Quick Sermons for Permanent Fixes Lesson 4
Fix Your Anger
Matthew 5:21-26
We’re in lesson 4 of our series on the Sermon on the Mount. We’re talking about Quick Sermons for Permanent Fixes. Jesus challenges us to look long range and make real fixes in our lives instead of temporary, quick, easy fixes. We’ve talked about fixing our attitude, fixing our cape (showing who we really are), and fixing our righteousness. Even if none of the lessons before have challenged you, I think this one will. This morning we are going to look at what Jesus says about fixing our anger.
Do you know how many words we have for being angry? Here’s a partial list of the ones I came up with. Have you ever gotten enraged or exasperated? Furious or frustrated? Fed up, incensed, irked, irritated? Maybe you’ve been put out, steamed up, or ticked off. Surely you’ve just been plain old mad before.
It seems like there’s an awful lot to get angry about these days. Our dander gets up because of what somebody says or does. The tone of that kid was just a little sassy. That driver on the interstate is way too close. Bill Clinton seems up to his old tricks again.
But we don’t just get mad at people. I took a group of college students to Gatlinburg. As we were driving up to the place we were staying, one of the students commented, “Why is this mountain so steep?” Another said, “This stupid road is too curvy!” Maybe you’ve been in a hurry to get somewhere and your car wouldn’t start. Perhaps you launched into a tirade against that “hunk of junk,” or you tried to give that lousy, no good heap of scrap metal a good tongue lashing, but it still wouldn’t start.
Anger feels good. If feels good to “just go off on somebody,” “just really let them have it,” every once in a while. And let’s be honest, aren’t there some grudges that we like to hang onto?
Frederick Beuchner says “Of the seven deadly sins, anger is probably the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontation still to come, to save the last toothsome morsel of both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back - in many ways is a feast fit for a king. The chief drawback is that what you are wolfing down is you. The skeleton at the feast is you.”
Today we watch people get angry for entertainment. Think about how many movies involve someone being wronged and spending the entire movie getting even. Anyone willing to admit they’ve seen an episode of Jerry Springer? He promises at least one fight a show. No matter how much we may try to play it down, Jesus had some pretty strong words about anger.
“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ’You shall not murder,’ and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.”
Your Bible may say the word kill there for murder, but clearly refers to murder, not just any killing. You cannot use this verse to oppose going to war or capital punishment. Jesus is speaking about the unlawful taking of another’s life. In the section of Scripture that we looked at last time Jesus said that our righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees and this is the first of six examples that He gives of just how our righteousness must exceed the Pharisees. If someone committed the act of murder, they were judged by the court and executed. But Jesus goes behind the act to the attitude that gives rise to it. While the court cannot judge the heart of a man, God can and does. When we harbor anger in our heart we are under God’s judgement.
These words are so harsh that many have sought to soften them. The words “without cause” are not in the original manuscripts. They are an attempt to understand what Jesus means. Surely it is okay to be angry when we are justified in being angry! That’s righteous indignation! But Jesus challenges us not to harbor anger against a brother – with or without cause. If we look at the text in its setting, that is what Jesus is talking about. It is never right to hold onto anger. It only causes trouble. We must guard our attitude. But Jesus goes on to include the words we say.
“And whoever says to his brother, ’Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ’You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.”
The point is that there may be civil penalties for slandering another person, but there are also spiritual ones. Jesus is not trying to tell us to avoid certain words when we are angry with our brothers – that would just be a new kind of legalism. I cussed him out, but I never called him Raca or a fool. Jesus is saying that words can kill, too. The word fool is the Greek word moré and from that we get our word moron.
Jesus is showing them the intent of the commandment from the Old Testament. The command said not to murder. But Jesus says it means not to hate or slander others. Hatred and slander must precede murder. It is impossible for you to kill another human being. It is impossible for anyone to kill another human being. Hitler knew that. No one would just go out and kill their neighbor because he was a Jew. So Hitler began a propaganda campaign. The Jews are evil. They are scheming to take over Germany. They cheat you out of your money. They hoard their money rather than funnel it back to the economy. Before long everyone began to believe that every Jew had beady eyes and an evil heart. They were something less than human. So it became ok to kill them. In fact, all of a sudden, you were doing the world a favor by getting rid of them. American’s aren’t above the same thing. Remember the saying about the only good Indian? They use to say the only good Indian was a dead Indian. Even in the 1800’s people taught that blacks were just dumber than whites. It wasn’t their fault, but they were just too stupid to be anything but slaves. And it happens on an individual basis, too. We must dehumanize someone before we can kill them. The Greeks called anger “a short madness,” and we linguistically agree with them. When we get angry, we get “mad.” Police tell us that more than half of the people murdered in our nation are killed by someone who was either their relative or their friend – some friend!! There is a different way of thinking that leads to murder. An angry way, a mad way. You can’t see that person as a normal human being if you are going to kill them.
If we see them as just like us and know that they have a mother and father and a family that loves them and a community that they are a vital part of, then we cannot kill them. But if they are a menace to society or if they have shown themselves to be such a snake in the grass that we can never trust them again, or if they have a heart of stone, they are suddenly less than human.
Clarence Darrow once said, “Everyone is a potential murderer. I have not killed anyone, but I frequently get satisfaction out of obituary notices.”
Jesus affirms the thought behind the commandment that all life is precious. Anger and slander threaten life and are to be avoided by God’s people. Get this – even when you have the right to be angry, Jesus says you should clear it up as quickly as possible.
Just the other day a lady was talking on her cell phone and pulled out right in front of me. Never saw me. For the briefest of moments I thought, “I should go ahead and hit her. It’s her fault, the police would definitely side with me.” I was mad and I had a right to be. But if I had hit her, you know what? I would have been right. But I still would have been in a wreck and that wouldn’t have helped my day any at all. Anger is like that. Even when you are right, it isn’t profitable to give into anger. It doesn’t promote anything.
You say, but preacher, Jesus got angry! That’s right. He was angry when he cleansed the temple and he was angry in Mark 3 when the Pharisees tried to prevent him from healing a man with a withered hand. But on both occasions Jesus was angry for someone else. He was angry because people were being oppressed. Poor people who couldn’t stand up for themselves were being taken advantage of by people who claimed to be God’s people. And Jesus got angry.
But our anger is not like that. We get angry for ourselves. It wasn’t right what was done to me. I have rights and they have been violated. I need to stand up for myself. Jesus stood up for others.
Jesus says that anger should be avoided because life is precious. Human beings are special and unique. Even the worst of us is still human and created by God. To think of anyone as less than human is sinful. It removes from them their God given status.
Jesus says that when we hold anger in our hearts, we pay a spiritual price. Anger stems from a failure to forgive. Listen to verse 23.
“Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”
Jesus draws a conclusion here without having to specifically say it. Imagine standing in the temple offering a sacrifice to God. The sacrifice symbolizes God’s forgiveness of your sins. The sacrifice is a request for God to have mercy on you. Now imagine that as you request forgiveness, you realize that you have failed to forgive your brother. Imagine the hypocrisy of asking God to forgive you now.
But, if you read the text it says that your brother has something against you. That’s pretty important to note. You see, up till now Jesus has talked about how to handle being angry. That usually happens when someone does something to us. They are the offender. But if we refuse to forgive them and hang on to our anger, we become the offender. We are now the one in the wrong. We are refusing to make things right with our brother or sister in Christ and therefore we are the ones who have given offense and now that brother or sister has something against us. Jesus is pointing out the sinfulness of failing to forgive others. In the Lord’s prayer we are taught to ask God to forgive us just as we forgive others. Elsewhere Jesus will say that with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.
Then Jesus tells a short story to drive home his point about reconciliation. It must be done quickly. You cannot harbor this anger for a time and wait until you feel like forgiving the person. Time is of the essence.
“Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you are thrown into prison. Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny.”
Make no mistake about it. Holding on to your anger will cost you a high price. You’ll pay it in your relationship with other people and in your relationship with God. The longer you wait the more entrenched the hostility becomes and you may just wait too long. Jesus uses this same analogy in Luke to talk about the end of time and God’s judgement. Problems between brothers and sister are important and time may be short. If God returns and finds you with unrepentant sin in your life and that you have failed to reconcile with your Christian family members his judgement doesn’t have a half measure. You will pay every penny you owe.
That’s a pretty sobering thought. Think about your relationship with other Christians. What do you need to do? Heaven is too important to let anything get in the way. As Christians we must fix our anger. We must remember that every life is human and loved by God. God desires that we should all be saved. This morning if you are not a Christian, you can accomplish God’s greatest desire in your life. Simply repent and be baptized to walk in a new life. If you have made that commitment and have allowed anger to destroy your relationships with others Jesus calls that sin and says you must make it right quickly. If you need to do that in a private way, don’t wait. Do it this afternoon. Do it before lunch.
