Did I Forget To Tell You that… There Are Things Christians SHOULD Be Angry About?
Did I Forget To Tell You that There Are Things Christians SHOULD Be Angry About?
So much time and energy was devoted to avoiding anger and warning about anger that it was a long, long time of studying the Scripture before I understood there are things Christians should be angry about
In the hymnal that I was raised on, there was a Psalter in the back—which we used as a responsive reading almost every Sunday. It wasn’t until the “new” (1987 J) United Methodist Hymnal came out that I learned that the hymnal of my youth and childhood had carefully edited out the parts of the Psalms that were lament or angry. One of the commitments of the “new” hymnal was to include all the Psalms (prayerbook of Jesus) just as they were. That was an improvement to the integrity of the Psalms. But I still don’t remember using the imprecatory (angry) Psalms when we gathered for worship and very little conversation in preaching, teaching, Sunday School Classes, Bible studies about things we should be angry about. Most of our energy was devoted to avoiding being angry and, if we ARE angry, to be very careful not to express that anger.
We have every reason to be cautious about the explosive and potentially damaging nature of anger. Examples abound of the destructive effects anger can bring. In my opinion, we also make the “problem” of anger worse when all we teach people is to not be angry. Then people are left to internalize pain and, on top of that, to feel guilty about the pain they are feeling. Ouch. Double ouch.
This Monday of Holy Week is the perfect time to remember that there are times and circumstances where it is a holy thing for Christians to be angry. And, further, sometimes, it is a sin to NOT be angry.
So if I have forgotten to tell you that sometimes Christians should be angry, let’s get it straight.
The life of Christ shows that Christians should not be angry all the time.
The main testimony of the life of Christ is a Savior of extraordinary grace and patience. Extraordinary. Only a very few times does His anger show. So people shouldn’t be angry all the time at every little thing and think they are following Jesus.When Jesus is angry (the most poignant example is the cleansing of the Temple), He is not angry because of personal slights. He is angry on behalf of others. Holy anger is not selfish. In the cleansing of the Temple, Jesus was angry at religious people who were ripping off poor people – using religion to take advantage of people. That is the reason for holy anger: when religious people use God’s name (and God’s house) to take advantage of others.
We have every reason to believe that Jesus knew the powerful potential for danger to get out of control. So when He is angry, He gives a model of how to deal with holy anger:
He directly addresses the people He is angry with. He doesn’t go around talking about them, criticizing them, preaching against them. He goes directly to them. This is consistent with His teaching in Matthew 18 about going directly to people you are upset with.
He describes the actions that are at the base of His anger. He does not attack their character. He does not call them names. He says, “You have taken my Father’s house and made it a marketplace.”
Then, He let it go. While Matthew and Luke place this story the day after Palm Sunday, John’s Gospel places it at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry (right after His first miracle at the wedding at Cana). In all the Gospels, you don’t hear any more about the moneychangers in the Temple. Jesus said his piece to the people who were defiling the Temple. He did not turn other people against them. He did not rant and rail about them forever. He made His point to them directly and moved on.
So when people – in the name of religion—are ripping off others, denigrating or making life hard for vulnerable people, it is a sin to NOT be angry.
The anger we express should follow closely the model of Jesus. But let’s be sure to understand: there are things that Christians should be angry about.
