Parables of Justice: Angry Jesus

In the Gospel of Mark we find the following story (Mark 1:40-41):

"A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, "If you choose, you can make me clean." Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I do choose. Be make clean!"

Recently, I noticed (and my seminary professors would be so proud) that one of the oldest manuscripts of Mark's Gospel does not use the word here translated as "pity" but uses the verb which means "being angry." If "angry" is correct (see Mark 3:5 and 10:14 which suggests Mark's willingness to speak of Jesus being angry) then it's not hard to imagine why a copyists would want to remove it. Most of us, I suspect, are uncomfortable with an "angry" Jesus. We want, as the song goes, a "gentle Jesus meek and mild." What does it mean to say that Jesus was "moved with anger" when approached by someone desperately in need of help? Obviously, Jesus was not mad at the request nor at the person - he "chose" to make him clean. Jesus was, however, mad at the condition. Mad at disease that marred his creation. Mad at pain that dehumanizes. Mad at the things that seek to steal, kill and destroy. Unlike Jesus, I rarely get mad at these things. I find myself often "angry" at people. People who don't share my beliefs or ethics. People who should know better or work harder or act right. Jesus' anger, however, reminds me that I need to reorient myself to love all who are broken with a particular fierceness at the conditions that put them there. That I need to be angry about poverty, exploitation of the environment, abuse, violence, homelessness, even sickness and disease. Jesus' rage at the leprosy that wracked this man's body reminds me of the words of Kaj Munk, a priest and playwright who was killed by the Gestapo for his outspoken beliefs, on holy rage:

"What is, therefore, our task today? Shall I answer: 'Faith, hope, and love'? That sounds beautiful. But I would say-courage. No, even that is not challenging enough to be the whole truth. Our task today is recklessness. For what we Christians lack is not psychology or literature . . . we lack a holy rage - the recklessness which comes from the knowledge of God and humanity. The ability to rage when justice lies prostrate on the streets, and when the lie rages across the face of the earth . . . a holy anger about the things that are wrong in the world. To rage against the ravaging of God's earth, and the destruction of God's world. To rage when little children must die of hunger, when the tables of the rich are sagging with food. To rage at the senseless killing of so many, and against the madness of militaries. To rage at the lie that calls the threat of death and the strategy of destruction peace. To rage against complancy. To restlessly seek that recklessness that will change and seek to change human history until it conforms to the norms of the Kingdom of God. And rember the signs of the Christian Church have been the Lion, the Lamb, the Dove, and the Fish . . . but never the chameleon."

Join me in being angry with Jesus and then choose, like him, to help others.

Amen, angrily