There is no way to read this story
of Jesus’ pity, compassion and healing power without also coming up against
Jesus’ anger. Moreover, in this confrontation with sickness and human hardness
of heart, Jesus offers a perspective, revolutionary at that time — and perhaps
revolutionary still — upon the true nature of God’s wrath.
In the most widely accepted
translations of today, we are told in verse 41 that Jesus, approached by a “leper”
begging healing, is “moved with pity.” However, the translators’ footnote in
the New Revised Standard Version says that “Other ancient authorities read anger.”1 This is not a case
of an obscure Greek word that could mean either
“pity” or “anger”; this is a case
of ancient manuscripts at odds with one another, with some saying Jesus was
moved with “pity” or “compassion” and others saying he was moved with anger.
No doubt there are academic careers
out there waiting to be built over the conversation around “anger” or “pity” in
verse 41. There can be, however, little doubt about Jesus’ emotional state in
verse 43. There, according to the most knowledgeable commentators, “sternly
warned” is an understatement. Jesus was mad!2
Should the idea of an angry Jesus make us uncomfortable, we can argue “pity” in
verse 41 until the cows come home, but we still, in verse 43, have to come to
terms with Jesus’ anger.
A riled Jesus
So. What riles Jesus? He is
approached by a leper, who comes to him literally bowing and scraping and
saying “If you choose, you can make me clean.” Virtually any commentary will
tell us that “lepe
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