Jesus' anger was a righteous response

February 12, 2006 -- Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Fr. Michael Stubbs

	Fr. Mike Stubbs

When you see a person whose face is severely deformed because of a car accident or cancer, what is your emotional reaction? Do you feel horror, disgust, shock, pity? Perhaps a mixture of these feelings? How do you react?

Sunday's gospel reading, Mark 1:40-45, describes Jesus as "moved with pity," when a leper comes to him for healing. That reaction fits in with what we would expect from Jesus, who is full of compassion and mercy.

On the other hand, another possible translation would read "moved with anger." This possibility reflects a variance in the text. Many scholars favor it, over the milder "moved with pity." They are following the principle of "lectio difficilior," the more difficult reading. That principle holds that when we face the possibility of two different readings, we choose the more difficult one to explain as more likely to be original. We suppose that the easier reading was supplied by scribes wishing to smooth over a difficulty in the text as they copied it. They would not have purposely inserted a problem in the text.

It is more difficult for us to imagine why Jesus would have reacted with anger when confronted with suffering and despair. To help understand why, let us compare another miracle story, the raising of Lazarus, John 11:1-44. This is a radically different gospel, not even one of the synoptics. Nonetheless, there is a point of similarity. That is in the emotional reaction of Jesus: "When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed." (John 11:33)

Why would Jesus become perturbed when he sees Mary weeping over Lazarus' death? Why would Jesus be moved with anger when a leper comes to him for healing? Surely Jesus would not be angry with the innocent who are suffering? Of course not, since Jesus is full of compassion and mercy. But he might become angry with those responsible for causing the suffering. He might become angry with the evils of death and disease.

We should remember that in the ancient world, physical disease was believed to result from the presence of demons. From the viewpoint of the gospel story, in the case of the leper, a demon was causing his disease. When Jesus heals him, Jesus is driving out the demon responsible for the leprosy.

The text reads, "the leprosy left him immediately,' that is to say, the demon causing the leprosy left him immediately. It is this demon which would have angered Jesus. We should remember that the verse immediately preceding our gospel reading says, "So he went into their synagogues, preaching and driving out demons throughout the whole of Galilee." Jesus' cleansing of the leper belongs to this campaign against the forces of evil.

As any sports team knows, anger can energize and motivate. We do not have to believe, like 1st century Christians, that the world is infested with demons, in order to join with Jesus in his struggle against injustice and poverty, against suffering and despair. Against these evils, anger is not only permitted, it is righteous.

(Fr. Stubbs, a priest of the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kansas, has a master's degree in theology from Harvard.)