Anger | Matthew 5:21-26
[You Have Heard it said]
The Law(s) in Texas:
• You must provide an oral or written notice to someone 24 hours in advance before robbing them.
• In Galveston, you can be fined $500 for sitting on a side-walk.
• It is illegal to shoot a buffalo from the 2nd story of a hotel room.
• It is illegal to milk your neighbors’ cow. (Banned in 1973 but still enforceable).
Matthew 5:21-26
• The Religious leaders were “adding” to the law.
• You have heard is said…
o Refers to the explanations of the law or
o Refers to man-made additions to the law.
o What Jesus is saying is this: in the eyes of God, the internal and external are of equal importance. Motivation and action are the same.
• What the religious leaders were concerned about most was creating a “hedge for the law” A hedge is used for protection so the religious leaders were in essence, creating all of these additional laws and traditions so you had absolutely no time on your hands except for strict obedience to the law. With all the time/energy you had focused on obeying the law, there was no time to disobey the law.
• The issue of course is that the religious leaders additional laws/traditions were not aligned with the heart of God.
o Obedience based on performance is always behavioral modification, not changing your heart. For the Pharisees, obedience was more about your disciples following your own set of traditions to the letter and obedience was becoming more about that than about obeying the Law. Jesus even pointed out their hypocrisy in violating the 5th commandment (honoring mother and father).
[The Way of Jesus]
Consider the root cause. (Genesis 4:1-8)
1. The religious leaders were teaching that the 7th commandment (You shall not murder) was restricted to homicide. The general idea was not to murder others. Most Greek manuscripts read, anyone who is angry without cause/reason is guilty of murder.
1. Jesus elevated the law and placed thoughts and words on the same level as murder. If we think about killing someone, if we angry with someone, we are just as guilty as committing murder.
2. What was Cain’s issue? It wasn’t his brother – it was that his offering wasn’t accepted. Able offered what was BEST, Cain did not. God also looks at our hearts for our motivation. There was an issue with Cain’s motivation in giving. The issue with anger becomes sin becoming our master.
3. When Jesus went into the temple and threw money – changers out of the temple. We often refer to that as righteous anger. Why was Jesus justified in physically whipping people and throwing them out of the temple and Cain was not justified in killing his brother?
4. Righteous anger is passion directed against wrong-doing or evil. We have difficulty being justified in anger (righteous anger) because to have righteous anger we have to have the RIGHT degree of anger, against the RIGHT PERSON, at the RIGHT time and for the RIGHT purpose. Jesus’ anger was/is directed against sin and injustice.
Pause + Reflect (Ecclesiastes 7:9)
• Why do we get angry? Hurt, Jealousy, Pride, Arrogance, Control!
• Reflecting gives us the opportunity to think through the issues we are facing.
• Count to ten; write a letter and leave it overnight.
• Also, consideration needs to be given to the after-effects of your anger. Where is this going to land? Am I going to say something or do something that places me in an issue that I shouldn’t be in?
Think before you speak. (Proverbs 15:1)
• Raca meant idiot and Jesus aid they would answer for that. First to the Sanhedrin and if they said “fool” they were on the path of destruction (hell). You could end up in jail for calling someone a fool, a moron or an idiot! In fact, Jesus implies that if you say these things to someone, you were liable to both the council (Sanhedrin) and God!
• Anger and insult are symptoms of a desire to get rid of someone who stands in our way.
Pursue Peace (v. 23-24)
• The way to deal with anger is reconciliation.
• Our anger in human relationships, impacts our relationship with God.
