Sunday, March 8, 2026 - Looked at Them with Anger
March 8, 2026
Deborah Laforet
“He Looked at Them With Anger”
Let us pray. May the words from my lips and the meditations of my heart be guided by your
Spirit and be words of wisdom for this day. Amen.
A number of years ago, I was at a learning event with some other ministers. There were student
ministers there as well and during one of the breaks, I was part of a circle of people listening to the story
of a student who was having difficult experiences with the group in his region who evaluates and
supports students through their learning process.
He was a younger student, probably in his thirties, which is very young nowadays, at least within
the United Church, as many people are coming to ordered ministry as a second career or even a career
after retirement. Unfortunately, this means that volunteers are less used to working with younger
ministers, and will sometimes perceive them as inexperienced and naive and not ready to enter into
ministry. This was my experience at 33 years old when I went for my final interview, and this seemed to
be this person’s experience as well.
At one point, in the sharing of the story, I felt so angry that I jumped up and down. Now,
afterwards, and even since then, I have felt embarrassed by that moment. As an autistic person, I am
always very careful about how I express myself, never wanting to stand out and be seen as weird or
different. Also, as a woman, I had been taught to live in this world with a certain amount of decorum.
Jumping up and down out of excitement or anger was definitely not lady-like. This person though was
sharing an experience to which I related very strongly and, this happened to be a justice issue, the value
of young people and ageism in the church, for which I felt really strongly. I felt anger for him, and I felt
anger for all those people who are treated unfairly within the church. So, without thinking and in my
excitement, I jumped.
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Anger is one of those emotions we’re not supposed to feel, at least not outwardly or in any way
that makes other people uncomfortable. Expressing anger outwardly is seen as aggressive, unnecessary,
and overdramatic, especially if you are a woman, if you are not a white person, if you are mentally
unwell, if you disabled, if you are of low economic means, and if you are a child. In other words, if you
are marginalized in any way, your anger is not acceptable, especially if it makes other people in power or
part of the mainstream uncomfortable. This is when we hear dismissive words like overdramatic, too
sensitive, too emotional, irrational, and more. Some of you might be very familiar with these words and
feeling some anger right now.
During the season of Lent, we are talking about emotions and our feelings. I am using an
emotional wheel, used by many therapists, that helps people understand and articulate their emotions,
and I’m referring to the movie, Inside Out, a Pixar movie about the characters Fear, Anger, Disgust,
Sadness, and Joy, who live inside a child’s head. Today, we’re talking about anger.
When I was looking for scripture passages, most of the ones that came up were about letting go
of anger or about the sin of anger. I don’t believe a feeling can be sinful, but what we do with that
feeling might lead us towards a type of sin. Expressing our anger in healthy ways is important, and most
of us are not taught how to express our anger in healthy ways. Being able to say why we are angry
without using words to hurt someone is one way. Expending the energy from our anger through exercise
or playing a sport, or even punching a pillow or screaming in the car, are also healthy ways of
expressing our anger that don’t hurt anyone.
One story in our gospels that is often used to talk about anger is when Jesus drives merchants out
of the temple, but that story has a lot to unpack, so, we’ll leave it for another day. Instead, we hear this
story that Grace read for us today. This story is found near the beginning of Mark’s gospel and is
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centred around Jesus’ feelings around the Sabbath and how it is held. There are several stories in our
gospels where Jesus pushes back against the constrictions of the Sabbath.
Sabbath was and is important in the Jewish faith. In our creation story, on the seventh day, God
rested. Naturally, we do the same. After the Israelites were freed from Egypt, one of the
commandments God gave to the Israelites was to, “Remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy.” For
those Israelites, keeping a day of rest was in direct contradiction to a life lived in slavery, where there
was very little rest, and one had no control over when that rest came. Sabbath was important to the
Israelite people and is still important to many faith traditions today.
Jesus though pushed against the harsh constrictions of Sabbath, knowing that Sabbath should not
keep one from loving our neighbour. In the story just before the one Grace shared, Jesus and the
disciples were walking through fields of grain, and plucking the heads off the grain, presumably because
they were hungry. The Pharisees then criticize them for doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath, which
I guess, in a way, the disciples were working for their food. Jesus then tells a story about King David,
who entered a house of God and took food for his companions because they were hungry, and as we
heard earlier from Grace, he tells them, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for
the sabbath.”
Then, Jesus enter a synagogue, and sees a man with a withered hand. Again, Jesus was being
watched. Jesus, said to the man with the withered man, “Come forward,” and then said to the people
around him, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” This man
probably needed both hands in order to survive. Healing him was giving him life. There was no answer
to his question, only silence. This is when we read, “Jesus looked around at them with anger; he was
grieved at their hardness of heart.”
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And what does he do with that anger? He doesn’t forget the man in need in front of him. He
doesn’t choose that moment to chastise the Pharisees or make this moment about them. He instead
restores this man’s hand. Rightly, Jesus knows he has no control over how these Pharisees will judge
him, and, at this moment, it’s not about the politics of Sabbath, its about living out his belief about what
is most important, more important than the restrictions of the Sabbath Day, to heal this mean and make
him whole again.
Last week, we talked about not letting our fear take control. We talked about putting fear in the
back seat and giving that fear voice, hearing its concerns, listening to its advice, and even nurturing your
fear, but not giving your fear a vote, not letting your fear make the decisions and take control of your
life. Anger is the same. Anger is strong, just as fear can be strong, and it will try to take the wheel.
Hear its concerns. Hear its advice. Be nurturing, but your anger does not get a vote. Letting our anger
take control of our actions can be especially hurtful to those around us. Remember that no one can make
you angry. Anger can rise up for a number of reasons, most of them having to do with our own
experiences and beliefs, but we cannot blame our anger or our actions on another.
Jesus felt anger but he never let it rule his actions. He had every right to be angry with the
disciples who often misunderstood him, with Pharisees who condemned him, with a society that made
the sick sicker and the poor poorer, but even unto the cross, he did not rant with anger, but with one of
his last breaths, he offered forgiveness.
May we find ways of expressing our anger in healthy ways. May our anger motivate us to create
a better world. May the wisdom of Jesus guide us, an imperfect people, to letting love be what leads our
actions. May it be so. Amen.