The WOFOYO Podcast
The WOFOYO Podcast
Anger
Righteous anger has a place in Christian life, and Jesus himself demonstrated this overlooked truth. Drawing from Mark 3:1-6, this episode explores a critical moment when Jesus looked at the religious leaders "with anger" while healing a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath.
The sanitized "meek and mild" portrayal of Jesus often taught in churches completely misses his confrontational nature. We conveniently forget the Jesus who fashioned a whip of cords and overturned tables in the temple. Scripture tells us to "be angry and sin not" (Ephesians 4:26), showing there's a profound difference between righteous anger and sinful hatred.
Jesus modeled healthy confrontation throughout his ministry. When problems arose, he addressed them directly rather than letting resentment build. In contrast, our modern digital culture has created a generation afraid to confront issues face-to-face. We bottle emotions until they explode, hiding behind keyboards where we can pretend to be tough without real consequences. This passive approach more closely resembles Cain, who let his anger fester until it resulted in violence, despite God's warning that "sin is crouching at your door."
The solution? Read scripture for yourself without the filters of watered-down preaching. Discover the complete character of Jesus – bold, direct, occasionally angry, yet never hateful. When led by the Holy Spirit, we can express appropriate anger without crossing into sin. Your faith journey deepens when you get in the Word yourself and see Jesus as he truly was, not as modern culture has repackaged him.
#wofoyo
Hey everybody, welcome to another Wofo Yo Short. This is C-Dub. I was reading earlier today in Mark, chapter 3, and it reminded me of something that Bones and I had talked about right around the time we started this podcast and we got a little bit more in depth than what I'm going to talk about in this short. So Mark, chapter 3, verses 1 through 6. Give a little reference. He's already healed the paralytic in chapter 2, said your sons are forgiven and they go. Oh, nobody can forgive sins, only God can forgive sins. And he goes. Well, so you know, I have the authority, take up your bed and walk. So you had that episode happening in chapter 2. Here in chapter 3, and I'm going to be reading out of the English Standard Again he entered the synagogue and the man was there with a withered hand and they watched Jesus to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him.
Speaker 1:And he said to the man with the withered hand Come here. And he said to them Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save a life or to kill? But they were silent and he looked around at them with anger, grieved at the hardness of heart and said to the man Stretch out your hand. And he stretched out and his hand was restored. I want to focus on the fact here in verse 5. It said he looked around at them with anger. He's grieved at the hardness of their hearts and one of the things that we don't talk about quite often in our misconception of Jesus, in the way that Jesus is taught, in the dear, meek and mild Jesus, you know, we ignore the scourge made of cords and the overthrowing of the tables in the temple. We overlooked that. Oh, that was one time man, he really had enough. But when you look at it, jesus had certain things that would cause him to get angry. Get angry. Now we know from Ephesians 4 that Paul said be angry and sin not. Don't let the sun go down on your wrath. In other words, you don't mull it over. But if it needs to be addressed, it needs to be addressed and there's nothing wrong with addressing it. You don't get into hatred, and that's one of the key things. I believe. That's quoting Psalm 4, part of it at least also says to be angry and sin not. So they're making a distinction between anger and letting it get into hatred, which Jesus clearly classified as a sin. He was angered at the hardness of their hearts. He didn't hate them.
Speaker 1:One of the things that I brought up in one of our earlier episodes is Jesus laid this thing out If your brother offends thee, go and talk to him. Now the idea is, sure, forgive him and if you can, sure, but a lot of times, sometimes, things need to be said, and especially as men, we need to say them, and as women too, but especially when men are dealing with men, if you don't give it an outlet, if you can forgive and let go, and it's water off your back, awesome. But if you need to address, itesus said, address it with him and him alone. If he ain't listening, bring somebody else, bring a witness. If he still ain't listening and he's going to keep continuing in that which is harming you, tell it to the church, tell it to the ecclesia, the ruling body that made the decisions at the gate back in ancient Israel, and let him be to you as a heathen. In other words, he said God, leave him alone, forgive him, leave him alone. Okay.
Speaker 1:So the same Jesus that preached forgiveness also demonstrated anger when appropriate, and we need to take a look at that. I noticed something that seems to be increasing, and especially in this digital age with social media, and people don't talk face-to-face, because there's a lot of people that are keyboard tough and they'll say all this stuff and it really don't bother me, because even when they try and talk stuff, keyboard tough to me, most of y'all don't have the guts to say it to me to my face. So you want to act tough, but you're being a coward. You're not the one I'm worried about. Bottom line.
Speaker 1:Now you contrast jesus being angry, addressing a situation head on and then walking in forgiveness, versus what happens with cain and abel. With cain and abel, abel sacrifices accepted, cain's is not. And the lord asked him he why are you downtrodden? Why are you distraught? And he gets in there. He said you know, if you do well, it'll be accepted, but if not, sin is at your door. One of the translations sin is crouching at your door. Some say it's almost like a wild animal that's on the prowl. Have you ever seen mountain lions or cougars? Not the bar cougars either, the ones that occur out in nature? It's there, but Jesus addresses it. Boom, it's done. Even when Paul's addressing certain things, when he's on trial and he's commanded to be struck, got to strike you down. You whited wall. Oh, I didn't know, he was the high priest.
Speaker 1:The law says you're not to speak ill of the leader of your people, but he addressed it and in this age where everybody's afraid to confront, so they let it stew and they let it stew, and they let it stew and they let it stew and the next thing you know, you finally do have enough, or not, to mention all the pills that people are on, all the social engineering through information just being driven at you and an algorithm that's meant to divide you rather than unite you. Well, eventually it's going to get to a point where you're going to blow that fuse and next thing, you know you're doing something real stupid and you're overacting. You have gotten into hatred over the simple fact you didn't know how to demonstrate a little bit of godly anger. Or maybe we've preached the pussy fight Jesus to people that if you demonstrate any kind of masculinity at all or any kind of toughness and that's not what Jesus would have done but if you read the book, if you get in the word for yourself, it paints and you keep your eyes open. And I'm telling you don't read it with what people are preaching. Don't read it with what C-Dub's saying. Don't read it according to what are preaching. Don't read it with what C-Dub's saying. Don't read it according to what Bones is saying. Read it.
Speaker 1:Look at the character of Jesus. It's something much different than that which is often preached from the pulpit Confrontational at times, confrontational often. And the very things that they try and engineer him to do. Oh, I'm not getting involved with that. Oh, I'm not a judge of you and your brother's property. I get involved in that. Oh, who's supposed to pay taxes? To Show me the coin? Yeah, give Caesar his stuff, give the Lord his. Make sure your heart's right. So there's all these things that Jesus is willing to confront and to confront it head on. And at times he even got angry. In doing so still did not sin. So be mindful of that. Get in the word for yourself. Read it, find out what the character of Jesus is and realize he's being led by the Holy Spirit and in doing so, you be led by the Holy Spirit. Get in that word and act accordingly.
Speaker 1:Wofo, yo, hey, everybody, thanks for listening. We hope this challenges you and causes you to grow. You can always check us out at wofoyoorg. Find out how to contact us there, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts, spotify or Audible, or even check out our YouTube page. For Bones and myself, this is C-Dub, reminding you that if you're going to grow, you've got to. Woe-fo-yo, get in the word for yourself.