JESUS’ EMOTIONS
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ, who left nothing undone for our redemption:
God accepted Abel’s offering because he offered it “by faith” in contrast to Cain’s offering. Cain became “very angry” at Abel, for no good reason. God then told him something about anger that we need to hear: “Why are you angry? … Sin lies at the door. Its desire is for you, but you should rule over it” (Gen 4:6-7).
We have a hard time ruling our emotions. Often they rule us. They’re easily bound up with sin and selfishness, so emotions are something Satan uses against us. But Christ became man, sharing our emotions –without sin – to save us.
Sermon Text, St. Mark 3:1-12. And He entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand. So they watched Him closely, whether He would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse Him. And He said to the man who had the withered hand, “Step forward.” Then He said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they kept silent. And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other. Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him. But Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the sea. And a great multitude from Galilee followed Him, and from Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and beyond the Jordan; and those from Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they heard how many things He was doing, came to Him. So He told His disciples that a small boat should be kept ready for Him because of the multitude, lest they should crush Him. For He healed many, so that as many as had afflictions pressed about Him to touch Him. And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw Him, fell down before Him and cried out, saying, “You are the Son of God.” But He sternly warned them that they should not make Him known.
Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your words. Sanctify us by the truth. Your Word is truth. By Your word of truth, soften our hearts and strengthen our faith to hold to Your truth while not rejecting the way of compassion. Amen.
When we go into each day, we don’t know exactly how we will be tested. Jesus did. He came to His own whom He knew would reject Him. He knew all things. He could hear every person’s every thought. Here Jesus is in the synagogue and some people are there to spy on Him. Mark writes: “So they” – some Pharisees – “watched him closely, whether He would heal [the man] on the Sabbath.”
We might think it would make it easier that Jesus knew He would be tested. But since Jesus isn’t only true God but also true man, He felt the things we feel.
We see that here: first, “Jesus looked around at them with anger,” and second, He was “grieved” – “hurt” – “by the hardness of their hearts.” Jesus had real human emotions. Here we see two common ones: anger and sadness.
This seems like a little thing to us. When we read this Bible story, we pay attention mainly to Jesus’ mighty acts: what He does for this man, healing him as soon as he stretches out his hand at Jesus’ command; then how Jesus goes on from there healing “many who had afflictions,” and exercising absolute power over the demons. We think such displays of almighty power are much more significant than Jesus just feeling angry or hurt.
But these emotions are important. Seeing Jesus having them is important. In a way, emotions run our modern world. The transgender trend and the rising suicide rate begin with how people feel. Emotionalism is rampant in the church, leading people away from truth. When emotions are in control, you don’t know what’s true, only what you feel. Although emotions are not bad, God created your emotions, the devil uses emotions to lure us into sinning or rationalizing sin.
So Jesus’ being angry and sad is important. He did it for you. This isn’t just a minor detail of the story. In many ways it is the story.
This is important because of your own anger. Our anger is rarely without sin. You feel slighted by someone, you feel jealous, someone pushed in line ahead of you, someone hurt you or your child or your spouse. We do get provoked into anger, but still something sinful results. You hate. You resent. You want payback.
Then consider sadness. Most of the time you’re sad because of some hurt in your life: a death, or losing a job, losing a friend, heartaches, disappointments. It often turns into self-pity or feeling sad just for yourself or someone close to you. It can turn into despair or feeling hopeless. We may refuse to be cheered up.
See how the devil uses these two emotions to hurt our souls. So it’s great love that God shows us Jesus having these feelings. What you feel, Jesus felt. With one major difference, of course. Jesus’ anger and sadness had no sin in any of it.
When the Bible says, “Be angry, and do not sin,” it’s talking about this kind of “righteous anger” which has no hatred in it. It’s anger that’s only concerned for God and His righteousness. The same thing is true of Jesus’ sadness. There was no self-pity in it, nothing selfish in His sadness. It was sadness for what these men were doing to themselves, sadness over how they rejected God’s Word. The loss of someone else’s soul caused Him pain. It’s a perfectly righteous sadness.
The Bible shows us Jesus feeling angry and hurt to show that Jesus remained without sin even in what He thought and felt. God saw you overcome by anger, saying things you wish you could take back and wishing evil on someone, and regretting it. God saw you overwhelmed by sadness, unable to feel happy or get over your grief. You can’t conquer it yourself. But Jesus did. He did it for you.
When you’re overcome by anger, God says to you: “Look at My Servant. He is angry but He does not sin. For His sake I don’t see any of your anger or anything it has done, but in you I see only Jesus’ righteous anger. He ruled His human emotions – including anger – perfectly trusting in Me. He did this to count for you.”
When you’re overcome by sadness, God says: “Look at My Servant. For His sake I don’t see the sinful part of your sadness when you’ve been stuck in despondency, when you can’t trust and feel hopeless, but I see only Jesus’ unselfish sadness and perfect faith. He ruled His human emotions – even sadness. He did it for you.”
God doesn’t want you to deny your emotions. He created your feelings. There is a God-pleasing use of all your emotions. But the devil uses these emotions for his purposes. He twists it to tempt you to be excited about something sinful, to rejoice in the wrong thing, to turn your emotions toward serving yourself only.
God wants you to be sorry for whatever’s sinful. He wants you to ask Him to look away from whatever’s sinful in your feelings, and to look to Jesus and what He did for you, even in His human thoughts and feelings. Jesus’ holy, precious blood purifies your thoughts and feelings, takes out everything that is sinful so that – before God – you are without sin even in your thoughts and feelings too. You may not feel forgiven, but when God says He forgives you, you are forgiven!
Receiving the Gospel this way affects our emotions. It takes away sadness over your sins, and creates joy. It takes away hopeless feelings and despair, and gives hopefulness. It takes away fear. It removes anger. It quiets and calms your heart.
We learn this in the Lord’s Supper. What happens to your feelings of anger at other people, or where do your sad, hopeless feelings go, when you eat His body and drink His blood? In His presence they go away, at least the sinful part. If you still feel these things then the feelings are fighting against God’s truth.
You’ll still struggle with anger, with sadness, with hopeless feelings. In the Gospel, in His word of forgiveness, God gives you the strength and power to fight against these things with His help. When you’re drowning in what you feel, He throws you a lifeline in what He says is true for you in Christ. He wants you to hold on tightly so your emotions are ruled by His love and grace.
God created you to be a person with emotions. Emotions are good gifts, when guided and ruled by Christ: He wants you to be joyful, to be excited for good reasons. Your sadness is good, if you’re sad for others’ sake or if it’s that God gave you such good that you now miss it. Anger over injustice is good and godly.
In our celebration of the Augsburg Confession today, we learn that faith and love aren’t opposed to each other, but faith produces rightly ordered love. Our emotions are involved in it. He gives delight in His Word, and delight in each other, He gives grace and every blessing and sanctifies our emotions. Amen!