What does it mean to “be angry but in your anger, do not sin.”
““You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.”
Sometimes anger is an appropriate response to situations or circumstances.
“Be angry but in your anger, do not sin.”
Your anger might be a response to your mistreatment.
Your anger may be telling you that your abuse is unacceptable and that you should be treated with dignity and kindness.
In this way, anger can be a friend who is for us.
Emotions like anger don’t always lie to us, sometimes they tell us the truth about ourselves and our situation.
Yet, “in your anger do not sin.”
Jesus is not talking about healthy anger.
Jesus is highlighting anger that hardens into contempt.
Anger that erases humans in our heart.
Anger that dehumanizes.
Anger like this is different than murder, but they are travelling on the same road — murder is just a little further down the path.
And, like a practiced physician, Jesus refuses to deal with symptoms only.
He is interested in the root causes of murder — anger and contempt for another human.
A lot of people are angry.
Covid. Mandates. Passports. Policies. Politicians. Protests.
The issues are complex, layered and require nuance and careful thought. Whatever your position on the above matters, here is something we can all agree on.
People are deeply divided.
The division is leading to anger.
The longer it festers, the angrier we get.
The anger is shifting toward contempt.
We look down on others. View them as stupid, — emptied headed and without heart.
The word fool is on our lips.
The word “raca” (empty headed) festers in our hearts.
We may be in danger of the fires of hell, according to Jesus.
This is not the way of His kingdom.
In our polarized world we are called to be agents of radical reconciliation — all in response to the good news of God’s kingdom breaking into the world.
“while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son.”
God could have written us off.
God could have washed his hands of us.
But He didn’t.
Instead, Jesus did the costly thing.
And it led Him to a cross.
In uncertain, divided times the church is invited by Jesus to lead the way — to show what costly reconciliation looks like in an hostile, embattled culture.
Even when we disagree.
Especially when we disagree.
Followers of Jesus must put on display what it looks like to disagree, but still live in unity.
To throw back to the Beatitudes for a moment.
Followers of the way of Jesus ought to care more about being rightly-related to others than we care about being right.
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