What Jesus said about.........anger

Bible Reading:  Matthew 5:21-26
Jesus’ starting place is murder but murder according to Jesus is not the problem. Jesus connected murder with anger and whilst we may not commit murder we all have experience of anger.
Anger can range from mild annoyance to absolute frustration and can be manifested through actions ranging from, giving someone the cold shoulder to murder. When something goes wrong, seems unfair or does not go our way a surge of emotion rises in us. Adrenaline flows into the bloodstream, muscles tense and pulses quicken as the body prepares for response. Anger is a force within us.
1. Enlarge our understanding  v 21-22a
Jesus says we interpret this law on a superficial level and we need our understanding of what lies behind our actions enlarged. Jesus always goes to the heart. He’s saying that the real problem is living according to an uncontrolled inner life.
This is not to say that anger as an emotion is wrong in itself because Jesus himself became indignant a lot of times in the Gospels. The Jesus we find in the New Testament was not someone who didn’t allow anything to disturb Him. Instead we find a Jesus infuriated at injustice and openly expressing His anger at wrongdoing.
“In your anger do not sin.”  Ephesians 4:26
In fact if we don’t get angry sometimes for the sake of other people that can be sin.
But we must also notice that Jesus’ anger was not wrapped up with his personal ego. It was never born out of resentment about the way He had been treated personally.
“There are times when I do well to be angry but I have mistaken the times.” (George Matheson)
Anger is just an immediate response that alerts us to an obstruction of our will. It happens perhaps when we do not get want we want or when things aren’t happening as quickly as we want them to.  But then we make a choice about whether of not to indulge it.We are always better at defending our rights than facing up to our responsibilities for others. We can often get angrier about the fact that the bus is late than over the fact that every day innocent children are being sold into prostitution.                                                                                                  
A process that starts with angry feelings, which are then nursed, can turn to hatred. If unchecked the result is sometimes actual murder but even when uncontrolled anger doesn’t result in physical killing, it is still very damaging.
“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.” (Frederick Bruchner)

2. Express anger wisely v 22b
The fact that people wrote about Jesus’ anger shows that Jesus did not repress anger but expressed it. Otherwise how did they know he was angry?
Pushing anger down does not deal with it.
The force that may do a great deal of damage when released in a fit of temper may do equivalent damage if repressed. The repressed angry person falls into the trap of avoiding people, the silent treatment, negative wise cracks and self-pity. And the people whom they feel they have been wronged by are bewildered because they do not know the reason for their coldness.
Love often expresses itself in honest confrontation. Differences of opinion do not necessarily equate with an absence of love.
If we read the New Testament we see that Jesus did not deny His anger but He never lost His temper or control of Himself.  So often we think that anger can only be expressed by blowing up or quarrelling using bitter and angry words or through
To call someone Raca was not a mild jibe but to call them an idiot with an attitude of arrogant contempt. The word may have originated from the sound a person makes in clearing the throat in preparation to spit at them.  The word fool comes from the Greek word “moros”. Using this term about someone was not to criticise their abilities or mistakes but to cast aspersions on their moral character. It was to take their name and reputation from them and brand them as a despicable person. In our day the equivalent could possibly to call someone a pervert.
Jesus is not suggesting that everyone who utters the word fool is heading straight to hell but he is making the point that anger unleashed through thoughtless words can lead to killing someone’s sense of self-worth and their character.
This does not mean that we should never say anything that might hurt another person’s feelings. When we are warning another away from sin we will have to say things that may upset them. But we need to be careful the way we do it. 
“Preach the Word…correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction” (2 Timothy 4:2)

3. Expect God to get involved v24
Worship was a major concern of the scribes and Pharisees. They spent much time making sacrifices, offering prayers and giving tithes. But it could all easily become heartless external ceremony.
The word picture of a person offering their gift at the altar was a familiar one to Jews. Every Jew realized that sin caused a breach in one’s relationship with God, and Jesus points out that harbouring anger puts us at odds with God. Our relationship with God is inextricably linked to our relationships with people. If an situation involving unresolved anger comes to mind when we are at worship it is possibly  be the Holy Spirit is at work in our memory.

4. Engage in positive action  v25-26
It was not uncommon in his day for a person to be thrown into prison because they owed someone money. If you were proactive and could reach an agreement with the person before the case came to the judge prison could often be avoided.
Jesus tells the story to drive home his point that we cannot harbor anger for a time and wait until we feel like forgiving the person. Time is of the essence. The longer we wait the more entrenched hostility becomes.

“What if they won’t forgive or don’t want to reconcile with us’?

With the right motive, in the right spirit we are to attempt to make things right. God will honour our efforts. The one offended may need time; healing and God may have a work to do in their hearts.

“If it is possible as far as it depends upon you, live at peace with everyone.”

(Romans 12:18)

“We don’t solve the problem by looking at the provocation and excusing our anger, we solve it by looking deep within ourselves at our own hearts and dealing with what we see there. We must give our anger to the Lord and let his Spirit fill our lives.  (Stuart Briscoe)

Paul lists self-control as a by-product of having the Spirit of Christ living within us. It is something that is grown within us as we co-operate with God.

For many people anger has become a problem and they still get angry for all the wrong reasons and respond to it in all the wrong ways. In fact we sometimes don’t even know why we feel such rage and irritability and we try to fight it.

That is not the Christian way. The advice of the Bible is not to fight our hurts our resentments but to express them by surrendering to a loving Father. We need to reject the hold anger can have on our lives.

“But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other since you have taken off you old self with its practices.” (Colossians 3:8-9)

As we yield ourselves up to God His Spirit fills us.  This is not a spirit of fear but a spirit of power of love and of self-control.

Blessings 
Carol