Unflappable.  Like tin soldiers, dressed in scarlet tunics and trademark bearskin caps, they stand at attention for hours at a time, rigid, motionless, emotionless, guarding their sovereign and his palaces. Every tourist tries in vain to make them laugh, smile, move. 

But these men are more than ceremonial symbols and tourist photo ops.  They are elite soldiers, the cream of the crop, men highly trained and prepared for a most sacred duty.  They are unflappable, standing stock-still, motionless and actionless, but ever ready for action.

If you touch them, or the Sovereign’s horses, or get too close to a palace entrance, they come to life, shouting verbal commands.  And if you act in any way deemed threatening, they will present the bayonet!  Patient in peace, aggressive toward a threat.  That is what makes them effective guards.

Perhaps you know someone like that.  Patient to a fault.  Unflappable.  Almost impossible to anger.  Careful to guard their emotions, words, and actions.    That person in your life who is the epitome of grace under pressure.  Until that is, a line is crossed, a button pushed, a dominion sensor tripped, until someone has gone too far, mistaking self-control for weakness.   Then like a dormant volcano our friend’s quiet calm is broken by an immediate, intense response of fire and fury.

If we are not careful, we easily mistake Jesus’ self-control, patience, and grace under every pressure for weakness or passivity or an indication that he is not really like us.  But Jesus’ humanity was no mere docetic hologram.  Scripture teaches that he “became man, by taking to Himself a true body and a reasonable soul.”  He experienced sadness, hunger and thirst, joy, pain, disappointment, sorrow, and yes, anger.  But in all of these, though tempted, he never sinned.

The gospels do not conceal Jesus’ emotions, but it is Mark’s gospel that shows Jesus’ emotion most vividly.  In Mark 10, Jesus has turned toward Jerusalem.  Toward betrayal, abandonment, rejection, and death.  And resurrection!  Mark 10 is one of only two chapters, along with Mark 4, in this “action gospel” that give us the content of Jesus’ teaching.  Mark 11 begins the events of Passion Week, but Mark 10 unfolds Jesus’ focused teaching of the disciples “on the way” to Jerusalem.   And amid this teaching, the disciples cross a line.  Without any unrighteous anger, Jesus gets mad.

Mark 10:14 records the only instance in the Gospels of anger attributed to Jesus.  He wept at Lazarus’ tomb and over Jerusalem, “sighing” in deep sorrow over the people’s unbelief.  He drove the merchants and moneychangers from the Temple.  His soul was sorrowful unto death in the Garden of Gethsemane.  But only here is anger attributed to Jesus.   

The unflappable, ever-patient Jesus becomes “indignant” with his disciples.   Mark uses an ancient word that means “to arouse to anger that vents itself in expressed displeasure rather than brooding.”  An active anger that acts swiftly and decisively. 

But what is it that arouses Jesus’ anger?  Not the unbelief of his own people.  Nor the schemes of the scribes and teachers of the law.  Not the dullness of the disciples.  Nor personal betrayal or rejection.  No, Jesus’ anger is reserved for those who hinder the “least of these” from coming to him.   We don’t know why the disciples did what they did, especially in light of Jeus’ recent caution.

And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”  — Mark 9:36-37

Perhaps the disciples assessed small children incapable of any credible faith or unworthy of Jesus’ time or attention.  Or maybe they viewed children as a distraction or hindrance to their own advancement.  And so, they hindered infants and small children, along with their parents, from seeking the blessing of Christ.  And when Jesus saw it, the disciples experienced something they had not yet seen – Jesus’ anger.

What makes Jesus mad?  Hindering others from coming to him.  Turning the kingdom into a meritocracy based on our ‘worthy’ works or decisions.  And refusal to embrace the “least of these my brothers [and sisters]” as members of God’s covenant family.  We have all provoked Jesus’ mercy and compassion.  But have we provoked Jesus’ anger?

Join us as we examine Mark 10:13-16 and consider what makes Jesus mad. We meet Sundays at 10:30 am on the square in Pottsville, Arkansas right next to historic Potts’ Inn for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join our livestream on YouTube.