We all know that Jesus was without sin. At various places in the liturgy and in scripture He is called a "spotless victim," "like us in all ways but sin," "perfect," the list goes on. As both human and divine it would necessarily be the case that sin would not be part of His makeup. It is that understand of jesus that might cause us to pause today on the remark in Mark's Gospel (Mk 3:1-6) where Jesus is "angry" with the Pharisees for their hardness of heart in suggesting that Jesus should not cure a man with a withered hand on the sabbath (which would violate the rule against doing work on that day). This isn't the only time Jesus gets angry. Recall His attitude towards the money changers and merchants of sacrificial animals when He "cleanses the Temple." He is furious, and uses violence to accomplish His purpose. He sometimes uses harsh language against the Pharisees (the phrase "whitewashed sepulchers" comes to mind). One might also wonder at how He treats His parents when He stays behind in Jerusalem to be at the Temple and doesn't tell them what He is going to do. They search frantically for Him for three days, presuming the worst of course, and when they finally find Him talking to the leaders of the Temple, they call Him on His behavior. His response is one which, if my 12-year old son did id, I would call lipping off. "Didn't you know I would have to be about my Father's business," He says. The response-- unspoken from Mary and Joseph-- could certainly have been: "OK, but you need to tell us when you're going to be gone like that. You made us crazy with fear." So what's going on here? Jesus is without sin, yet some of His thoughts and actions might well be characterized as sin. These days if someone goes into a house of worship and drives people out with a whip, that would land the person in jail. Perhaps we need to look a little more closely at our notion of sin and, quite frankly, cut ourselves a little slack from time to time. Jesus was human, and experienced all the normal human emotions, including anger. Experiencing those emotions wasn't a sin in Jesus, and it isn't a sin in us, at least if we keep them under control. Sin is always contextual. What might not be a sin for a 12-year old boy, whose self-control and judgment isn't that of an adult, could be a sin for someone else. But the thoughtless, lippy behavior of Jesus at 12 didn't qualify as sin. Nor did the anger, and violence, in the context of the Pharisees or those profaning the Temple. In his recenet Apostolic Exhortation, "The Joy of Love," Pope Francis makes the same point. Especially in the context of those in "irregular marriages," the Pope argues, we need to look at the overall situation and put the marriage in context, not just judge with categorical rules. What might be sin in one situation might not be sin, or only a minor sin, in some other one. And, since we never really know the context of another's situation, we really are never in a position to judge. So we might cut ourselves, and one another, a bit of slack when it comes to sin.