Apr. 9, 2022

Careful Anger

In the Gospel of Matthew 21:12 is one of my favorite stories of Jesus. Versions of it can also be found in Mark and John, but not Luke. It is the story of when Jesus arrived in Jerusalem. He went into the temple courts and found the markets and moneychangers. All three versions tell of how he drove out the cattle and sheep, turned over the tables, scattered the money and said, “It is written that my Father’s house shall be called a house of prayer but you have turned it into a den of thieves!” I love this story because it shows something about Jesus that we don’t typically think of. Jesus got angry.

You might wonder why that matters, but anger is a very human emotion, and it’s not a bad thing.

First, this story shows to me the level of His humanity. It is said that Jesus was fully human and fully God. He didn’t get angry very often, but the fact that he could shows me that he was fully human.

Second, Jesus was without sin. So, if he could get angry, then anger in and of itself is not a sin. Anger can be seen as a good thing if it is expressed appropriately and proportionally. There is no light without darkness, and no joy without anger.

We are called to love and protect each other, and sometimes that means we will get angry. But it’s where the anger comes from that makes the difference. The anger must come from a place of love. If it comes from anything else, it’s just evil. And we have to be on constant guard about where the anger is coming from because it tells us who is in control of that emotion. That only happens when we know what is worth loving.

My son calls me Mamma Bear; he always has. If you have ever been foolish enough to get between a mother bear and her cub, you know what I mean. We don’t fault a mother bear for being angry if she is protecting her baby, and we rarely fault a human mother, or father, for protecting their child. Even though my son is grown with children of his own, now, the anger I would feel towards anyone who hurt him would be just as deep as it was when he was little, because my love for him is just as deep. My expression of that anger, however, would be different now.

Jesus got angry at the sight of the merchants and the moneychangers in the temple courts because His love for the Father is so deep that he was overwhelmed with the need to protect what He loved. His anger matched the depth of His love. It is not a sin to get angry provided we know where the anger is coming from. Too many people get angry out of a disproportional sense of righteousness, and thus their actions are not appropriate to the situation. Anger, or rage, expressed in that sense does not add any value to a situation because it comes from a place of hatred, not love. It will only destroy what we are trying to protect.

Anger is the balance to loving deeply, passionately. But it is up to us to express the anger carefully and appropriately, from a place of love. Only then can we be sure not to damage our hearts and our relationships and that we are able to move back into that space of love. Be brave. Be kind.