Welcome friends, today’s sermon will focus on the passage of Matthew chapter 5 verses 21 through 26. It says,
“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell. "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you; leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. "Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny (NIV).”
This is a hard passage for us to contemplate because most, if not all of us, have been angry with another person. We have been angry with our parents, siblings, co-workers, and even people in this church. Sometimes we can be hard on ourselves when we are angry, because as a Christian we are supposed to love everyone and never be angry…ever. Well friends, today we are going to try to figure out this passage together and try to make sense out of it.
First, we must look at our example, Jesus. Did Jesus ever get angry with anyone? Let’s take a look at John chapter 2 verses 13 through 16.
“When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father's house into a market (NIV)!”
Here we see Jesus getting angry about the selling of sacrifices in the temple. The temple was supposed to be a place of worship, but it was changed into a marketplace. So the Jesus who said, if we were to be angry at our brother or sister will face judgment, is the same Jesus who got angry with those in the temple. If we continue to read this passage in John, we do not see Jesus reconciling with those men. In fact, the bible does not say if he did or not. How do we view this? There are two ways we can go from here. One way we can see this is that Jesus contradicted himself or the other way is that we have been misinterpreting Jesus’ preaching on murder.
Looking at different English translations of this passage, most of them are similar to the NIV. However, the ones that are different have the words, “without cause” in regards to anger. It made me think that sometimes we get angry at someone and there is no cause for the anger. When I was younger, I had anger issues. I can remember times when I would get mad at a classmate and try to pick a fight with them without recalling any reason why I was mad at them. Sometimes I would get mad at someone because a friend was mad at them or I just did not like them. If we look back to biblical history, God would get angry at the Israelites because they would worship other gods and would not recognize God as their one and only god. Jesus got angry at those men selling sacrifices in the temple because they turned a place of worship into a marketplace. I think that it is okay to get angry as long as there is a legitimate reason for the anger. However, there is the second half to this teaching.
When we are angry at someone, it is extremely important to be reconciled with that person. The writer of Matthew wanted to emphasis that believers must strive to be reconciled with fellow believers so that the church can be a community of love.[1] Imagine a church where everyone was angry, frustrated, and hurting one another; would this be a Christian community that you would want to be a part of? The church should be a safe place for believers to worship God and to be comfortable with each other. It is also important that we reconcile things with those who are not Christians. One day, my dad was at work and had a heated conversation with another co-worker. During that conversation, he said some unkind things to that person. After the conversation my dad was working and realized what he had said and felt bad about them. He went to the co-worker’s office and apologized and asked for forgiveness. The co-worker though it was weird that my dad wanted forgiveness from him, but he forgave him anyway. I believe that it is important to reconcile things with both believers and non-believers because it shows the love of Christ to them.
Some of us in this room has been hurt or has hurt someone. Maybe it was another believer. Maybe it was someone who does not know Christ. If you can relate to this then you must reconcile things with that person. If not, then God will judge you, plus you will also store up a lot of negative feelings in you which could damage you physically, mentally, and spiritually. So while the music is playing, I want you to ask the Holy Spirit to search you and help you reconcile things with someone you have affected.
[1] Reginald H. Fuller, Matthew, Harper’s Bible Commentary, James L. Mays, Gen. Ed. (San Fransico: Harper & Row, 1988), 957.
