Sometimes you just get angry. And there is nothing wrong with that. God made us to be angry on occasion. Anyone who tells you otherwise is being foolish.
The key is to make sure you are angry for the right things and the right reasons. There is nothing worse than someone who is just angry or who flies off the handle for the wrong reasons.
That kind of person can do far more harm than good.
But the person who is angry for the right reasons, that person can do a lot of good. By his anger, he shows that there are things that are worth getting involved with, that are worth expending emotion over, doing something about.
For instance, your daughter is raped. It would be a fool to not be angry. Your house is broken into. A strange person would go, Oh well.
My van was stolen the other day. I got it back almost immediately (some kids took it on a short joy-ride – weird thing to do with a 1995 Ford mini-van) but it made me mad. They got it stuck in a neighbor’s garden and he had some of his prize vegetables ruined. It made me mad, although there was nothing I could do about it.
On the other hand, what about going down the street and seeing someone beating on a woman. That would make me mad and I would do something about it. What about seeing someone robbing a store and you were able to do something about it? You would be angry over the injustice of it – someone was taking things that were not his and threatening harm to someone weaker than he.
Jesus was angry in John 2. People had turned the temple, the house of God, into a flea market and were selling all kinds of things. They were also taking advantage of those who were coming to worship by not allowing them to use anything but “official sacrifices” to worship God. And, what do you know. They had “official sacrifices” that you could buy, and even had special “official money” to pay for it that you could get at a “special exchange rate.”
After a while Jesus says (life the Klingon Worf in Star Trek) “Enough!” and he makes a whip and throws them out, throwing their stuff all over the floor.
There is a place for getting angry and a place for not. It is not good to get angry at just a discussion or because someone took the piece of candy you wanted. Or called you a name. Or accidentally farted when he went by you.
When you get angry at everything, your anger is worthless. When you only get angry at things worth getting angry at, your anger means something.
Jesus’ anger meant something. And he scared people because they could tell he was a strong man. They also knew they were doing wrong.
Jesus got mad when it counted. He didn’t over little things. He got angry over this, he got angry over hypocrisy, he got angry over lying. But this is the only place in the Bible where he did something about it.
That is because this mattered. This was special.
No comments:
Post a Comment
To comment, post your comment and click the anonymous button. It would be nice if you signed it so I could know who you are.
You are welcome to say anything you want as long as it is nice. If I don't like it, or it is ugly, I will take it off, place it into the garbage disposal, grind it up, and allow it to be flushed into the Gulf of Mexico where it will be eaten by a fish and then excreted where it will lie on the bottom of the ocean until it is covered up by other comments.