Matthew 23:27-28
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth. So you also on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Well -- that was a comforting message -- NOT.
I had another sermon half written for this week when I found myself involved in a Facebook tizzy by posting what I thought was simply a factual point, and ended up being accused of being a bad pastor. Now, the person who posted that has every right to their opinion — absolutely — and I’m not challenging that or seeking to “defend” myself. But the whole thing got me thinking about why we tend focus on certain of Jesus’ teachings while ignoring others.
We all of us, I suspect, from time to time, find ourselves falling into “gentle Jesus, meek and mild” thinking where we make him into a fluffy little bunny who would never say “boo” to anyone. This is too often the image we were taught as children.
I know — because some of you have spoken to me about it at different times over the years — that we can get confused when we feel what feels like righteous anger, legitimate anger -- but believe that we too, are supposed to be “meek and mild” and turn the other cheek. We get confused — and then we feel guilty.
I suspect the past couple of days may have brought some of this guilty confusion up for some of you because there certainly has been enough going on to make a person angry, so I looked up examples of Jesus being angry — and yes, there are plenty of them. Sometimes they show him saying and doing things I would never dream of doing.
Probably the first example everyone thinks of is Jesus driving the money changers out of the Temple — with a whip, no less. Overturning the tables, throwing money around, yelling at them to get out! This story is found in John, Matthew and Luke, and it's important to remember that when a story shows up in multiple gospel accounts it usually means we are supposed to hear and pay attention to it. And yes, Jesus is really, really angry—and, no, he is not turning the other cheek.
Then there’s the time Jesus wanted a fig, but the otherwise healthy tree had no figs on it right then (hardly the tree’s fault), so Jesus just killed the tree out of hand. There are numerous occasions scattered about that describe Jesus being challenged by the Scribes and Pharisees and looking and speaking as if he’d like to curse them all on the spot. He, of course didn't do that, but the stories make it clear he was really fed up.
But the prize-winner of them all, to my thinking, is the 23rd chapter of Matthew from which I took the brief bit for our reading today. Just read the entire chapter — it’s not that long. Six of its eight paragraphs start with “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” He also calls them “blind fools,” “blind guides,” “lawless,” “murderers,” “whitewashed tombs,” and “brood of vipers!” again, not sweet-talking anyone.
Yes, Jesus got angry when anger was the proper response to wrong being done — but it matters first, that he was angry for good reason, and second, that he did not stay in his anger — his actions always lead to cleansing and healing. He didn’t just get angry for anger’s sake. He was not known anywhere in scripture as an angry person. His anger led, instead, to positive actions that helped others and honored God.
So, stop feeling guilty any time you get mad (unless, of course, it’s just rage to soothe our own egos, in which case we should be ashamed). It’s OK for Christians to be angry at wrongs being done. While Jesus’s occasional anger is certainly not blanket permission for us to lose our tempers and act badly, neither is it a reason for us to leap directly into forgiveness without reflecting and addressing the wrong that was done in our sight. Sometimes, anger is exactly the proper response—anger is what moves us to work to stop the wrong and strengthen the right. If we see wrong being done and our response is merely, "oh, well, Jesus loves them," when is anything ever going to get better?
So go ahead, get angry when there is valid reason for anger -- just don’t stop and stay there. Let that anger move you on into healing.
I had another sermon half written for this week when I found myself involved in a Facebook tizzy by posting what I thought was simply a factual point, and ended up being accused of being a bad pastor. Now, the person who posted that has every right to their opinion — absolutely — and I’m not challenging that or seeking to “defend” myself. But the whole thing got me thinking about why we tend focus on certain of Jesus’ teachings while ignoring others.
We all of us, I suspect, from time to time, find ourselves falling into “gentle Jesus, meek and mild” thinking where we make him into a fluffy little bunny who would never say “boo” to anyone. This is too often the image we were taught as children.
I know — because some of you have spoken to me about it at different times over the years — that we can get confused when we feel what feels like righteous anger, legitimate anger -- but believe that we too, are supposed to be “meek and mild” and turn the other cheek. We get confused — and then we feel guilty.
I suspect the past couple of days may have brought some of this guilty confusion up for some of you because there certainly has been enough going on to make a person angry, so I looked up examples of Jesus being angry — and yes, there are plenty of them. Sometimes they show him saying and doing things I would never dream of doing.
Probably the first example everyone thinks of is Jesus driving the money changers out of the Temple — with a whip, no less. Overturning the tables, throwing money around, yelling at them to get out! This story is found in John, Matthew and Luke, and it's important to remember that when a story shows up in multiple gospel accounts it usually means we are supposed to hear and pay attention to it. And yes, Jesus is really, really angry—and, no, he is not turning the other cheek.
Then there’s the time Jesus wanted a fig, but the otherwise healthy tree had no figs on it right then (hardly the tree’s fault), so Jesus just killed the tree out of hand. There are numerous occasions scattered about that describe Jesus being challenged by the Scribes and Pharisees and looking and speaking as if he’d like to curse them all on the spot. He, of course didn't do that, but the stories make it clear he was really fed up.
But the prize-winner of them all, to my thinking, is the 23rd chapter of Matthew from which I took the brief bit for our reading today. Just read the entire chapter — it’s not that long. Six of its eight paragraphs start with “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” He also calls them “blind fools,” “blind guides,” “lawless,” “murderers,” “whitewashed tombs,” and “brood of vipers!” again, not sweet-talking anyone.
Yes, Jesus got angry when anger was the proper response to wrong being done — but it matters first, that he was angry for good reason, and second, that he did not stay in his anger — his actions always lead to cleansing and healing. He didn’t just get angry for anger’s sake. He was not known anywhere in scripture as an angry person. His anger led, instead, to positive actions that helped others and honored God.
So, stop feeling guilty any time you get mad (unless, of course, it’s just rage to soothe our own egos, in which case we should be ashamed). It’s OK for Christians to be angry at wrongs being done. While Jesus’s occasional anger is certainly not blanket permission for us to lose our tempers and act badly, neither is it a reason for us to leap directly into forgiveness without reflecting and addressing the wrong that was done in our sight. Sometimes, anger is exactly the proper response—anger is what moves us to work to stop the wrong and strengthen the right. If we see wrong being done and our response is merely, "oh, well, Jesus loves them," when is anything ever going to get better?
So go ahead, get angry when there is valid reason for anger -- just don’t stop and stay there. Let that anger move you on into healing.
RSS Feed