Anger // Matthew 5:21-26

Introduction

Happy Mother’s Day!

If you’ve been with us over the last several weeks, you know that we’ve been working our way through a well-known passage in the Gospel of Matthew called the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus is teaching us what it means to be his disciples. If you’re new here, don’t worry! This won’t feel like missing the first part of a movie and then wondering what’s going on for the next half hour. We will take a moment to back up and see the context of the passage we are studying today to help us understand more fully what Jesus is teaching us here.

Over the next several weeks, we’ll be in a section of the Sermon where Jesus is teaching us what it means to have a righteousness that is greater than the scribes and Pharisees. We’ll talk more about what this means, but the thing to know for now is that Jesus gives us six examples to show us what it means to have this “greater righteousness”. The first topic that he takes on is anger. Let’s take a look at what Jesus says here…

Matthew 5:21–26 CSB

“You have heard that it was said to our ancestors, Do not murder, and whoever murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Whoever insults his brother or sister, will be subject to the court. Whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be subject to hellfire. So if you are offering your gift on the altar, and there you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled with your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. Reach a settlement quickly with your adversary while you’re on the way with him to the court, or your adversary will hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you will be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will never get out of there until you have paid the last penny.

Big Idea: Anger is destructive, but the gospel disarms our anger by healing the heart beneath it.

Exegesis // Matthew 5:21-26

1. The Call to Greater Righteousness (v.17-20)

If you were here last week, one of our elder candidates, Ben, covered the previous passage in Matt 5:17-20 where Jesus introduces the idea of his disciples being called to a greater righteousness. I’m not going to recap everything he said last week, but I do want back up a little bit to help us wrap our minds around what Jesus is teaching here about the law against murder and what that has to do with anger.

In that previous passage, Jesus says that he has not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it — what he’s referring to is the Law of Moses which was given to God’s people to instruct how they lived and related to Him. As they were listening to what Jesus said in the Sermon, certainly they were wondering what all of this had to do with the Law — they might have wondered was Jesus doing away with the Law? Was he giving us some whole new Law to live by?

What Jesus taught them was that he was not taking away the Law but was actually calling his followers to have a righteousness according to the Law that was greater than the scribes and Pharisees — that language might not mean much to you, but essentially the scribes and Pharisees were the teachers and keepers of the Law. For a Jew living in the first century, the idea that you would have to be more righteous than the scribes and Pharisees would have been alarming because they were thought of as the closest thing to perfect one could be according to the Law… and what Jesus says is not just “do you best” but actually that to enter the Kingdom you had to have a greater righteousness than the scribes and Pharisees… How is that possible?

Jesus shows them Missing the point of the Law — “you’ve heard it said… but I say”

The one who seemed closet to God were missing it by a mile because what they were missing was the heart… you followed what the Law said but you missed what it was about.

Jesus point >>> If we legalistically focus on everything that is exterior to our sin without ever looking at the heart, we’ll miss the very point of God’s commands. You might say, “I’ve never said anything rude to that person and I’m always kind to them” but really you have contempt in your heart, you’ve missed it.

Leads to a superficial View of sin and an inadequate view of righteousness — sin wasn’t a pervasive condition that impacted every part of our souls, but a list of rules to follow and things

Leads to an Inadequate View of Righteousness —

Christianity is more than a list of do’s and don’ts

Our Need for the Gospel

The Law is a weight on us and Jesus doesn’t solve it by removing its burden but by satisfying it

Not Jesus saying “I’m doing something new with the Law that’s going to better fit your life” but “I’m doing something new in you that’s going to totally change how you relate to and keep the Law

Don’t possess the power to get it right; we can change the external but we can’t transform the heart — let me tell you something that might be weirdly comforting: even at your best you can’t live up to the righteous standards of God

Romans 8:1-4 // Jesus came not only to fulfill the Law’s demands, but to fulfill it in us as we walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit — Jesus has done for us what we couldn’t do by the Law, not because the Law was the problem but because we were — but Jesus came to demolish the very thing that kept us from being able to keep the Law and now by his Spirit is doing an internal work of transformation

What this means — because of the gospel, we can live to this greater righteousness than even the best of the legalists can do because it comes from a heart that is wholly devoted to God having been freed from sin and its demands, and is empowered by the Holy Spirit

Setting up this passage

Six examples of how the scribes and Pharisees fell short of the standard of righteousness God intended in their interpretation of the Law

Formula: “you have heard it said… but I tell you” implies that the disciples didn’t have the opportunity to read the Law for themselves but were dependent upon instruction from the rabbis

Jesus gives us some examples — the first is anger

Do not murder is a command in the OT (Ex 20:13; Deut 5:17) saying “whoever murders is subject to judgment” = penalty of death (Ex 21:12, Lev 24:17)

Jesus changes the focus to anger — the type of seething rage that is a prelude to violent behavior (Matt 18:34); type of fury that grows and escalates over time

Although rabbinic interpretation of these principles was correct, it missed the greater implication of the Law >> “God intended to forbid not only the act of murder but the very attitude that inspired that act.” (Quarles)

v.22 says that if anger erupts into a verbal altercation where one is called ῥακά (“worthless person” then trial before a higher court like the Sanhedrin was appropriate. If it were to escalate into calling someone μωρέ (a “damning insult” that treated a brother as an unbeliever thus consigning him to hell; aka, “go to hell”) then it was worthy of the punishment of hell itself — these are to be punished no differently than someone who physically murders another person

2. The Heart Issue of Anger (v.21-22)

Looking beneath the sin of murder to the heart which is anger

Anger begins in the heart and overflows to the life

v.22 says that if anger erupts into a verbal altercation where one is called ῥακά (“worthless person” then trial before a higher court like the Sanhedrin was appropriate. If it were to escalate into calling someone μωρέ (a “damning insult” that treated a brother as an unbeliever thus consigning him to hell; aka, “go to hell”) then it was worthy of the punishment of hell itself — these are to be punished no differently than someone who physically murders another person

Why anger is dangerous — Anger, cynicism, and resentment are not fertile soil for sincere faith and unity with the church >>> corrosive to the soul; undermines sincere faith and God and drives a wedge between us and the people of God

We can’t follow “the rules” when our heart is far from God and filled with contempt for others

Application — We know this from our own experience — actions have no substance unless they come from the heart. Guys, how do you think your wife would feel about you constantly checking out other women and then defending yourself by saying well I’ve never cheated on you. Everything about your heart right now tells me that you would as soon as you had a good chance. Ladies, what would you think if every time your husband spoke to you he did it with his aggressive and demeaning tone even if the content of what he said was fine. “Ugh, I love you OK? Will you get off my back?” you’d wanna sit down with him and have a talk to say hey listen this has nothing to do with what you said. It has everything to do with that really obvious thing you’re not saying but it’s coloring all of your words 

3. The Spiritual Cost of Anger (v.21-22)

Wreckage of things around you

Augustine likens being intoxicated with anger to being drunk on wine

Leads to something much worse - murder

Spiritual consequences:

Separation from God

Can’t worship God from a heart that despises his people

4. The Urgency of Reconciliation (v.23-26)

Only way to resolve anger with a brother

What does it take to reconcile?

Acknowledge anger = pain

Lewis called it the “anesthetic of the mind” helps us to avoid the painful thing beneath but in order to have a right heart before God, we need to pay attention to what is painful

Acknowledging unmet expectations or anything that you held against a person that they weren’t aware of 

Encouragement: action beats reaction. Embracing the uncomfortable confrontation now is better than cleaning up the wreckage years later

5. The Gospel for the Angry

The Gospel Can Transform us out of Anger

When Jesus sets his sights on this issue, he isn’t attempting to compound your shame and grief but invite you into righteousness and freedom from sin >>> the opportunity to pay attention to our hearts is his grace to be freed from the clutches of sin that rule our lives

Prophecy being realized in Jesus as God promised that he would write the law on his people’s heart (Jer 31:33) and place his Spirit in them so they would keep his commands (Ezek 36:26-27) >> new covenant basis for the surpassing righteousness of Jesus’s disciples; not Jesus saying “I’m doing something new with the Law that’s going to better fit your life” but “I’m doing something new in you that’s going to totally change how you relate to and keep the Law

God will exact perfect justice and vengeance

Embrace the freedom of relief from anger

Forgive and reconcile with others just as God in Christ forgives and reconciles with us

Application

Remember the gospel

Confess your anger

Seek reconciliation

Reconciliation = Guard your heart against the corrosive effect of anger by confessing it openly and honestly, seeking reconciliation. Anger is a disease. Root it out and don’t let it mane your heart into hard compacted soil. God’s Law commands you not to murder to safeguard your heart from the savagery of anger. God Law commands you not to commit adultery to keep your soul from the deadly and corrosive effects of lust.

Conclusion