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T has been pointed out that we would be hard pressed to show from the New Testament that Jesus ever laughed. We know that He wept, and surely, He must have laughed, after all, He was human; but the Scriptures do not mention it. In any case, He was an emotional man. He was no stoic walking about with a stone face and a halo. No, He felt with deep responsiveness, and just like with the rest of us, His responses to His circumstances tell us much about what mattered to Him.
In Mark 3:5 we find that Jesus was both angry and grieved because of the hardness of the hearts of His people. In this case, there was a man with a withered hand. Rather than feeling compassion and desiring mercy and healing for this poor soul, Jesus' religious audience was only interested in their interpretation of the law in this situation, and in how they could use it to accuse Jesus (if He helped this man on Saturday). No wonder Jesus got mad and sad. It is incredibly sad just how hard hearted the Pharisees really were. Jesus healed a man's withered hand, yet all these religious leaders could think of was about how they could get rid of Him. They wanted Him dead. Again, seeing their heart, it is no wonder that Jesus was angry with them.
Jesus would not be held down though. He simply moved on to another location and continued His ministry of truth and compassion. He could teach and heal on the seashore just as well as (if not better than) He could in the synagogues. At least out there His audience recognized who He was (Mark 3:11). Again, how sad! The religious leaders accused Jesus of being satanic, and yet it was men who WERE actually satanic who admitted Jesus' real identity. It's pitiful when the world can admit truth, but the religious crowd can't. This too must anger God continually. His (supposed) followers should be the champions of truth, not the doubters and deniers of it.
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