Anger & the Law

This section begins Jesus explanation of the Law. He begins to teach a more expanded view of the Law than was being taught by the current religious leaders. He will show what He means by the statement in verse 20 that “their righteousness must exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees”.

Jesus affirms the Law but corrects the current understanding of it.

“Ye have heard” refers to the teaching of the Scribes and Pharisees. There was no shortage of teachers in Jesus day. The problem was not a lack of teachers; it was a lack of understanding. The religious leaders of Jesus day taught contrary to the Law because they had no clue as to what it actually meant. They had divorced the Law from the Law Giver. In doing this they lost the ability to comprehend its true meaning. Jesus uses the phrase (or a form of it) “Ye have heard” in verses 21, 27, 31, 33, 38, and 43. Let’s consider some truths we can get from this.

* False teachers usually claim that their interpretation goes back to the original. The religious leaders of Jesus day taught that their doctrine was the “old time doctrine”. Jesus uses the phrase “by them of old” in v. 21, 27, & 33. They claimed to understand the Scripture in the same way that great men such as Moses did. The problem was that they mixed the traditions of the Rabbi’s with the truth of Scripture. It is not uncommon today to hear preachers proclaim that they follow the original way. They prove it with man made legalistic traditions. A perfect example of this is the idea that God meant for women to always wear a dress. If a woman does not wear a dress she is rebelling against God. They find this taught nowhere in Scripture. Yet they use man made doctrines and the immoral dress of the world to justify their position. Yet these same people have no problem with overeating, gossip, or a judgmental spirit. They swallow a camel and strain at a gnat!

* Jesus elevated Himself above the teachers of His day. In saying “But I say unto you” Jesus is teaching that the religious leaders of His day were wrong and that He is right. This is one of the reasons He was not popular among the religious elite. Jesus wasn’t being proud when He did this. He was being truthful. As the incarnate Word of God, He certainly understood what the Word of God meant. There have been and will continue to be many so called “teachers” of the Word of God. Prophets and messiah’s have come and gone. What we should understand in our day is that Jesus is the only One qualified to teach us what the true meaning of Scripture is. There are two reasons for this:

1) He inspired the Scripture.

2) He kept the Scripture perfectly without breaking one commandment.

Even today while the person of Jesus is accepted among religious teachers, the teachings of Jesus are rejected by all except the faithful followers of Christ. Many religious leaders like Jesus ethics but can’t stand His Theology. If Jesus, Buddha, and Confucius were debating on the nightly news, Jesus would be attacked by the gurus and they would be condemned by Him!

*Jesus wants us to understand the Scripture. He loves us enough to correct us. If the people in Jesus day continued to have such a low view of the commands of God, they would never recognize their need to come to Him. If religion continued to be ritual, no one would experience the real thing. Jesus is about to teach them the true meaning of the Law. He will show them that it is impossible to keep it. He will teach them that the teachers of the Law are not keeping it. In doing this, He will prick their hearts and urge them to come to Him for a righteousness they cannot earn but exceeds that of the most religious in their day.

Jesus explains who a murderer is

Probably no one listening to Jesus thought themselves to be a murderer. Murder was an especially evil sin. You can’t help but notice, however, that the religious teachers had changed the punishment for murder. God’s punishment was “life for life”. The word “judgment” in v. 21 refers to a council of 23 Jewish leaders who had the power to make judicial rulings. The leaders in Jesus day had dumbed down the command. Instead of murder resulting in the loss of the perpetrators life, it was now up to a council to decide the punishment.

God placed such a serious punishment upon this crime because it is a terrible sin.

1) It is a sin against humanity. In fact, it was the first crime committed. Cain killed Able out of jealousy (Gen. 4:8). The fear of murder is a plague to humanity. Every day in our country countless people are murdered for sometimes nothing more than a pair of sneakers.

2) It is a sin against God. God places the punishment of death on this crime because man is made in God’s image (Gen. 9:6). Murder is therefore an attack and an insult to the Creator. When a person is murdered, the image of God is removed from the earth and one of God’s possessions is stolen from Him.

Most everyone would agree that murder is a sin that will keep a person from going to heaven. Often times when people want to justify themselves, they say something like, “I’m not perfect, but I’m not an ax murderer or anything.” This understanding is what makes Jesus words so difficult. He is going to explain that virtually everyone is guilty of murder. The person who is angry with his brother should be taken before the court in the same way the murderer is.

A murderer is not only someone who takes another life. It is also a person who is “angry without a cause”. Why is anger equated with murder? Because every murder begins with anger. It is not only the action that condemns us but it is the attitude and desire that condemns us as well. Most people never commit an actual murder. However, everyone would have to admit that they have been angry with and even hated people. The fact that we did not commit the act of murder does not hide the attitude of heart from God. There are things other than “goodness” that keep us from killing people.

* The fear of getting caught keeps us from killing people. Most people are reasonable enough to understand that they will go to prison if they kill someone. Therefore, they hate, but do not physically kill people.

* Cowardice keeps us from killing people. Some people would kill others if they could just muster up the courage.

* Lack of opportunity keeps people from killing others. There are some who would kill if they had the chance. Perhaps the person they hate is already dead or lives far away or is even in prison. They would kill them, but they don’t have the opportunity.

It is not our unredeemed heart that keeps us from murdering. It is reason, cowardice and lack of opportunity. Yet God sees our heart. He knows our desires. He has said that if we hate someone, we are guilty of murder because we have killed them in our hearts.

Jesus teaches us how to know if we have hatred in our heart

Many people like to find justification for their anger in these verses. There are two things people often point out.

1) They point out that they must not be angry at their brother. They reason that it is ok to be angry at a lost person, but not a fellow believer. We should not understand “brother” to have spiritual significance here. It refers to our fellow man. Jesus taught us not only to love believers but to love our enemies as well.

2) They point out that the Scripture says it’s wrong to be angry “without a cause”. Then they declare that they have a good reason to be angry! The only type of anger that is justified is righteous anger. This is anger that is motivated by a love and devotion to the holiness of God. Jesus cleansing the Temple is an example. We are usually angered because someone offends us, not God. Any anger we experience that is not rooted in our passion for God is unrighteous anger.

Jesus gives us three ways to determine if we have hate in our heart:

* We have anger toward that person. We get angry when someone hurts us, when someone doesn’t agree with us, when someone overlooks us, when someone hurts someone we love. If we are not careful that initial feeling turns into a deep-seated anger. That anger is hatred. We respond to them by physically hurting them, ignoring them, or just resenting them. Our response reveals we have hate in our heart.

* We slander the person. The term “Raca” does not have an equivalent in English. It is transliterated rather than translated for that reason. It means “worthless fellow”. We count a person as worthless when we speak evil of them. We reveal that we do not value them as God values them. We should be careful how we speak of those created in God’s image.

* We condemn that person. It’s interesting to note that Jesus called people “fool” (Matt. 23:17, 19, Luke 11:40, 24:25), and foolish (Matt. 7:26, 25:2-3, 8). God called the man who built bigger barns a fool (Luke 12:20). We should recognize a couple of things as we consider this.

1) When Jesus or God calls someone a fool it is true.

2) When Jesus or God calls someone a fool it is not to condemn but to warn the person of their folly.

For a Jew to call someone a fool would essentially be for them to condemn that person as godless. The entire book of Proverbs describes a fool as the one that rejects the wisdom of God. Psalm 14 & 53 describe a fool as on who rejects God completely. Anger causes us to speak to people and about people that implies they are worthless and condemned by God. Those who hear us speak about the people we are angry at do not come away with a good impression of that person.

We know we hate people if we are angry at them, slander them and condemn them.

Jesus teaches us Why we should deal with anger

Anger must be dealt with. Jesus gives us three reasons we must deal with anger in this passage.

1) It may reveal that we are not a believer. He says that we will be in danger of the fire of hell. This judgment is reserve for unbelievers. 1 John 3:15 says that those who hate their brother do not have eternal life. If unrighteous anger is a constant in our life, we should do some real soul searching about our relationship with God. We could be in serious danger.

2) It keeps us from worshipping properly. Verses 23-24 teach us that unresolved anger affects our worship. Before a sacrifice was to be made, the offeror should search his heart. The sin of anger should be removed through repentance and reconciliation. The second commandment is “To love our neighbor as ourselves”. To be angry and harbor resentment is to break that commandment. God is far more concerned about the attitude of our heart than the sacrifices we bring Him. Our love is to be shown to such a degree to others that we approach them if they have anger against us. We should go the extra mile to cultivate love. Sacrifice and worship are great and necessary. However, hypocritical worship benefits no one.

3) We will pay the price. Verses 25-26 are interesting verses. They reference a common Roman law of the day. If two opposing parties had a legal dispute, they could settle it between themselves along the way. However, once the matter was brought before the court, Roman law made the decision. It was out of every one’s hands. The guilty party was imprisoned until the price they owed was paid. Jesus point is that if believers do not handle their disputes, God will have to bring chastisement into their lives (Heb. 12:6). Many a believer endures the heavy hand of God in their life because they refuse to be reconciled with someone. The only way they will be released from their prison is to forgive and be reconciled.

God is concerned with anger. He is so concerned that He equates it with murder. In fact, He prescribes the same punishment for anger that He does with murder. We are all murderers at heart because we have been angry with God’s creation. We need His grace for forgiveness and His power to live in unity and love with our fellow man. Let’s consider anger in the same way that God does. Let’s deal with anger, before God has to deal with us.