Jesus is “sad mad.” God is angry every day. Jesus was experiencing the Father’s heart. He is angry at the religious leaders. It’s not because they were wanting to trap and accuse Jesus. He wasn’t thinking of Himself. He was upset at their hard hearts.

That hardness of heart I would think looked like a couple of things. One, it wasn’t believing that Jesus was from God, and certainly not the Son of God. They thought He was the lawless one because He broke their law. Jesus never sinned against God’s law, but He broke man’s laws that defied God’s law.

A second way that a hard heart shows up is their lack of love. They aren’t caring for this man. They aren’t happy he is healed or eager to see him healed. They are focused on their own interests. They would have been happy if Jesus had obeyed their law and left the man unhealed. As it was, they were furious that Jesus healed the man because it broke from their authority.

Crowds are pursuing Jesus. People want to touch Him. Jesus, however, didn’t just make Himself available to touch. He removes Himself.

He has compassion on people and heals those who come to Him, but at the same time, He didn’t completely just give Himself to people’s demands. He does withdraw whenever He can.

We have the appointing of the twelve apostles, the “sent ones.” In Mark’s gospel it is described as Jesus calling to Himself “those whom He desired.” His heart has chosen these. Theirs is a two-fold calling. To come to Jesus and be with Him and to go out in ministry to others.

Those things go together. If you want to be sent out with power and authority to preach the gospel and minister in Jesus’ name, you have to start by coming to Him and being with Him. It’s His power. It’s His authority. You don’t have it. He does. He has to be with you. Be with Him and remain there. That’s called abiding.