“This is really pathetic customer service!”
“I’m cranky because my sleep is out of whack.”
“That person rubs me the wrong way. They get under my skin, and I’m not my best self around them.”
“They’re really judgy, and that’s super yucky to me!”
“My hormones are out of whack, and that makes me cranky!”
We have plenty of opportunities to be cranky, and maybe sometimes we feel bad about being snippy, snarky, cranky or downright hostile. It’s also true that, from time to time, we deem it appropriate to be less than polite—like when a person is blatantly disrespectful or downright mean.
In thinking about the whole cranky thing, I can’t help but look at Jesus because He wasn’t always the bastion of kindness, gracious words or compassionate choices. If you peruse the Gospels, you will see Jesus being cranky and even combative in several situations. Consider these verses for some examples:
· Matthew 12:34a, “You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good?”
· Matthew 23 and Luke 11:37-52: the eight woes Jesus spoke against the Jewish leaders.
· Matthew 12:39, “But He answered and said to them, ‘An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet.’”
· Luke 20:46-47, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love respectful greetings in the marketplaces, and chief seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets who devour widows’ houses, and for appearance’s sake offer long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation.”
· Matthew 23:33, “You serpents, you brood of vipers [pharisees and scribes], how will you escape the sentence of hell?”
Based on these verses, you’ll notice that Jesus was most often cantankerous with religious leaders during His life on earth. So why did this group of people receive Jesus’ ire?
I propose that Jesus was intensely at odds with the religious leaders of His day for lots of reasons. To begin, He was angry with them because they were hypocrites, and He called them out on this repeatedly. Additionally, they were often indifferent to the suffering of people and more focused on religious rigor and piety. For example, in the Good Samaritan parable, the priest and Levite saw a broken and brutalized man on the side of the road, but they kept walking, dismissing his pain and refusing to help him in any way. Finally, Jesus was confrontational with these religious leaders because their priorities missed the mark of what God valued as most important. Consider His admonition in Matthew 23:23b, “For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.”
When we consider Jesus’ cranky interactions with the religious leaders, let’s be mindful of His criticisms and consider our own lives. With help from the Holy Spirit, we can repel hypocrisy and prioritize compassion. I’m also convinced that the Holy Spirit can help us to be less cranky and sense God’s love to and through us in our daily living!
