“Then he said to them, Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath or to do evil, to save life or to kill? But they were silent. After looking around at them with anger, he was grieved at the hardness of their hearts and told the man, Stretch out your hand. So he stretched it out, and his hand was restored.” 3:4-5
When we imagine what Jesus looked like and how He acted, we often create this image of a man who was kind, loving and always calm. Yet, this is not a completely accurate portrayal. In this text, Jesus was actually “angry.” The bible teaches that it is possible to be angry, but that we should not sin in our anger. Jesus, of course, never sinned in His anger, but there were times when He was angry, frustrated, grieved and disappointed with the shortcomings of those around Him. In this particular text, the Pharisees were so intent in catching Him doing something wrong that they cared nothing for the motives behind what He did or the needs of the people that He ministered to. You know the type; no matter what you do, you cannot do anything right. They have already made up their minds and everything that is said or done will be filtered through that grid.
Jesus asked a perfectly legitimate question, “Should I do good or evil?” They knew the obvious answer, but the right answer would vindicate Him and the wrong answer would condemn them; so they just kept silent. This made Jesus angry and their hardness of heart grieved Him. Honestly, when I get angry that usually leads me to sin. I do the best I can to avoid anger so that I won’t sin in my anger. Yet, I am reminded that the God of the universe sees many things that happen in this world and, with perfect holiness and righteousness, He feels anger at our hardness of heart, at injustice and at our willful rebellion or refusal to do the right thing. The amazing thing about Jesus, though, is that amid His anger and grief over His detractors He still managed to look past that and see the needs of the sick man before Him. He still healed the man. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our anger towards others or towards a situation, that we fail to do the right thing. We have to keep our eyes on what is most important and not be distracted from it.
