Lent Midweek March 7, 2018
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2018 Study of Anger (This file is a short study sent out in advance of the Lent midweek sermon.)
Lent Midweek
Ephesians 4:17-32 & Matthew 5:17-24
March 7, 2018
“Jesus vs. Anger”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
At least with anger we don’t have to talk about what it is, like we’ve done with some of the other seven vices. We all know anger. Anger is when our entire body tightens up, our face becomes red and our foreheads hard, our teeth are clenched, the adrenaline rushes in, our hearts starts beating faster, and our blood pressure elevates. Anger is that digging in for a fight. The question is: is it the “good fight” (1 Tim. 6:12) or is it simply our sin?
I think I can safely say that at least 99% of the time our anger is just simply sin. Does that sound about right to you? That perhaps 1 out of every 100 times that we’re angry we’re actually justified in our anger. But I think it might be more like 1 out of every 1,000 times or even 100,000 times. Yes, anger isn’t inherently wrong. There is such a thing as good anger. Yet we practice very, very little of it.
This is why most of the verses in Scripture speak against anger. And also why the church has usually told Christians to simply stay away from anger. James 1:20 says “the anger of man doesn’t produce the righteousness that God requires.” St. Paul says, “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger be put away from you.” (Ephesians 4:31) Instead of getting angry, Paul says, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”” Romans 12:19-20
So to restate—yes, anger can be good. If you’re angry at the murder of innocent babies through abortion and that anger is controlled and used in love for your neighbor by peacefully speaking and writing against it, by supporting pregnancy centers, and by showing love to all mothers, then your anger is good and is being used to fight the good fight of faith. The same would be true about anger at abuse, anger at racism, anger at mistreatment of your children, etc., if your anger is controlled and expressed in love. Yet those are very, very rare cases for us and tonight we’re more concerned with following God’s Word which tells you and I to put away our anger.
The problem with our anger is that it’s nearly always selfish. You and I get angry, not because we love God so much or love our neighbor, but because we love ourselves. We get angry because our egos are so fragile and we have to bolster them up with a little righteous indignation. Have you ever noticed that when you’re angry you always think you have a right to be angry? That’s a pretty crazy coincidence, isn’t it? We will always claim justification for our anger. Even when it’s not really just at all.
We also get angry because we’re just plain scared. We don’t like our little worlds being threatened and we don’t like our ideas being challenged. So we get angry. We want to control the situation. And one way we can attempt to keep control of the situation is by getting angry. Even though it never works the way we want.
So here’s the two problems with our anger: we get angry at the wrong target and angry in the wrong amount. How many times have you taken out your anger on the person that happened to be available? This is the classic example of the wrong target. So maybe you yell at your husband in the evening even though you’re really angry about something earlier in the day. Or maybe you bark at the teacher because you’re really angry at your child. Or you vent your frustration against the customer service representative who happens to be on the phone even though they really have nothing to do with your problem.
But here’s the bigger thing about the wrong target—most of the time there is no real target! Because our anger isn’t justified at all. Most of the time we’re just angry because we didn’t get our way. And so we take it out on anyone or anything convenient. And in truth, maybe most of the time who we’re really angry at is God Himself. Because He’s not giving us what we want. But it’s much easier to take it out on others.
So that’s the wrong target, but we also get angry in the wrong amount. We get angry way too quickly, angry way too much, and angry for way too long. In other words, we have no control over our anger at all. Every little thing sets us off. We’re rude and we complain about everything. We blow up over the smallest and most insignificant little happenings. Maybe we throw a tantrum because we don’t like the meal prepared for dinner. Or we hold our anger way too long leading to resentment, hatred, refusal to forgive, holding grudges, plotting revenge, and rationalizing it at every turn. Lord, have mercy on us.
There’s one other anger I want to alert you to that’s exploding right now in twenty-first century America. And that’s righteous indignation. All of the media and social media right now thrives on it. Think “angry mob”. It has infected us like a deadly disease. Nearly every news article you read and every news segment you watch has a twinge of righteous anger to it. And then we turn around and vent the same righteous indignation to others in our conversations, our posts on Facebook, or wherever else. After the last school shooting in Florida, now two of the teenagers from that school are on a nationwide tour of righteous indignation demanding gun control among other things. One of them stated in an interview that they are all about telling the politicians, “You guys suck at your job!”. Beware of the current of righteous indignation. It will sweep you away.
So what do we do with our sinful anger? Venting it isn’t the way to handle it. We’ve been told we need to vent our anger and not bottle it up. But the truth is that venting anger only leads to more anger. It doesn’t help. And suppressing our anger doesn’t work either. That just leads us to be completely fake with people and to be spitefully silent to them until it boils over and we lose it.
The only answer to anger is forgiveness and reconciliation. That’s how God has chosen to deal with His wrath and anger for us sinners. He chose to reconcile us to Himself with the death of His Son Jesus Christ. If you want to know what to do with anger, look at the cross of Jesus. Anger is to be put to death with Jesus Christ.
That’s why Jesus says that if you are at the altar and you remember some anger against your brother, then go and be reconciled to him right away. And that’s why St. Paul says to put away all bitterness and wrath and anger. You are baptized into Christ. So every day you put off that old angry, wrathful self and put on the new self in Christ.
Putting away anger isn’t the same as suppressing anger. Putting it away is turning it over to God. It is getting rid of it. As we heard earlier, vengeance is the Lord’s. He will repay. We must remember that we, too, are sinners. The very things we’re angry about are things we have done ourselves. Have you gotten angry at another driver on the road for something that you yourself have done countless times? Of course we have. We also do well to remember that all of this world is only temporary and we believe in the life of the world to come. In other words, this world isn’t the “end all, be all”. You don’t need to get revenge on every little thing and blow up every little thing. Trust God to take care of it. He will.
Another very helpful thing to do with anger is figure out where it’s coming from. When you’re angry, ask yourself, “Why?” What’s really going on? Who am I really angry at and do I have any right to be angry? You must talk to others and ask them, “Am I right in this?”
When someone says, “I hate so-and-so,” we’ve been trained to tell them, “Don’t say ‘hate’.” But they actually are hating. That’s the problem. What would be much better is to say, “Well, hatred is a sin and it’s serious. Let’s figure out why you hate them.” We need to get behind our hatred and anger and see where we’ve gone astray.
Finally, ask Jesus for help. Pray often and always. Ask for help with anger. Pray for the people you are angry with. Pray that God would turn your heart. And if we are going to use anger, then it must be controlled by love and reason. It must be for the “good fight”, the fight of faith, and not simply because we’re in love with ourselves.
To this end, God help us. Amen.