When Anger Cares

Here comes Mary!

Her grieving Friends are following her.

When she sees Jesus she runs to Him and falls at His feet. “If only you’d come right away my Brother would not have died,” she cried, sobbing uncontrollably.

When Jesus saw her weeping and the heartbreak in her Friends, “a gut wrenching anger welled up in Him and He was deeply troubled; to the point of rage.” Certainly anger is a part of grief. But rage? Especially when you’ve come to show compassion and comfort a Friend? Why such extreme reaction? Especially from this man who’d shown such deep compassion, throughout His life, even to the outcasts of His society.

Here, in the rage of “Messiah … Son of the living God,” is “new ground for believing.” Jesus is more than a mere Man. He is the “God Man,” John would later introduce Him to the world as “the Word,” God’s ultimate “reveal” of Himself. He is the “One,” who would live out, in real Life, what God had in mind when He created Humankind, the “Why” of our existence. He, John said, “made all things;” “without Him nothing was made.”

Standing with a sobbing Friend, whom He loved dearly, clinging to His feet, the Creator of all things sees His Friend ravaged by what has become of His handiwork. The “good” world He created has been turned completely upside down. Evil is everywhere! His anger is the Creator’s “rage” at the desecration of his “good” work; especially the noblest of His creatures. This is the “One,” the demons called the “Son of the Most High God.” When they saw Him coming they begged Him to spare them from the doom they dreaded. They’d seduced and destroyed His Creation. They knew it. They knew the full release of His rage had been restrained in Him for all time, kept in check until the Day of Vengeance. The momentary trace of it, in this moment, must have shaken them to the core. Heaven was preparing for battle and there were no more questions. Death, evils greatest weapon, was about to be vanquished.

This is something all observers will need to contemplate long and deeply before they’ll understand it. “New ground for believing,” startling revelation of who this “Jesus” really is.

Just as the Divine in Him, the “Judge of all the Earth,” shows itself His humanity grips Him.”

“Jesus wept.”

Lazarus, Martha, Mary, like many who were acquainted with Him, knew Him to be deeply compassionate. They’d watched Him deal tenderly with the hurting and grieving. Many times they’d seen the depth of His caring. He, truly, cared for humanity. He did not call Himself the “Son of God” except on one occasion. No. He called Himself the “Son of Man.” He knew He was the Hope of our Race. But He’d not champion our cause by His strong arm. He’d rescue, redeem, refine, and restore fallen humanity by His tender love; a love whose authenticity would be demonstrated by the greatest of sacrifices; the breaking of the very heart of God.

Of course He “wept.” His heart, like Mary’s, was breaking.

Do you believe? Do you believe Jesus weeps when you weep? Does a “gut wrenching anger well up in Him” when you are hurt? As He restrains His anger in that moment do you sense something greater; more powerful; more far-reaching? Are you conscious of an attention deeper than any you’ve experienced before? Do you feel valued; loved; as though discouragement has gone and strength is restored?

This is “the Way of the Cross.” Altogether “new ground for believing.”

This Man, Jesus of Nazareth, is the “Son of God/Son of Man;” come to conquer evil and death; to “salvage” His broken Sons and Daughters.