When reading today’s gospel passage, two words in particular stuck out at me: “You hypocrites.” Now these are some strong words coming from Jesus. You don’t just go around saying to people, “Hey Bob you old hypocrite you!” No Jesus must have been pretty ticked off at the Pharisees here to have used those words. This sent me on a search though the gospels for all the times we see Jesus’s anger manifest itself. I was surprised to find that today’s gospel lesson is actually only one of many times we see Jesus get just downright mad.
When Jesus heals on the Sabbath in Mark 3, and the Pharisees are there waiting to pounce on him, Mark explicitly says that Jesus gets angry. The Message puts it this way:
“He looked them [referring to the Pharisees] in the eye, one after another, angry now, furious at their hard-nosed religion.”
Jesus was upset that the Pharisees cared more about religious dogma than aiding a person in need.
Jesus’s anger is even worse in Luke 11. A Pharisee, who invited Jesus over for dinner, is offended that he doesn’t wash up before eating. Jesus can tell, and gets extremely angry with the Pharisees, who care more about outward cleanliness than inward. Here Jesus REALLY tells them off, calling them things like “stupid,” “hopeless,” and “frauds.” Eventually, one of the Pharisees asks if Jesus realizes that he is insulting them. He not only says yes, but tells them that he can be even more explicit with his insults! It is clear from these passages that Jesus didn’t come to be politically correct, to please those in power, or always tell people what they wanted to hear.
Now, in case you are wondering, Jesus didn’t just get angry with those who opposed him. We also see him get angry with his disciples on multiple occasions. He rebuked James and John who wanted to rain fire down on the Samaritans, and when Peter was upset with Jesus over the way he was going to die, he told Peter to “get out of [his] way,” and that he did not have in mind the concerns of God, only of men.
It can be difficult for most people to reconcile Jesus’s anger with His loving and accepting nature that we hold dear, and many of you are probably sitting there wondering why I am bumming you out with all this talk about angry Jesus. Well, never fear, because today, I am going to show that the two sides of the proverbial coin are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Now, I plan on doing this in the style of a mathematical proof, so I apologize if this brings back any bad memories of your high school geometry classes.
“God ≡ Love”
God is Love. We have songs about this, we are taught this since we are children, and we know this to be true.
“Jesus = God”
We also know that Jesus was both fully God and fully human.
∴Jesus=Love
Therefore, Jesus must also be Love. Now this is as far as most people would want to go with this proof. This is the Jesus that makes everyone happy, the Jesus that doesn’t make anyone uncomfortable.
Jesus ∋Anger
This symbol means “contains,” so this phrase reads Jesus contains anger. Today’s passage is actually one of the tamer examples of Jesus’s anger, and we saw before that Jesus showed real capability to show anger in all four gospels.
∴Love∋Anger
Therefore, combining steps 3 and 4, we must conclude that Love can contain anger. Those of you who are parents probably understand this feeling. When I got my first speeding ticket, my parents were not happy, but they weren’t upset over of the fine, or the increased insurance rates we now had to pay. No, my mother’s words were something along the lines of: “Why were you going so fast? If something went wrong, you could have gotten hurt!” I know they didn’t like having to be angry with me, and they showed it in a non-physical way that didn’t leave me feeling abused or threatened. From the way they expressed their anger, I knew it was fueled by their concern for my safety, from their love for me, and not from any selfish motives.
Similarly, Jesus’s anger towards the Pharisees was fueled by a deep sorrow that His people had been led astray. Jesus loved the Pharisees just as much as he loved the disciples and it broke His heart to see that they had completely missed the point of God’s covenant with His people. Jesus’s anger here shows us how deeply and passionately he loves us.
Jesus could have just let these things slide and simply let everyone adore him, but would that have truly been love? We are posed with the same question today. Do we let a friend fall into the darkness and live in sin under the guise of “acceptance,” or do we call them out and help keep them accountable as we are called to do. Most would agree that the former is easier and “nicer” to the friend, but it is the latter where we are showing true love to the friend.
When we are told “don’t let the Sun set on your anger,” it is not meant that we should ignore or bottle up our anger, because this just leads to feelings of bitterness and resentfulness. No we are called to deal with and express our anger in Godly ways. The first step in doing this is identifying whether or not our anger is Godly. If you are wondering how we can tell if our anger is Godly, today is your lucky day because I will be showing you starting with another quick proof.
Jesus=Perfect
So we know that everything about Jesus was perfect. This is our Fundamental Theorem of Salvation. Without this, Jesus could not have been the pure sacrifice to wash away our sins.
Jesus ∋Anger
We’ve already seen this, so hopefully you’ve gotten this point by now.
∴ ∃ Perfect Anger
Therefore, there exists such a thing as perfect anger. Most people would use the term “righteous anger,” but “righteous” to men and “righteous” to God are two totally different things, and we must be careful to differentiate the two. What we are talking about here is anger from God, and Jesus gives us a perfect example of this type of anger.
In all four gospels there account of Jesus entering the temple in Jerusalem and being so outraged at what he saw that he started flipping tables over. John even says that he used a whip to drive out the merchants and money changers who had defiled the Holy place. Now this wasn’t just any old temper tantrum coming from our Lord and Savior. There are two key things that show us that this was Godly anger. First, nobody got hurt from his anger because it did not turn into a negative physical reaction. Second, there were no selfish motives behind Jesus’ anger here. This was not about power for Jesus. He wasn’t out to puff up his own ego, or show that he was the toughest guy in Jerusalem. No this was simply selfless anger in defense of his Father.
Jesus tells us that if someone insults or hurts us, we are to “turn the other cheek.” However, with this incident, He also shows us that when someone makes a mockery of your God, you stand up and defend Him. We as Christians are too concerned about being perceived as “nice.” We are so worried about offending people that we won’t stand up for our faith.
Now I am not saying that you should go into the next Church board meeting flipping over tables or insulting your pastors if something is not quite the way you like it, and I’m certainly not calling for another Crusade or giving approval for violent or abusive behavior of any kind. However, I am saying that we have gotten it into our heads that anger is some taboo thing that we should suppress and ignore. Anger is like any other emotion. Just how love is a good thing that can be twisted into lust or idolatry, anger can even more easily be twisted into rage or hate. So, how can we avoid this from happening to us, and how can we tell the difference between when God is calling us to act on our anger and when He’s telling us to let it go?
- STOP! – Your immediate reaction to anger will more than likely not be Godly.
- Pray about it- Ask God if your anger is petty or if it truly Godly before you immediately act on it. More importantly ask God whether or not you anger is selfish, or if it truly out of genuine concern for a person or a situation.
- Talk about it- Talk to a friend or two, a pastor, an elder, or some other trusted Godly adviser. Repeat step 2 with any of the above. Sometimes an outside opinion can really put your anger in prospective. Maybe the person you talked to has had a similar experience and can help you best deal with yours.
- Make peace– If it turns out you are in the wrong and you are being petty or selfish, then make peace with yourself by letting your anger go. However, if you are truly experiencing Godly anger, then He is probably calling you to act upon it. Follow the advice of those you consulted in step 3, and if needed, confront the situation with them in a Godly way. In the end, make sure that you leave nothing unresolved with your brothers and sisters.
God indeed will give us anger so that we may be agents for change. Your anger may be God calling you to help change a person’s heart, or to resolve an injustice. So next time you find yourself ticked off, be prayerful, and be vigilant. Do not let that anger fester! Instead, give it up to God so that He can work with it, and create something good and holy.
