A man who chooses the Jesus script is…
A man who is angered by the mistreatment of others.
There’s a difference between righteous anger and self-righteous anger. Righteous anger is focused on injustices committed against others. Self-righteous anger focuses itself on personal offenses done to us.
In his Gospel account, Mark recorded a time when Jesus experienced righteous anger over the mistreatment of someone else.
Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.”
Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent.
He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.
—Mark 3:1–6
The Sabbath day was first prescribed by God in his commandments to Moses for God’s people to follow—primarily as a day to rest and remember that God is the ultimate provider. But over time, the Pharisees added many more restrictions to this law. They broadened God’s command to pause from their work on the Sabbath to include all kinds of activities, like carrying something in a public place, making a fire, and writing. They made the Sabbath simply about rule-keeping and missed the reason for the Sabbath. The micromanagement of their man-made Sabbath rules led Jesus to declare, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”
In this encounter with the Pharisees, Jesus was challenging them about keeping their laws and traditions over helping someone in need. The Pharisees’ additional Sabbath rules placed undue burdens on people and prevented them from meeting needs that were right in front of them.
It can be easy for us to see the Pharisees as self-righteous, legalistic, and hypocritical. But as men who follow the Jesus script, we must root out the little Pharisees that grow in our hearts. We must seek to honor the heart of God’s commands and his purpose in giving them to us. We must ensure that we aren’t adding our traditions to God’s law. We must be quick to see those in need around us and, if we are able, to help them.
