Stubborn hearts

“He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand.’ He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.” Mark 3:5
This is the only instance that it is recorded that Jesus get angry at something or someone. (We also see Him driving out the money-changers in the temple (on two occasions: John 2:14-17, at the start of His ministry, and Matt. 21:12-13, Mark 11:15-17, Luke 19:45-46), but it is not said there that He was angry.) There are many other instances which, if we had been in His situation, we would probably have been angry – facing Judas in the garden as he betrayed Him, standing before the high priest as He was illegally struck in the face, being told by the pig-farmers to leave their area after He had delivered a man from a legion of demons, etc. He wasn’t angry when people abused Him, when they deserted Him, or when they didn’t have enough faith. There was only one thing that made Jesus angry: people having stubborn hearts.
There is a good side to stubbornness: it’s called perseverance. That’s when we refuse to give up on God. But stubbornness is more often than not a bad thing – refusing to believe God despite the evidence, and wanting to keep doing our own thing instead of what God has told us to do. We see other examples in the Scriptures. Moses made excuses time and time again why he couldn’t be God’s mouthpiece to the children of Israel (see Ex. 4:13-14). Balaam persisted in seeking after the reward that Balak offered him; his donkey was more attuned to the presence of the angel of the Lord than he was (see Num. 22:22-35). The nation Israel, time and time again, refused to believe God, turned away from Him to follow idols, mistreated the prophets He sent, all the while thinking they were better than other nations (see Luke 14:16-24).
It’s easy to point the finger at other people. But do we do the same thing? Has God told us to do something, and we are stubbornly refusing to do it? Has He told us to stop doing something, and we are stubbornly persisting in it? If that’s the case, we need to watch out: being stubborn makes God angry. Let Him soften your heart; be obedient to Him.