Text: Mark 3:1-6
Dr. Kadheeja Mumtaz, a leading medical professor in the Department of Gynecology, shares one of her experience in the medical college. On her first day in medical college as the assistant professor, she met a fourteen year old pregnant girl who came for abortion along with her parents. After consultation the doctor advised her not to abort the fetus as she is suffering from chronic heart disease. Her father who was very calm and polite listened to the doctor’s advice very patiently. On the other hand her mother, she was very angry and cried to the doctor that in spite of her daughter’s heart disease she wanted her daughter to undergo abortion. Dr. Kadheeja stood spell bound to see such a mother who wants to uphold the reputation of her family costing her daughter’s life. However a deep conversation with the mother revealed the fact, that the pregnant girl’s father himself was responsible for the pregnancy. This mother out of her deep anguish asked the doctor how her daughter can take care of the child who was born from her own father. What does this mother’s anger reflect?
The passage we listened also portrays an angry Jesus who involved in one of the Sabbath controversies. The scene is set with three parties, which allows interpreting the scene from various perspectives. Here we can clearly see the fight between Jesus and the religious leaders on the issue of saving life and the keeping the Sabbath.
The Sabbath had served as a mark of self identity to the people of God that separated them from Gentiles and it also presented a constant testimony to their faith in one God. Sabbath was intended to be a day of joy, a day of rest and has also included an element of social justice.
But later the same day was transformed in to a day for being passive. According to Jewish interpretations there are about 39 actions that are forbidden on the day of Sabbath. In fact the observance of Sabbath has became a crushing burden, a symbol of religious bondage. Thus for the religious leaders to keep Sabbath is ‘ doing good’ where as healing the person is ‘doing evil’. Jesus deliberately uses this occasion to teach the dignity of life by placing himself on the side of human worth against a depersonalized legalism.
Jesus became very in making the man as a mere object in the whole plot to trap Jesus. The strong anger . Jesus’ anger against the narrow attitude of the religious leaders is a means to express his deep relationship and care for others, especially the less privileged. His anger was an invitation to look into the situation in the perspective of the victims. His power of anger resulted in the restoration of the man.
Usually anger is portrayed as the opposite of love. It is expressed as one of the deadly sins. But from this passage we can see that Jesus’ anger is a mode of taking others seriously and helping them to find a space. It shows an explicit relation to others and a clear form of caring. For Jesus, anger is a radical activity of love that expresses solidarity and reciprocity. In other words we can see the power of anger in the works of love.
Anger is a sign of the resistance in ourselves to the morality of the social relations in which we are placed. All serious human activity, especially action for change arises from the rising power of human anger. Can’t we see an angry Jesus in Jerusalem temple?
As a part of church and as a part of theological community, we often thinks that anger is not a part of the spirituality. We are often blind to see the angry feelings of the people. We often undermine the anger as uncultured or an undisciplined. We are trained to ‘hear’ the cries of the people, but are we equipped to see the anger of others? Do we realize that When ever a person confronts us in anger he or she is demanding an acknowledgement from us? And whenever anger is hidden or un-attended, the power of love, the power to act also dies.
May our anger reflect our deepest concern to bring justice to our society...Amen
The passage we listened also portrays an angry Jesus who involved in one of the Sabbath controversies. The scene is set with three parties, which allows interpreting the scene from various perspectives. Here we can clearly see the fight between Jesus and the religious leaders on the issue of saving life and the keeping the Sabbath.
The Sabbath had served as a mark of self identity to the people of God that separated them from Gentiles and it also presented a constant testimony to their faith in one God. Sabbath was intended to be a day of joy, a day of rest and has also included an element of social justice.
But later the same day was transformed in to a day for being passive. According to Jewish interpretations there are about 39 actions that are forbidden on the day of Sabbath. In fact the observance of Sabbath has became a crushing burden, a symbol of religious bondage. Thus for the religious leaders to keep Sabbath is ‘ doing good’ where as healing the person is ‘doing evil’. Jesus deliberately uses this occasion to teach the dignity of life by placing himself on the side of human worth against a depersonalized legalism.
Jesus became very in making the man as a mere object in the whole plot to trap Jesus. The strong anger . Jesus’ anger against the narrow attitude of the religious leaders is a means to express his deep relationship and care for others, especially the less privileged. His anger was an invitation to look into the situation in the perspective of the victims. His power of anger resulted in the restoration of the man.
Usually anger is portrayed as the opposite of love. It is expressed as one of the deadly sins. But from this passage we can see that Jesus’ anger is a mode of taking others seriously and helping them to find a space. It shows an explicit relation to others and a clear form of caring. For Jesus, anger is a radical activity of love that expresses solidarity and reciprocity. In other words we can see the power of anger in the works of love.
Anger is a sign of the resistance in ourselves to the morality of the social relations in which we are placed. All serious human activity, especially action for change arises from the rising power of human anger. Can’t we see an angry Jesus in Jerusalem temple?
As a part of church and as a part of theological community, we often thinks that anger is not a part of the spirituality. We are often blind to see the angry feelings of the people. We often undermine the anger as uncultured or an undisciplined. We are trained to ‘hear’ the cries of the people, but are we equipped to see the anger of others? Do we realize that When ever a person confronts us in anger he or she is demanding an acknowledgement from us? And whenever anger is hidden or un-attended, the power of love, the power to act also dies.
May our anger reflect our deepest concern to bring justice to our society...Amen
