The Passionate Jesus

Our Sunday school has been reading and discussing the Peter Wallace book, The Passionate Jesus. The premise of the book (as I would state it) is that we need to be aware that Jesus was an emotional person. The book explores how Jesus experienced emotions such as love, grief, anger, joy and fear, how he reacted to them, and how he can serve as  role model for us as we deal with these emotions.

I lead the discussion on the grief chapter, and in subsequent posts, I'll dig into that, but I wanted to first explore a few questions with you.

First, do you imagine that Jesus was passionate? Does Peter's thesis surprise you? Do you disagree with it, or does it resonate with you? I think I've always considered that Jesus was a passionate person. My first encounter with that idea would be the story of the clearing of the moneychangers from the Temple. For me, this shows how Jesus could be angry, and how he would express that anger. I think if a person read that chapter in the gospel, he or she would be hard pressed to NOT see Jesus as a person who had passionate emotions.

I do think, however, that we teach our children about a calm, sedate Jesus, who was almost British in his outward emotions. Think of the artwork in a children's Sunday school room. It might include Jesus as a shepherd, carrying a sheep  or Jesus surrounded by children, looking angelic. Even crucifixion artwork would show him quietly dying without -- well -- screaming at the pain of it all. I'm not sure how we would teach children differently, but I think we do foster the idea of an emotional-less Jesus.

Secondly, do we consider our emotions to be a part of us, created in the image of God? And if that is the case, why would we ever expect that the person who for us is the best reflection of God we have to not have emotions. I'm glad Jesus experienced emotions. If Jesus is to be my advocate, I want him to have experienced anger and fear, joy and grief.

And if Jesus experienced emotions, then who better to serve as a role model for how to deal with what can be difficult?

Anger

Of the seven Deadly Sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both of the pain you are given and the pain your giving back - in many ways it is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is yourself. The skeleton at the feast is you. (Buechner, Wishful Thinking)

If you read yesterday's post, you can understand when I say I am angry. I am heartbroken over the loss and death of our dog, but it is made worse because I am angry. I am angry that the other owner didn't recognize that the dog given to him wasn't his, I am angry at the vet staff for giving him the wrong dog. I am angry at the staff for caring for a dog for over a day and not recognizing that it wasn't our dog (and was in fact a male dog, and not a female dog). I am angry.

And yet, I don't want to be. I want to offer forgiveness, and I want to move through the anger to the other side of it.

God made us. He created us, including our emotions. Anger is a response that we cannot ignore. We get angry. How we deal with it is important. Do we feast on it, as Buechner suggests we might? Or do we pass on that meal, to move to one of grace?

What will I do? I hope that I - in fact, I have faith that I will move through this anger to the otherside, where forgiveness and peace awaits. I know that God will travel with me.

Temper

The word for today is temper.

Do you have a temper?  Do you think of it as something bad - something that isn't in your control?  Do you lose your temper?

Did Jesus have a temper?  There are so many, I think, who think of Jesus as meek and mild.  That is the Jesus who welcomes children, who has a patient conversation with the woman at the well, who invites Peter to a fish fry on the edge of the water.  It's hard to imagine that Jesus has a temper.

But then there is the Jesus of the marketplace and the Jesus who becomes impatient with his disciples.  Did Jesus have a temper?

What is temper?  There are many definitions at www.m-w.com.  I think we often think of "heat of mind or emotion: proneness to anger." 

I'm not sure that Jesus had a temper, but I think there were times when he became angry, so maybe that's OK for us, too.  (As long as you understand that when I say that, I'm not saying that all anger-motivated behaviors are OK -- they are not).

Grace through anger

In a comment yesterday, Bob mentioned how anger can separate us from God. I can see that. I also think, though, that our assumptions are often wrong when it comes to our relationship with God.

When we are angry with someone, we do feel apart from him/her. Because of that, we assume that our anger removes God from us -- that it creates a wall in our relationship.

Hang with me for a moment. The picture above is of the beach as it rained one morning. Usually, the sand under the umbrellas is darker than the rest of the sand -- in shadow. That morning, it was the opposite -- the sand under the umbrellas was dry and lighter than the wet sand in the rain. With God, there are many times when his reality is the opposite of ours.

There are times when anger is a response to our efforts to work through something that brings us pain. We might be angry with someone else or with God. It's a dark valley through which we walk and is necessary to reach the other side. There have been times in my life when anger has proceeded forgiveness and healing. I wasn't angry with God, but he was certainly present in the walk I was traveling.

While we might assume that anger separates us from God because it does create a wall between people, I think that if we allow it, even in times of anger with God, he can use that to move us through to recovery -- to the other side of anger. God never give up on us. His love is stronger than whatever emotion we might throw at him.