Anger Series

A man and his wife had a big spat. That evening they were giving each other the silent treatment. The wife was an early riser and that night he man realized that he needed her help to wake up at 5:00 a.m. for an early flight out for a business trip. Not wanting to be the first to break the silence, he wrote a note that said, “Please wake me at 5:00 a.m.” and placed it on her nightstand.

The next morning he woke up to discover that it was 7:05 and he had missed his flight. Furious, he swung his legs out of bed to go see why his wife hadn’t awakened him at the right time. Just as his feet hit the floor, he saw a note on his nightstand. It read, “It’s 5:00 a.m. Time to get up.”

Eph. 4:26-27 – “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold. There is a way to be angry and not sin. But if we hold on to our anger, we’re giving the devil a place to claim control over this area of our lives.

The second thing that Jesus says we should do is to watch our emotions. Matt. 5:38-39 – You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.

Jesus’ instruction here isn’t about self-defense from a physical attack. He is talking about insults. The majority of people are right-handed. Just a little less than 10% of the world’s population is left-handed. To slap someone on the right cheek with your right hand requires you to do it with a back-hand motion. It’s meant to be demeaning.

When someone does something like that to you, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? What do you want to instinctively do? You feel like striking back. You’d feel the same way if a close friend or a family member was treated in an insolent way.

Back in the late 1990’s, I preached a church just outside of Frankfort, KY. One day, I got a phone call from my mom. Her first words were, “I don’t want you to be upset but something’s happened with your dad.” That’ll keep you calm!

I asked her, “What happened?” My dad had gone to a local restaurant to collect on a bill that was owed to him for work he had done on some of their equipment. The owner was way overdue on paying the bill. When dad walked through the front door, he went to the counter and asked to see the owner. When that man heard that dad was there, he came flying out of the back and attacked my dad! My dad was just a little over 70 years old at the time and the man who attacked him was somewhere in his 30’s. Dad had gone to emergency room but other than some scrapes and bruises, he was okay.

My mom’s first words to me after she told me what happened were, “Don’t come down here.” Why? She knew that my first reaction would be to take that man outside and teach him some respect for his elders. I promised that I wouldn’t.