Pastor Note #132: Anger and Following Jesus

In my youth, which took place in those dark days before the existence of computers and apps on mobile devices, it was very difficult to say definitively how often, if at all, a given phrase appears in the Bible.  These days, of course, it is a matter of a few moments of thumb typing, and you can know pretty much with certainty.

And so it was that the Bible app on my phone informed me that the phrase I was looking for does not appear anywhere in the English Standard Version of the Bible.  Well, even though the phrase I was wondering about is still one modern Christians are prone to use, it does have a kind of old-fashioned feel about it.  So, I thought, let’s see how often it shows up in the venerable, old King James Version.  Hit a button, switch Bible translations, a little more thumb-typing, hit the search button, and the result: zero instances.

All right, I’ll admit that the phrase I was looking for is not one that I am particularly fond of, but it is so deeply ensconced in the conversation of some segments of the Christian population of America that its apparent absence from the Bible caught me a bit off guard.

These are angry days in America, and angry Christians seem to be everywhere we look—on the news, on social media, sitting across the dinner table, or down the church pew from us.  Anger seems to have become the most recognizable feature of the Christian community.  How far are we from a new version of the old, Christian, campfire song: “Oh, they’ll know we are Christians by our wrath, by our wrath.  Yes, they’ll know that we are Christians by our wrath”?

So, back to my thumb-typing Bible search.  In light of all this anger among Christians, maybe you too will share my surprise that my Bible app could not turn up one instance of the phrase “righteous anger” anywhere in the Bible.  The same is the case for “righteous indignation” and “righteous wrath.”

“Okay,” you might be saying, “it may be that the Bible never actually uses the phrase ‘righteous anger,’ but there are certainly lots of examples of righteous anger in the Bible.”  Yes, there are.  And there are plenty of examples of unrighteous anger in the Bible also.  The mere fact that there are lots of angry people in the Bible does not in itself tell me what to do when I am angry.

When anger wells up in us, it doesn’t come with labels attached—“righteous”—“unrighteous”—“godly”—“self-serving”—etc.  And the fact that we are angry does not give us a free pass to do whatever we want to the offending party, even if we are certain beyond doubt that our cause is righteous.

James, Jesus’ brother, not one of the Sons of Thunder, also posts a warning about anger.  He writes, “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.” (James 1:19-20 NIV)  As James sees it, anger on our part is not an effective way to accomplish the mission God has given us.

The apostle Paul, too, sees something potentially dangerous about anger.  He writes, “In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.” (Ephesians 4:26-27 NIV)  Paul seems to see our anger as a threat to our own spiritual well-being.

Just as it is true that there are plenty of examples of anger in the Bible, so it is also true that the Bible posts lots of warnings about anger.  On one occasion a group of Samaritans mockingly rejected Jesus as he attempted to preach in their village.  This treatment of Jesus deeply offended his disciples, and as a result two of them, the “Sons of Thunder”, offered to call down fire from heaven, Elijah-style, to consume these offensive mockers.  Jesus hit the brakes really hard on that righteous anger of James and John.  Calling down fire on neighbors, even neighbors who reject Jesus and speak offensively about him, is, it seems, not to be on the agenda for followers of Jesus.

This point brings up an important distinction that we need to draw here.  Neither James nor Paul nor Jesus see anger as sinful in itself, but all seem to see it as dangerous.  As Paul points out, anger can give the devil a foothold in our lives.  Anger can serve as a convenient excuse for us to mistreat our neighbors and our enemies, as we see in the case of James and John’s desire to call fire down on the offensive Samaritans.  Jesus would have none of that.

We can all too easily assume that if a thing is not actually sinful, then it is not a problem.  It may not be illegal to keep a rattlesnake as a pet where you live, but we can probably all agree that it would be unwise to let it roam freely around the house.  There are a number of things, like anger, that are not in themselves sinful but which can pose a real threat to our spiritual well-being.  Money, power, and luxuries are a few other examples.  When we have these things in our lives, they need to be watched carefully.

Whenever I’ve written or spoken about this topic and topics like loving our enemies and living with kindness and civility toward those with whom we disagree, there is one point that angry Christians repeatedly raise in order to push back on me.  “Jesus got angry,” they will declare, as if that fact were a final refutation of everything I’ve said so far.  To that fact—and, yes, I cannot and do not deny it is a fact—I offer two responses.  The first is, I’ll admit, a little snarky, but it is this.  When you have achieved the perfect, spiritual holiness and personal maturity of Jesus, you should feel free to get angry whenever you like.  It will no longer pose a spiritual danger to you then.  But until then, what I’ve said so far stands.

On a less snarky note, I offer a second response.  If we look at the recorded instance of Jesus’ anger, we’ll notice something instructive about the pattern that emerges.  There are two groups of people who provoke Jesus to anger, and only these two groups: first, religious authorities when they abuse their power and, second, Jesus’ own disciples, especially when they want to use violence against their opponents.

Nothing seems to stoke Jesus’ anger like religious authorities who use their power to abuse the weak, the vulnerable, the outcasts, and sinners.  And, yes, Jesus’ cleansing of the temple is an example of exactly that sort of abuse by religious power at the expense of the powerless.  I’m not going to go into a detailed explanation of that temple-cleansing event here, but if enough of you think I’m wrong about it, I’ll write it up for another post.

So, yes, arrogant, self-righteous, compassionless, unmerciful, self-serving religious authorities did make Jesus angry.  If you want to follow Jesus’s example in that, then I guess you could try.  There are plenty of examples of it in the Church today.  In fact, many of the angriest Christians today are examples of just the sort of compassionlessness, unmercifulness, and unkindness that infuriated Jesus.  But, before you do that, let me caution you and direct your attention back to my snarky first response.

And, as I mentioned, the only other group who felt the sting of Jesus’ anger was his own disciples.  Two of the sharpest rebukes from Jesus to his disciples came when they advocated or attempted violence against those they saw as enemies—see James and John in Luke 9:51-56 and the descriptions of Jesus’ reaction to Peter’s swordplay in the Garden of Gethsemane at Jesus’ arrest.  There are those today who seek to use coercive power and even violence in the name of Christ against those they see as enemies.  Do we really want them to know that we are Christians by our wrath, by our indignation, by our violence?

Finally, let me note that there are two groups of people whom Jesus surprisingly never expressed anger toward: first, the pagan (secular, sort of) government and, second, sinners.  My impression is that in our day the two groups most likely to stir up the wrath of angry Christians among us are the secular government and sinners.  Maybe this would be a good time for us all to re-evaluate our social media posting in light of Jesus’ model.

Certainly, the biblical view of anger is that it is, at best, ineffective for accomplishing the aims of God and undermines our witness, or, worse, it is an actual danger to our own spiritual well-being.  That biblical view should give us pause.  Paul offers us a corrective approach: “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.  Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”  (Ephesians 4:31-32 NIV)

Photos by GAC