“You have heard that it was said: ‘Thou shalt not murder,’ but I tell you – don’t even be angry (Matthew 5:21-22).”
We begin to see what Jesus means by a righteousness that surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees. The prohibition against murdering is certainly a good rule. But it’s a pretty low bar to clear, isn’t it? But Jesus is getting us to look at where murder comes from – from violence, and violence from anger. Suddenly we’re all guilty. An angry reaction to being wronged is understandable enough. But what do we do in the following moments? Do we indulge the anger? Do we unload hateful words? Do we retaliate? Or, here on the mount with Jesus, will we let him create in us a different way of reacting?
Being angry – when we are hurt, manipulated, mistreated – is so easy. But there’s another problem here, too. We like being angry. We think we’re supposed to be angry. We believe our anger to be just and rational. We think we’re supposed to be angry at all the politicians we didn’t vote for. We think we’re supposed to be angry at the people who are ruining society, or ruining the Church. We think we’re right to be angry at the people who have plainly wronged us. Anger is a drug. We get high on the conviction that we are right and someone else is wrong. We’re happy to have a crusade. And this damages the Church’s witness to the world more than anything else. No matter how correct our theology may be, no matter how much scripture we can recite – Christians are, on the whole, not any less angry than anyone else.
There is an alternative, though. Where feelings have been hurt, and where disagreements linger unresolved, reconciliation is the way forward. He tells us to do something that we pious, religious folk find utterly ridiculous – stop worshipping. If you are in the middle of your act of worship, and it suddenly hits you that your brother or sister has something against you, then pause your worship and go be reconciled first. Does your worship even count for anything if you’re not concerned with giving and receiving forgiveness?
He gives a couple of images to describe the cycle of anger and resentment. Hell, and prison. This is alarming, even scary language. But it’s no threat. Rather, it’s just a description of that cycle. If we refuse to stop being angry, we’re already in hell, in prison. What is hell if not an inability to stop being angry? And what is heaven if not the Jesus-centered community where all have given up what they were angry about and shown forgiveness instead?
Here on the mount, Jesus is showing us what his heart looks like, which is one and the same as God’s heart. This is God’s heart – eager to let go, forgive, reconcile, and renew. As the Psalmist once said, “His anger lasts for a moment; his favor lasts a lifetime (Psalm 30:5).”
Go and make more disciples, more students, Jesus tells us (Mt 28:20). What does that mean? How do we make people into students of Jesus’ kingdom kind of life? Does it mean teaching them the correct theological ideas? Does it mean making sure their church attendance is consistent? Does it mean making sure they’re voting for the right politicians? Or does it mean sharing with them the kingdom kind of life that is not ruled by anger, the kind of life that is always seeking forgiveness and reconciliation? Be that. And then go make other people like that.