Anger; The Spirit Of Murder
# 13 Sermon on the Mount 9/9/90
Text: Matt. 5:21-26 E.B.C.
ANGER; THE SPIRIT OF MURDER
INTRODUCTION
A. People often have great difficulty telling the difference between what is in fact the case and what they would like to be the case. Ie. The gang of teenagers who murdered a pedestrian, stabbing him many times with a knife. This was the truth of the matter but when they appeared in court the one who had done the stabbing denied killing the man by staying, "I didn't strike out at him, he charged into my knife."
B. The Pharisees of Jesus' day had a similar problem in their handling of the sixth commandment. They viewed "thou shallt not kill (murder)" very literally to mean only the actual premeditated taking of human life. Just like how they saw the seventh commandment, "Thou shallt not commit adultry". Providing that they had not had sex with a married woman they believed to be obeying the commandment. They felt no guilt in any immoral act which fell short of intercourse.
C. Along comes Jesus to spoil the party. His understanding of murder was quite different. Let's see if we can learn what Jesus taught regarding the sin of murder.
I. WE MUST UNDERSTAND THE RADICAL NATURE OF SIN (21-22)
A. First, Jesus does not permit us to make simplistic applications.
1. Jesus divides his teaching in this section by introducing a new topic with the statement, "You have heard that it was said" or "You have heard that the ancients were told" and follows these statements with his, and incidently the proper, interpretation of what each command really means. His understanding of the nature of sin goes far beyond that of the Scribes and Pharisees simple and literal one. Jesus is concerned that his followers not fall prey to the temptation of drawing their own simplistic application from the law. You see, the Pharisees had come to teach that murder was only the act of killing and was only liable to be judged by an earthly court and was not a concern of God's judgement.
2. This requires a contemporary application for us to grasp its meaning for ourselves. Let us assume that we are driving our car down 18th street toward Rosser Ave. and we are near the intersection when the light turns red. We are in a hurry so we step on the gas and zoom through. Of course, there just happens to be a police officer near by and he stops you for breaking the most basic of traffic laws. Now lets suppose that we protest by saying we really didn't break the law because we didn't see the light turn red. And further that our opinion of justice would see us only judged by the few people nearby the intersection. That would be a simplistic application of the traffic law which suggests that anyone caught running a red light is guilty and must appear before a court judge for sentencing.
B. The principle we learn here is that if we want to understand the radical nature of sin we must avoid simplistic applications and understand sin as Jesus does.
C. Jesus' application of murder is that truly it is a sin of the heart.
1. "but I say unto You" is how Jesus begins his understanding of the sixth commandment. He proceeds to suggest that although the Pharisees concerned themselves merely with the literal act, ie. the act of killing someone, his requirement made the intent of the heart equally as sinful.
a) Eg. One who intends to kill someone but is prevented from doing so by circumstances beyond their control.
b) There are basically two things which Jesus points out to his listeners.
2. First, he says that even the person who has anger in his heart towards someone is already guilty of sin.
a) I met a man this summer and enjoyed his company very much. He played guitar and sang many gospel songs. But do you know that about ten years ago he murdered a man by blowing his head off with a shotgun. We all compare ourselves with this man and tell ourselves how much better we are then him. But are we? Have there not been times in all of our lives when, in the secret passages of our minds, when anger has welled up against some person. According to Jesus we may as well have taken the shotgun and done the job in as far as our guilt is concerned.
3. Secondly, Jesus goes even further when he says that even the person who acts contemptuously towards another person with his tongue is also guilty.
a) "Raca" means to call someone worthless, empty-handed, or good for nothing. In todays vernacular we would say someone is an "airhead."
b) "More" the word for "you fool" denotes words spoken which assassinate a person's character.
c) When, then, presidential candidate George Bush choice Dan Quale as his running mate the media mercilessly ridiculed Quale. Bush consoled Quale by saying this to him, "Whenever you read criticism of yourself in the papers or see it on tv, in your mind I want you to blot out your name and insert the name George Bush. For you see I'm the one who choice you." The principle we learn from this little story is this. When people attack other believer's character they actually are attacking Christ the one who choice them. To carry the point even further we might say, "When Christians attack other Christians through anger or contempt they are guilty of murder against Christ."
II. WE MUST UNDERSTAND THE RADICAL CURE FOR SIN ONCE IT IS COMMITTED (23-26).
A. With the statement, "If therefore..." (23) Jesus moves from teaching to application. The theme of these last three verses could be stated like this: "If anger and contempt are so serious and dangerous then they must be avoided and we must take action as quickly as possible to rectify the situation. Jesus gives us three steps which we must take if we are to cure ourselves of the sin of murder, anger, or contempt.
1. The first thing which must happen is that we recognize that we have sinned. Jesus uses the illustration of someone making an offering in the temple who remembers some sin which has done against another person. We need a twentieth century parallel of this so we can understand it better. Our equivalent would be found in the person sitting our worship service. Friends, when you come into this place with the purpose of worshipping God and thereby are brought face to face with unconfessed sin, how do you respond? Do you try to suppress it or even deny that it is true, hoping that by service's end you will have forgotten? Or that God will have forgotten? When God, through His Spirit speaks to you in this way we need to say, "Yes, Jesus, I have sinned against this brother or sister, what am I doing here pretending to worship together while there is sin between us?" We must admit that we have sinned.
2. Not only are we to admit that we have sinned but then we must take the next logical step of correcting our sin. Someone might respond by saying, "Was not the purpose of sacrifice itself to atone for the guilt of the offerer?" Yes, but it was never to excuse the necessity of restitution. David said, "If I regard wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear" (Psalms 66:18). Let's remember that David was a saved man who looked forward to the coming Messiah who would cover man's sin but when it came to his daily relationship to God he recognized that unconfessed sin in his life was impeding his fellowship with God. Samuel said to King Saul after his first disobedience to the Lord, "Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams" (1 Sam 15:22). What this all is saying is that we can't get away with this little lie that we sometimes tell ourselves. It goes like this: "I've confessed my sin to God and that all I have to do."
3. Not only must we admit we have sinned and correct it, but must do so quickly. Paul said to the Ephesians, "Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger" (Eph. 4:26). In verses 25 and 26 Jesus uses another illustration, this one of someone appearing in court. Jesus says that such a person should quickly make restitution before he arrives at court. How long do we brude over things which we should make restitution without doing anything. One day it will be to late and we will suffer the consequences. Isn't it funny that we can, almost without thinking, so quickly strike out with our angry and senseless words, but, oh, how careful we are and how resistant we become to undoing the damage. It seems, sometimes, that we would rather live asstranged from God than have to admit we had sinned and ask for forgiveness.
CONCLUSION
A. Nobody likes to have their bubble burst. You hear this great joke at work and you decide to retell it around the supper table. This a lengthy story and after fives minutes of animated discussion you finish with the fabulous punchline. But horrors, no one laughs. They had all heard the joke the night before at church. You feel utterly deflated and your ego takes a severe beating. You feel utterly crushed.
B. That's what happened to the Pharisees when Jesus described his understanding of the sixth commandment. Their parade had been rained upon. And not
only did it receive a few drops of rain but rather it
was covered in a torrential downpour. Their simplistic and convenient view of sin had been destroyed forever.
C. What about you? Has Jesus rained on your parade? If He has, you can be thankful, for now you can move on to applying the remedy for your newly discovered understanding regarding sin. Admit that you have sinned, correct the sin, and do that quickly. Having done that you can count yourself part of the fortunate few who truly understand the radical nature of sin and the equally radical nature of its cure.