MURDER WE WROTE

Matthew 5:21 – 26

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.' ²² But 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.

 

²³ "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, ²⁴ leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.

 

²⁵ "Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. ²⁶ I tell you the truth; you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.

INTRODUCTION:   

Rodney Johnson, an African-American pastor in Shawnee Mission, KS, describes Christians as “Easter people living in a Good Friday world.”  I like that phrase.  By a “Good Friday world”, Johnson means

“a world full of suffering, questioning, unfairness, trouble, mistakes, hurts, losses and grief. It is a world of self-centeredness, a world of deceit and pain. A Good Friday world is a world of fear, of anxiety, of depression and shame. A Good Friday world contains the unknown, the ‘what ifs’ and all of the doubts.”  

Rodney Johnson is probably correct.  We are Easter people living in a Good Friday world.  A Good Friday world is a world lived on the wrong side of Easter.  It is a world where the Good News of the Resurrection is either not known or it has not made enough of a difference to those who do know.

 

Glenn Vaughn knows what a Good Friday world feels like.  He writes about a day he experienced.

“After spending 3½ hours enduring the long lines, surly clerks and insane regulations at the Department of Motor Vehicles, I stopped at a toy store to pick up a gift for my son.  I brought my selection - a baseball bat - to the cash register.  ‘Cash or charge?’ the clerk asked.  ‘Cash,’ I snapped.  Then apologizing for my rudeness, I explained, ‘I’ve spent the afternoon at the motor vehicle bureau.’  ‘Shall I gift-wrap the bat?’ the clerk asked sweetly.  ‘Or are you going back there?’”

Can you relate?  A Good Friday world is a world that lives under the dark brooding clouds of simmering anger and boiling rage.  In fact, it may be that the most telling symptom of a Good Friday world is this undercurrent of anger that is so prevalent, so pervasive.

 

This is a Good Friday world and an angry age.

·    Flight attendants and airline pilots reported 66 incidents of air rage in 1997. 

·    By 1999, the figure had risen to 534 incidents. 

·     By 2006, the number had escalated to 1,359 incidents of air rage. 

·    And in 2007, there were 2,219 incidents of air rage reported to the FAA.  That is an increase of 3,300% in ten years!

 

Do I need to mention road rage?  According to AAA, an average of at least 1,500 men, women, and children are injured or killed each year in the United States as a result of "aggressive driving" due to road rage.  We live in a Good Friday world and an angry age. 

On March 1^st of this year in St. Paul, MN. a man, en route to anger management class, struck a woman after becoming, well, angry.

 

According to a criminal complaint, Justin John Boudin was waiting at a bus stop on Aug. 29 when he became angry and shouted at a 59-year-old woman as well as others at the bus stop.

 

The complaint alleges that when the 59-year-old woman took out a cell phone to call police, Boudin hit her in the face, and a 63-year-old man who tried to stop the assailant was then hit with a blue folder, which fell on the ground.

 

Police tracked the man down through the blue folder, which included Boudin's name and his anger management homework.

We live in a Good Friday world where the truth of the Good News is either not known or it hasn’t made enough of a difference.  And one of the places where the Good News of the Resurrection doesn’t seem to have made enough of a difference is in the way we deal with anger.

 

For the next few minutes, I’d like to make some observations about anger.

I.    Anger is Natural – it’s source is God

God created us with both the capacity for anger and the responsibility to control it.  If we do not learn to control our anger, our anger will control us.

 

Someone has said that we should regard our temper as a valuable possession and never lose it.

 

Solomon, that wisest of men, said,

Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit,

For anger resides in the lap of fools.  (Ecclesiastes 7:9 NIV)

The New Living Translation says, “Anger is the friend of fools”. 

The Message paraphrase paints this picture:

Don't be quick to fly off the handle.
Anger boomerangs. You can spot a fool by the lumps on his head.

Our anger is like a thermometer.  When the temperature is rising, that is a symptom that something is brewing.  A wise man does not ignore the symptom; he tries to trace down the source of the heat.

II.    Anger is Neutral – It is not necessarily wrong to be angry. 

In Ephesians 4:26, Paul wrote, “In your anger, do not sin.”  That is actually a quote from Psalm 4, verse 4.  Clearly, it is possible to become angry and not sin.  That is because anger is neutral, it is neither wrong nor right.  It just is. 

 

Anger can come from a sense of injustice.  If we believe that someone isn’t playing by the rules and he’s getting away with it, we can become angry.  If we perceive that our beliefs are being threatened, we can become angry.  If we feel as if we, or others, are being abused, we can become angry.  A sense of injustice can lead to feelings of anger…and that’s not necessarily a bad thing if the anger motivates us to constructive action.

 

Anger can come from a sense of injury.  When a person thinks he has been disrespected, discarded or ignored, he can feel insulted, humiliated and injured (physical as well as psychological).  This can lead to anger.  But such anger is not necessarily wrong because it may motivate us to protect ourselves from future injury.

 

Anger can also arise from a sense of invasion.  When a person’s freedom, independence, boundaries and personal space are perceived to be violated, his identity and even his psychological integrity can feel threatened.  It is not a bad thing to be passionate about protecting yourself against that sense of invasion.

 

A sense of injustice, of injury or of invasion will usually lead to a sense of intention.  There is a release of energy and determination to do something about the injustices, the injuries and the invasions.  We become ready to act.  That can be a very good thing.

 

·    William Wilberforce became a tireless opponent of slavery because he sensed the injustice of the institution in England. 

·    Carrie Nation became active in the cause of temperance because she was angry over the injury done to innocent people because of alcohol use and abuse. 

·    Susan B. Anthony became angry over the injustice of women not being allowed to vote and she led in the women’s suffrage movement that helped secure voting rights for women.   

 

Anger that leads to constructive action is a good thing.  Anger that leads to irrational and even illegal acts is a bad thing.

 

So anger is natural: it is a God-given response.  Anger is neutral: in itself, it is neither good nor bad.  But anger can become noxious. 

III.    Anger Can Be Noxious – It can lead to sin.

Christians are Easter people living in a Good Friday world.  Jesus lived, and died, in a Good Friday world.

 

The Pharisees and the Sadducees, the Scribes and the Teachers of the Law, The Roman legions and the Jewish leaders all became angry because of Jesus’ teachings.  Their anger could have motivated them to change the corrupt systems that Jesus exposed but it didn’t.  Instead, they chose to murder the Son of God.

 

Jesus lived and died in a Good Friday world.  But he came back to life in an Easter world…a world of new life, a world of hope, a world of promise, a world of redemption and a world of victory.

CONCLUSION:

At the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry, he preached a powerful sermon.  In that sermon, he warned about the danger of unresolved, unbridled and uncontrolled anger.  Matthew 7:28-29 says that when Jesus finished his sermon, “the crowds were amazed at his teaching because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.”

 

The crowds of common people were amazed but their teachers of the law were jealous and became angry.  It was not long before, in their anger, they sought to kill him.

 

Toward the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry, the anger of the Pharisees led them to execute the Messiah they thought they had wanted.

 

People who live on the right side of Easter learn to control their anger.  People who live on the wrong side of Easter, let their anger control them. 

 

People who live on the right side of Easter work away at relationships.  People who live on the wrong side of Easter walk away from relationships.

 

People who live on the right side of Easter know that, because He lives, life is worth the living, relationships are worth the effort, forgiveness is worth the price and heaven is worth the wait.  People who live on the wrong side of Easter need to hear that good news.  Will you tell them?

INVITATION:                          #358     – “Because He Lives”   

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