At first, the station managers were horrified, thinking he had lost control of his faculties, but the people loved it. Always concerned about ratings, they decided to leave the man on the air and he stirred up the entire city.
He urged every listener to go open a window and shout at the top of their lungs: "I'm tired as hell of what's going in and I'm not going to take it any more!" As you might suspect, the television anchor came to a bad end, but he stirred the people to become angry enough to demand change.
Today's scripture reminds us that there is a place for righteous anger. We may be surprised to learn that Jesus had a temper. He is always portrayed as a gentle if not a meek man. But here we see a different Jesus.
When he healed a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath, his critics condemned him for working on the Sabbath. To put it mildly, their blindness infuriated Jesus but his anger was fueled by grief rather than resentment. That's the key to when anger is justified.
If we get angry because we have been slighted or because we want to get even, then our anger puts us in danger of hell fire, as Jesus taught. But if we are grieved by people who do harm to others, then anger is not an inappropriate response. That kind of anger mobilizes us for good works rather than for vendettas.
