

March 23, 2025
Mark 3:1-6

¹Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand. ²And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him. ³And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.” ⁴And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. ⁵And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. ⁶The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

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Purpose

To discover and experience Jesus Christ in our midst

To cultivate mutually encouraging relationships

To participate in God’s mission to the world 

Opening Prayer

We beseech you, almighty God, look on the heartfelt desires of your servants, and stretch forth the right hand of your majesty to be our defense against all our enemies; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Responsive Prayer — Psalm 145

The Lord is gracious and compassionate, 

Slow to anger and rich in love.

The Lord is good to all; 

He has compassion on all he has made.

All your works praise you, Lord; 

Your faithful people extol you.

They tell of the glory of your kingdom and speak of your might,

So that all people may know of your mighty acts and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

Summary and Connection

In his essay “The Emotional Life of Our Lord,” B. B. Warfield wrote, “It belongs to the truth of our Lord’s humanity that he was subject to all sinless human emotions.” In today’s passage, Mark records that Jesus was angry at the Pharisees — the only place in the Bible where Jesus is recorded as being “angry.” Jesus’ anger is rooted not in a selfish motive but in his salvific love for us. Being the perfect man, Jesus displays anger in a righteous way that demonstrates his holiness and compassion for us. We’re in a sermon series called The Emotional Life of Jesus, and today we’ll look at Jesus’ emotion of anger.

Discussion Questions

1. Looking at the Bible

Observation: Read the passage privately. What does the text say? What is the theme of this passage? Do you notice any keywords?

• Verse 5 is the only place in the Bible where it explicitly records that Jesus was angry. What does the Bible say about anger?
  

2. Looking at Jesus

At Central we believe that all of Scripture points to Jesus. In other words, Jesus is the theological center of the Bible. Every passage not only points to Jesus, but the grand narrative of the Bible also finds its fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus.

• From the passage, why do you think Jesus was angry? What angers God?

3. Looking at Our Hearts

• Is there any part of our attitudes or actions that reflects the Pharisees’ hypocritical attitudes? In what ways do we preach to others but fail to practice ourselves? 

4. Looking at Our World

• How does the world view anger? As Christians, how should our attitude toward anger differ from the worldly view?

Sending

• View Study Guide Notes

  Question 1: The word used for anger in verse 5 is orge, which is also often used to describe the “wrath of God” (John 3:36; Romans 1:18; Ephesians 5:6). The Bible offers numerous points of instruction regarding anger. It’s treated as a sin that must be “put to death” (Colossians 3:8), and it’s stated that those who practice anger “will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:20-21; see also Psalm 37:8; Ecclesiastes 7:9; Matthew 5:22).

  In light of all of that, however, Jesus is recorded as being angry in verse 5, and throughout the Gospels, he shows indignation toward numerous people (his disciples in Mark 10:14; the leper in Mark 1:43; the merchants and money changers in John 2:13-16; Herod in Luke 13:32). The Old Testament also contains verses on God’s anger burning against certain people (Deuteronomy 29:27; Isaiah 5:25; 42:25 Ezra 8:22). We’ll see later that God’s anger is different from human anger, but for now we see that there is a divine, righteous anger that is not sin. Even in the biblical commands, there is a qualification of being angry but not sinning: ”Be angry and do not sin” (Ephesians 4:26, quoting Psalm 4:4). In his book “Good and Angry,” David Powlison writes:

  Godly anger confronts someone. Human anger condemns. Righteous anger admonishes, while unrighteous anger accuses. Righteous anger warns, and unrighteous anger threatens…Your anger is both brilliant and appalling. The shifting line between good and evil plays out when it comes to your anger. Your anger is Godlike to the degree you treasure justice and are alert to falsehood. Your anger is devil-like to the degree you play God and are petty, merciless, whiny, argumentative, willful, and unfair.

  The clear instruction is that while there is godly anger demonstrated by Jesus, we are taught to be slow to anger (Proverbs 14:17, 29; 15:18; 16:32; 19:11) as God is (Exodus 34:6), lest we give the devil a foothold (Ephesians 4:27).

  Question 2: Mark records that Jesus is angry at the Pharisees for their “hardness of heart” (verse 5). In his commentary, William Lane writes of the Phariesees that, “in the name of piety they had become insensitive both to the purposes of God and to the sufferings of men.” His anger toward the Pharisees was both because of his concern for them and his detestation of the fallenness of the world (as evidenced by the man with the withered hand). In his book “The Heart of Anger,” Christopher Ash gives three examples of Jesus’ anger: against hard-heartedness (shown in today’s passage), against dishonourment of God (John 2:13-17), and against the effects of sin and death (as seen in last week’s study of John 11). The Old Testament authors also record God's anger in numerous places (Psalm 7:11; Nahum 1:2). However, Rabbi Abraham Heschel comments, “The prophets never [portray] God’s anger as something that cannot be accounted for, unpredictable, irrational; it is never a spontaneous outburst, but a reaction occasioned by the conduct of humans…and motivated by concern for right and wrong.”

  Although atheists such as Richard Dawkins criticize God’s anger and jealousy and dismiss him as “the most unpleasant character in all fiction,” Jesus’ anger — God’s anger — shows his compassion and love. He is angry at the consequences of sin and the fallen world (the withered hand) and at the hardness of heart that prevents the people from witnessing God’s salvation, both physically and spiritually. B. B. Warfield wrote, “it would be impossible, therefore, for a moral being to stand in the presence of perceived wrong indifferent and unmoved…the emotions of indignation and anger belong, therefore, to the very self-expression of a moral being as such and cannot be lacking to him in the presence of wrong.” As Sinclair Ferguson summarized, “Jesus’ emotions of indignation and hatred are actually emotions of love…his love and his hatred are really two sides of the same coin.”

  Question 3: In his Gospel, Matthew also records Jesus’ condemnation of the Pharisees’ hypocrisy, especially in Matthew 23:2–5a,12:

  ²The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, ³so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. ⁴They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. ⁵They do all their deeds to be seen by others…. ¹²Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

  Mark points out that the Pharisees watched Jesus so that they might accuse him (verse 2). It’s important to question whether our hearts may actually reflect the Pharisees’ posture. Our passage (3:1-6) is the second half of Jesus’ broader conflict with the Pharisees about what is lawful to do on the Sabbath. Jesus asserts that the “Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (2:27). His anger with the Pharisees stems from their insistence on enforcing behavior that harms human flourishing.

  We can often be like the Pharisees in Mark 2, watching others so that we might condemn them. We heap expectations or judgments onto others that we do not equally apply to ourselves. To paraphrase Jesus’ words in Matthew 23, we love our own status, image, reputation, and titles more than we love other people. We twist the two greatest commandments (Matthew 22:34-40) into loving ourselves with all our hearts, minds, and strength, and loving ourselves without loving our neighbors.

  When we notice our own hypocritical postures or practices, it’s important to remember that we are loved by God (1 John 3:1) and saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8). Our salvation is only through Jesus’ love shown in his death for us (1 John 3:16), and it is a gift, not a result of our works (Ephesians 2:9). Since we’ve been forgiven by God’s grace, we can extend that grace to others. As Paul writes, Christians should be “kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you,” (Ephesians 4:32).

  Question 4: Secular thinkers have offered a range of interpretations on anger throughout history, from seeing it as a negative, destructive force to a source of power or justice. The Stoics viewed anger as a “short madness” and a loss of reason, arguing that virtue is in self-control. However, Aristotle proposed that anger can be virtuous if rightly ordered. In the East, Buddhism teaches that anger is one of the Three Poisons (along with greed and delusion) that defiles the mind; it is a harmful delusion. On the other hand, Mahatma Gandhi, who was a committed Hindu, said, “I have learned to use my anger for good — without it, we would not be motivated to rise to a challenge; it is an energy that compels us to define what is just and unjust.”

  We already saw above how the emotion of anger, in and of itself, isn’t sinful from a biblical perspective; for God, his anger was out of his compassion and love. Numerous theologians from Augustine to Aquinas have affirmed that anger isn’t inherently evil and can be used for righteousness. However, we are fallen beings, and our judgment regarding holy, divine anger can be misleading. In Exodus 2:11-12, Moses promptly acted in anger, killing the Egyptian. He may have thought that he was simply doing something to deliver his people while God was seemingly distant to their cries. Peter cuts Malchus’ ear in John 18:10-11 in his attempt to protect Jesus. However, in these situations, God wasn’t pleased. In our culture, where all too often we are quick to channel anger to fuel a cause or agenda, we must remember to be slow to anger, for human anger does not produce the righteousness of God (James 1:19-20). As God’s children, our job isn’t to spread anger but to be peacemakers in this world (Matthew 5:9).