Don't Be Mad

Luke 6:6-11

6 And it came to pass also on another sabbath, that he entered into the synagogue and taught: and there was a man whose right hand was withered.

7 And the scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the sabbath day; that they might find an accusation against him.

8 But he knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. And he arose and stood forth.

9 Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it?

10 And looking round about upon them all, he said unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he did so: and his hand was restored whole as the other.

Verse 11 “And they were filled with madness; and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus.”

Don’t Be Mad!

We live in a society where everybody has a feeling about everything. Folks walk around wearing their feelings on their sleeves. The least little thing and we are offended. And sometimes we catch feelings about stuff that doesn’t even concern us. Don’t get me wrong, there are valid concerns when things are obviously out of pocket, but we get offended by the smallest things!

Stuff that by the end of the day, nobody else even remembers that it happened but you. Somebody didn’t call our name at the banquet, we mad! Somebody wearing the same dress you just brought, you mad! Somebody gets credit for my idea, I’m mad. I mean any and everything can rub us the wrong way.

I believe that at the core of our sensitivity is selfishness! We want what we want, when we want it and we want it given to us the way we want it served. And if something doesn’t go exactly the way that we think it should have gone, we get mad! Burger King has messed us up! We cannot always have it our way. Truth be told, you can’t even have it your way at Burger King. But we walk around thinking that it’s all about us and everybody else better act like they know.

It has gotten so bad that not only do we get mad with folks, we have the nerve to get mad with God! Some of us treat God like we treat people. We give him the silent treatment and have the ordacity to be mad at him. As if we can hurt God! Touch your neighbor and say don’t be mad!

Now, there is a huge difference between madness and anger. Anger is a natural emotion. Some view anger as part of the fight or flight brain response to the perceived threat of harm. It’s how you react with your anger that is key. So anger is normal but must be managed properly. As my friend says don’t let you anger bucket overflow. But madness is a whole nother story. Madness is unchecked anger. One definition for madness is insanity. When we are mad, we think that the world is against us. We are not thinking properly. So we do things that are just crazy and act irrationally!

And that’s what we have in our text, some mad church folks! Look at it. It’s church day and somebody is at church that needs to be at church, a man with a problem. See most folks think that you’ve got to have it all together before you come to church but verse 6 puts that theory to rest, it says that there was a man at church whose right hand was withered. We ought to want folks that need something to come to the church. If we have it all together what do we need Jesus for? And if we’d just be honest, we all have some withered stuff in our lives. We are either in recovery or know how to hide well!

So this man comes to church and Jesus is doing what you expect Jesus to be doing in church, teaching. I don’t care what preacher is up, if Jesus isn’t doing the teaching, you might as well stay at home. So all the right things are going on in verse 6, but then in verse 7, the scribes and the Pharisees get to tripping. Verse 7 says “And the scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the sabbath day; that they might find an accusation against him.”

See they are in the right place but for the wrong reason. They are not watching to see the man get healed so that they can rejoice, but they are watching so that they can accuse Jesus of what they thought of as work, on a day that he shouldn’t have been working.