Anger Management

So it's in light of the anger referenced in yesterday's post that drove four brave kids to do what they did that I'm trying to figure out how to talk about Jesus' warnings about anger when I speak this Thursday at our large group meeting. Here's the passage from Matthew 5:

21"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' 22But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.

Okay, so obviously anger is a dangerous thing and Jesus' warning here is stern and serious. But it's also true that Jesus gets really ticked off. And clearly there's an anger that motivated the Greensboro Four to do what they did that brought about justice. So what I want to do is warn against anger while carving out space for righteous anger.

The problem, of course, is that all of us think that our particular anger is a righteous anger. In fact, in few places of our lives are we so ridiculously self-deluded as our own estimation of how right we are--including and especially how right we are to be angry about something.

Where I've landed this week as I've been working with it and thinking about it is this: Jesus here is warning people about anger--that they will be judged for their anger. What this means is exactly that. Our anger will be closely scrutinized (i.e. judged) because it can be a tremendously damaging weapon. It might be judged to be righteous, or (more likely) it will be judged to be self-righteous. So Jesus is issuing a warning that is a real warning: be careful when you're angry, because anger will be judged very specifically and it puts us in a place where we might seriously be lost forever.

There are few weapons in our emotional arsenal that have more power for ill and has so rarely been used for the good. God Himself is a Being-In-Relationship (see my posts a couple weeks ago on the Trinity). Jesus comes to reconcile and restore right relationships. Anger most often destroys relationships and so is mostly used to work against the work of the Spirit and life in the Kingdom. And so we must be very careful in how we express anger--whether it be righteous anger or not.