Sermon on the Mount: Anger

Text: Matthew 5:21–26 ESV

“You have heard that it was said…but I say to you…” (Matthew 5:21-22 ESV) 

One constant challenge I have noted with raising kids is the fact that I am always needing to correct perceptions. Like one of my kids who thought all hospitals had submarines they deployed when people were drowning. Their big concern was how kids could hold their breath long enough for the submarine to get there and save them. Another kid thought that if your birthday was only three days away you couldn’t possibly be more than three days apart in age. And yet another one of my kids, despite our best homeschooling efforts, still thought well through grade school that it was an odd quirk that Alaska was so cold while Hawaii was so warm when they are always down in the corner of the map next to each other. 

Sometimes these are misperceptions from their own thoughts, but often they have heard from others. Like kids trying to explain to one another how babies are made. Or explaining the kinds of jobs their parents actually do. I heard of one kid who had gone around telling everyone that their mom sells drugs. Not with a gun, but she emails people asking people if they want drugs. Her mom was a pharmaceutical rep. My dad used to tell my kids that if they clapped their hands three times in a row the fireplace would turn on—even though he was flicking the switch on the wall. My kids walked around clapping at fireplaces for weeks after that and bewildered when fire didn’t spring up.

But I Say

It is important to note how Jesus starts this section and how it is also the beginning of each of the next five statements he makes. Jesus’s goal is not to get rid of the law. In fact, the section we skipped today Jesus makes it clear that the law matters, and his goal is not to get rid of it. Jesus, the true king and heir of the kingdom knows in himself what the intentions of the law were. Jesus is not setting himself up as against the law, nor is he simply trying to correct what our heart cares about the law versus the external actions we understand from the law. Jesus starts with this statement:

“You have heard that it was said to those of old” (Matthew 5:21 ESV) 

Jesus is pitting himself against the interpretation that most had heard about Scripture and the commandments of God from others. He wants to express what the commandments and decrees of God were really pointing us toward. And surprisingly, like much of the sermon on the mount, the goal was not just outward conformity, but a revealing examination of our heart and motives that can lead to disastrous outworking if we leave it unchecked. 

Anger = Murder

Here, Jesus is specifically talking about the sixth commandment:

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’” (Matthew 5:21 ESV) 

In the Old Testament, it wasn’t only the ten commandments that spoke about murder, but the Mosaic laws and rules that governed Israel said that a person who murdered someone had to appear before the court and be judged for their actions—usually leading to their death (Exodus 20:13; Leviticus 24:17; Deuteronomy 5:17). Even before that, in Genesis 9:5–6, God reminds Abraham and his family that:

“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.” (Genesis 9:6 ESV)

This statement from God begins to get at the problem. “For God made man in his own image.” Is murder merely about an external action without any reference to the character and heart of the murderer? Without anything said about what murder is really doing, besides stopping a life. Isn’t something more at stake? What is it that lurks in the heart of someone who finally acts out in rage and kills another person? Isn’t it anger—a dark shadow across the soul of a person who finds their contempt for another so great they are willing to remove them, erase them as it were from their life? Jesus says that both murder and anger are the same—they both at their core an attack against an image bearer of God. To be angry at someone and to murder them both means we have to set aside their image bearer quality—their being a son and daughter of God—and treat them as no better than an animal or other non-spiritual being like a plant or dirt.

Jesus’s correction is that anger was always the goal of the sixth commandment. We were not meant to focus only on an external action, but see the corrupting nature of the soul when it is flooded with anger, hate, contempt. Anger is condemnable in the kingdom of God.  Jesus says it clearly:

“But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.” (Matthew 5:22-23 ESV) 

Much has been written about these three statements. Some try to see a gradation of angers, as if you are just angry you will be judged (in court?), but if you insult you go to the council (maybe a religious court), if you say “You fool,” well, now you go to hell. It doesn’t appear Jesus is really trying to find distinctions in these levels, but rather, as a good preacher, he is making his point for his audience—his disciples—and making sure they feel the full weight of the point. Anger is condemnable no different than murder, in fact all commands against murder were pointing to the real problem, your anger. 

“You think you aren’t included,” Jesus might be imagined to be saying. “You think you are morally superior to a murderer?” Have you ever hated anyone? Have you ever wished someone were dead? Have you ever stooped to contempt, name calling, or character assassination? All these examples, and often times any time a list like this is made in Scripture, is meant to make any thoughtful person realize they cannot escape from this statement. We have all been angry, we have all insulted someone, and we have all shown outright contempt for others with our words and declarations. 

If you are still not inclined to think this could be true, consider your politics. Whether we talk literally about your political views in America, or we talk about your preferences and desires versus those who have different desires, we will almost always find an aspect of anger there. Have you always portrayed another person you disagree with favorably just not believing the same as you? Have you always said kind things about them even if you disagree with their viewpoint? Our political landscape is the cesspool it is because too often Christians are just as willing as others to throw their angry jabs into the mix. And in doing so we lose our saltiness and illuminating potential we talked about last week by adding to the problem, but also because we find ourselves with a sin no different than the person who murders those they don’t like. Have you traded murder for misrepresentation and muckraking because it seems more acceptable? 

The Anger of Jesus: Nothing Personal

Now an astute learner and observer of Scripture may say, “Didn’t Jesus get angry himself?” Yes, yes he did. Jesus was definitely upset when he came into the temple and saw money changers and merchants making the temple of God into a market later in Matthew 21:12. Jesus was mad at the religious hypocrite who wanted to challenge him and find a problem with his healing on the Sabbath in Mark 3:1. Jesus even calls the Pharisees and the teachers of the law “You blind fools!” in Matthew 23:17. 

So what gives? Why can Jesus be angry, yet he tells us not to be angry? I think that is a great question and helps us understand even better what is going on here. This is not a total prohibition of all anger of any kind. Jesus was obviously angry when people were sinning, and that is the right reaction of God to sin. Like the beatitudes we have already looked at, we have to understand the context. Those who mourn are blessed not just because they cry, but because they lament what sin has done to them and this world. Similarly, we are not prohibited from anger, but anger that is interpersonal and not about God’s righteousness. 

It is striking when we look to Jesus how he, even Jesus, was not angry when it came to personal offenses even though they were wrong. In the midst of an unfair trial, being unjustly arrested, beaten, mocked, spat upon, whipped, crucified, mocked, Peter says,  Jesus “did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats” (1 Peter 2:23). Through parched lips on the cross he did not yell at those who nailed him there nor threaten them, rather he said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). 

Jesus is forbidding anger that arises out of personal relationships. This is why he says:

“Everyone who is angry with his brother” (Matthew 5:22 ESV)

This is about our relationships with our brothers, sisters, other image bearers of God on this planet. When we conflict with one another, anger is not an option. We can be angry at sin, but not people.

Let’s be honest, by and large we get angry over personal offenses, not some nebulous principle or statement. Even what may start out as a statement about an idea or sin or thought eventually gets wrapped up with both our ego and the person who is defending the other position, and our pushing for others to see the “right” position or issue becomes bound up with our “opponent” as we view them not only “in” the wrong position, but as wrong and attacking us. 

I am very guilty of this type of thinking. I am very “righteousness” motivated. I don’t care as much if people will think good or bad of me, I care if I can believe doing something is “right.” And I am often willing to go toe-to-toe in my assessment of what is right and instead of arguing for an idea I begin to argue with people, and in doing so think poorly of them because of the view they hold and because they are arguing with me. That is wrong. I become quick to conflate right with “my rights,” and wrong with “committing a wrong against me.” I can move from being concerned about a right cause to being more concerned about me very quickly. 

We all do this on many levels: We see someone driving down the street and merging into the turn lane at the same time as us without a blinker and assume their mouth moving is them cursing us out and we take the action personally with no knowledge that is what is going on. We have a conversation with a friend and move from a jovial discussion to hating one another simply because we don’t have the same perspective. We can even cut off family and friends because of these types of disagreements. All from anger. 

Anger in personal relationships is a sign that I have forgotten that the person I am angry with is a broken image bearer of God in need of Jesus as much as me.

This person is an image bearer of God

They are made in God’s image and therefore they deserve as much respect and care as I would want to have shown to me. They are valuable to God because they bear his image so they should be valuable to me. 

This person is broken.

Additionally, they are broken, just like me. They are sinners. They and I do not image God the way we should. Even for those saved in Jesus Christ, we are still marred with sin in this lifetime. We both will “miss” in our attempts to connect with each other in many ways.

This person needs Jesus as much as me

Ultimately, we all need Jesus. This is the imagery Jesus goes to again and again. In Matthew 18 (which is more about sin in general than just how to deal with unrepentant sin), Jesus goes to the image of the man in great debt. He tells about a man forgiven his unfathomably great debt who then turns around and tries to have a man jailed for his small loan. We should always be remembering the great debt that Jesus paid for us. The ways in which we have very personally wronged God and his great patience—long suffering love—for us and how we should demonstrate that for each other as well. In light of Jesus, how is my personal anger at another person ever appropriate or right?

I know the pushback to this is that I don’t know the horrific things someone has done to you. You are right, I don’t. I do know the horrific things you and I have done to Christ, to God. And I trust that he will rightly judge those who have wronged me and you, and I am thankful that even they can find forgiveness in Jesus. Because if they couldn’t, I couldn’t either. We don’t have to like the sins others have committed, pretend that they didn’t scar or hurt us, or call them good. But we cannot be angry with them and refuse them the status as co-image bearers, co-sinners, and co-citizens in heaven by the same grace you and I desperately need.

Application #1: The Responsibility Doesn’t End At You

In addition to reminding us again and again of our same need in Jesus and our image bearer quality, Jesus gives us two very specific images as his application and concern for his disciples. The first image should be striking:

“So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” (Matthew 5:23-24 ESV)

Jesus puts the onus on you and me not only to not be angry, but if we ever remember someone may have a claim against us—we were angry with them—it is our duty to pursue them and seek reconciliation. This is so important, that Jesus says we are to leave our gift before the altar and go. 

The imagery here is that of someone who is in the temple. They have brought the right animal, purified themselves so they can enter the temple, the priest is readying the sacrifice before the altar. And even after that much preparation, perhaps even a long journey to even get to Jerusalem and the temple, God says reconciling with those you have wronged in anger is necessary. 

Jesus’s concern seems to be that we would value looking right on the outside instead of being right with others. The appearance of external holiness while internally we are hiding or avoiding real conversations. Going to church and Life Group and ignoring a problem with a friend. Knowing that whenever you see someone’ you have an intense feeling of frustration or anger, but never making time to talk to them directly. Hanging out on weekends with friends but never really having the hard talks. 

You are responsible for even this! As Don Carson says: “Men love to substitute ceremony for integrity, purity and love; but Jesus will have none of it.” D.A. Carson, Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, 53–54

We are seeing again and again that God is after the heart of his people and because of what Jesus has done for us on the cross God is now at work in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. 

Who do you need to run towards, even now? I would encourage you this morning, as you contemplate communion later, should you remember the grace and mercy your God has had for you and then turn and run after church today to find the person you need to talk to? Why wait? 

Application #2: Do Whatever It Takes

That really is the point of Jesus’s second application comment.

“Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.” (Matthew 5:25-26 ESV) 

The imagery here is one of debtors court. Throughout much of history people could be thrown into jail because of the debt they owed someone. It was an extremely difficult situation because they couldn’t be released until their debt was paid, but they couldn’t work while in prison. This meant their family and loved ones had to contribute on their behalf until they were released. 

Because of the idea of getting someone released, the Catholic church has often used this as a verse to discuss purgatory, the idea that we have to work off our debt for certain sins. That isn’t the point here. The point is to say that whatever you need to do, do it now. If we rightly understand judgement and our sin, we will never be able to pay back our God for our offenses against him. An infinitely righteous God has been infinitely offended by even our smallest and most momentary sin. 

Are you willing to do whatever it takes to reconcile over anger? To go back to someone even though it seems awkward. To have long conversations, many conversations? Will you not rest until you have peace with your brother or sister? What real changes are you willing to make? 

Conclusion

We all need a change in perspectives. Like children who have been misinformed, we need to have our vision reoriented and realigned to God and his word. We are the sons and daughters of God, those who admit their anger is the problem, not just an eventual outworking of it through murder. Those who put down others, insult them, carry internal hatred and disdain with no active participation in reconciliation are guilty of the same damning sin as the most hated murderer in prison. Do you put your anger on par with atrocious murders by people like Charles Manson, Jack the Ripper, Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, or even Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, or Mao Zedong? 

Ultimately, do we really believe that everyone is made in the image of God and worthy of our love and care? Even when we feel attacked, even when it feels personal? Do we see that our Savior’s passion was not for his own personal comfort, but for the righteousness of God? And thank God he didn’t live just for his comfort, otherwise we would not have enjoyed the blessing of his cross. Praise God that he took the wrath and anger of God and instead, gave us his righteousness and mercy. We should desire to do the same.