THANKFUL

Chatting with Jesus

Friday, June 30, 2023

Lord Jesus, when you came to us, you set aside your deity and became fully human. You needed to experience everything we experience, so no one can say you don’t know what we go through. You exhibited every emotion we have—love, compassion, disgust, fear, sadness, loneliness—to name a few.

Jesus, you exhibited an emotion that some well-intentioned, but misguided. people advise us to avoid. Anger.

Understandably, your anger rose at the unscrupulous merchants cheating the worshipers as you drove them out of the Temple. No doubt your righteous anger flared at the hypocritical religious rulers misleading the people. However, some confusion about anger may exist in the Gospel of John, chapter eleven, when you raised Lazarus from the dead.

John recorded your anger (John 11:33, 38). Who were you angry with? Certainly not with the grieving. The sight of tearful mourners, their puffy eyes, quivering lips, hands trembling as they held one another, their profound sadness must have stirred your compassion. You cried.

Who were you angry with? You anger raged at Satan. You were angry at what the consequences of sin brought into the world.

Did Satan have the gall to gloat before you, saying, “Look what I did. This is my best work. I brought all this sadness and grief on humanity.”

Lord, I love how you slammed Satan’s taunts into the rock that once covered the tomb. You simply commanded, “Lazarus, come out!” I envision you turning to Satan and reminding him, “I AM the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die.” (John 11:25)

I hope as a final dig at Satan, you casually mentioned, “By the way, this is my best work.”

Amen, Jesus!