041106 Sermon on the Mount - Anger
Sermon on Mount M7 What makes you angry?
What makes you angry? Do you get angry when someone cuts you off in traffic? Do you get angry--when you’re a long line that doesn’t seem to be moving (a cashier is getting a price check that is lasting for eternity)? Do you get angry when your sports team loses or goes on strike? Do you get angry when you think someone who is not suited for high office is elected? Do you get angry when you’re at party and the person your “talking” with is looking over your shoulder and scoping out the crowd (and you feel invisible)? Do you get angry when someone lets you down?
We ALL get angry some of the time.
Some anger is healthy and some anger is even honorable. It is honorable for example to be angry because people are oppressed and because there is injustice. The Bible teaches us in the book of Ephesians that a person can be angry and not sin.
But there is an anger that can be terribly destructive for us and others.
Bill Clinton, in talking about his autobiography says his political enemies tried to destroy him by making him angry. He quotes the ancient Greek adage Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make angry. He says, it’s not good for a person to be as mad underneath as I was. I think if people have unresolved anger, it makes them do non rational, destructive things. He would know.
Anger can be very destructive and so Jesus addresses this issue early on his famous Sermon on the Mount.
If you have your Bibles please turn to Matthew 5:
21"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' 22But 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. 23"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. 25"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. 26I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.
Jesus says, 21"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' 22But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.
When Jesus uses the expression here, “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago,” and follows that with the expression, “but I tell you,” it sounds like he is going against Scripture.
Whenever Jesus uses the expression you have heard it said, but I tell you, he is not going against Scripture (based on the passage just before this one, we know that Jesus recognizes the Holy authority of Scripture), Jesus is not going against Scripture, but he is going against the Pharisees’ and teacher’s of the law’s interpretation of Scripture. The Pharisees and teachers of the law had atomized God’s laws into some 613 rules—248 commands and 365 prohibitions (last week I believe I said 350 commands, I had my facts wrong and I apologize. The Pharisees and teachers of the law split the law of God 248 commands and 365 prohibitions equaling 613--these rules were bolstered by 1521 amendments).
The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were incredibly micro about keeping the law, but they often missed the “spirit of the law,” the true intent of the law.
Imagine that you are walking through a park near where you live and you walk past a lawn in the park that has recently been planted. You stop and you see some of the wispy blades of grass coming up out of the soil. There is a little sign at the front of the lawn that reads, “Please do not walk on the grass.” Now someone could say, it doesn’t say anything about not running on the grass or not stomping on the grass. I suppose a person could rationalize running on the emerging grass and say I’m keeping the rule here by not walking on the grass; that person may be keeping the “letter” of the law but that person is breaking the “spirit” of the law by running or stomping on the grass, because the spirit of the law says don’t do anything that could possibly damage the grass. It’s possible to technically not break a law, but violate the spirit of the law.
So, it is with God’s law. We can “technically” keep the law, but break the spirit of the law.
It is possible to technically keep the letter of the law thou shalt not murder, but break the spirit by seeking to harm someone.
Jesus recognizes this and so he says 21"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' 22But 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.
Jesus recognizes that murder is wrong, but he also recognizes that the spirit of murder, the desire to harm another person is also wrong.
Jesus recognizes that the seed of murder is anger. As we look at the trees particularly in the fall as the leaves and seeds drop, we are reminded of the fact that each tree, began as a small seed. In every seed is the tree, at least in embryo. So it is with anger. In the seed of anger there is the potential to harm others and even the potential for murder, if that seed is protected and nurtured.
Now when Jesus uses to the word anger is vs. 22 (orgizomeno) he is talking about the kind of anger we brood over, nurse, and keep alive.
Sometimes anger will flare up inside us in response to some circumstance. We have very little control over that kind of anger, but we do have control over whether we nurse it and keep it alive. Resentment literally means to re-feel, to re “sent”, means to re-feel. While we can’t always control the rising of anger, we can choose to not to keep rewinding and replaying the event over and over in our minds so we keep the anger alive and well.
Jesus knows that if we allow anger to fester in our lives we may harm others through what we say. So, he says, “Anyone who says to his brother “Raca” will be answerable to the highest court. “Raca” literally means “empty head” and was a term used to put down a person’s intelligence. The equivalent term today would be you idiot! Jesus says if you call someone Raca you’ll be subject to judgment from God.
The second term here that Jesus uses is translated “fool” and comes from the word “more” is used to describe someone who lives as if there is no God. In this religious culture into which Jesus was speaking, more would have been used to describe a person with no moral integrity.
To describe some as a fool or foolish today is not typically overly harsh. Last weekend Terrell Owens of Philadelphia Eagles scored a touchdown against Baltimore and he mimicked Ray Lewis one of the Baltimore defenders and danced in the End Zone… If you’re not an Eagles fan, you likely thought Terrell was acting like fool, to call someone a fool or foolish can be fairly benign.
But the word translated fool comes from the Greek word “more.” It is the same root word from which we get our current word moron. A passerby was this week here in Vancouver was asked what he thought of a particular well known person, he said, “I think he’s the biggest moron.” The word moron is a pretty good translation from the text.
But, I think today’s cultural equivalent of calling someone a fool would be to call some a F________ jerk or F__________ asshole.
Jesus here is referring to someone who uses words in a way that will harm someone.
As I as young kid, I used to think that that if I murdered someone I was going to hell, but if I didn’t I was going make it to heaven. For some reason (and I have no idea where the idea came) I thought those who killed other human beings were hell bound and those who did not kill other human being were not hell bound. So, as a young boy, I thought it was a very important goal in life is avoid literally killing someone.
But Jesus here is saying, anyone who nurses anger at his sister or brother is subject to judgment… because this how the harming another person begins--by harboring anger… Jesus says if you allow that anger to erupt in a way that harms another human being you will be judged for that and could go to hell from that…
Our words can have much more power than we think to harm people:
We never know how much a word will impact someone; I know someone who has spent time in pretrial prison and he says one the word you never use in prison is the “g” word. The word goof. Goof on the outside of the prison can seem quite harmless. There’s a Disney character named goofy. Doesn’t sound so acidic. But according to this person, the word goof always provokes a fight: people will die in prison over the “g word.” So, he says you bite your lip and pray like hell that no one ever calls you that.
Sometimes people become extra sensitive to a word that may seem harmless to us--maybe because it was used in derogatory way to describe them as children—and the word re-said can opens old wounds.
We never know how our words may affect people.
I don’t know if you know the work of the Japanese researcher Dr. Emoto Masaru. Dr. Masuru Emoto has a special microscope that can detect and photograph the molecular structure of water.
Masuru Emoto has shown how if you say something to water it will change its molecular structure.
For example this is what the molecular structure of water looks like if you say: you make me sick, I want to kill you… (look at the website:
http://www.life-enthusiast.com/twilight/research_emoto.htm
Here’s what looks like after you say thank you (website).
Here’s what water looks like before a prayer of Fujiwara Dam (website):
Here’s what it looks like after prayer Fujiwara Dam (website):
Over 70% of our bodies is composed of water so what we think about, what we say and pray affects ourselves and others.
Jesus words about not nursing anger and not spewing anger through reckless words are totally organic, totally consistent with our design.
Here in Vancouver we are so conscious of our diet, of eating low fat foots, eating organic wherever possible, we’re so conscious about exercising, we so about conscious of the environment—but we’re not very conscious of keeping our spirit free from anger toxins and our mouths free of words that destroy the physical and spiritual molecular structures of our lives and the lives of others.
Dale Bruner says Resentment and hard words kill more people than drugs, alcohol, or tobacco combined. There are more pollutants in the world than we think. Jesus performs a major act of public health and ecology when he bans this source of sickness and damnation from the community.
Jesus’ teaching is so organic—if we follow it, we and our world will become a healthier a more whole place.
How do we become the kind of person who contributes our own inner well being, the well-being of others and the well being of the world?
1) We refuse to consciously hold onto anger (Jesus in the text talks about a person who holds onto anger). We let anger go… The Samurai warriors before going into battle would meditate and release their fears to the wind. They kept releasing their fears--until they were free of them… we need to release our destructive anger to wind… They will come back… but we keep letting them go…we refuse to hold on to them…
2) We invite Jesus Christ to speak into the water of our lives: we invite him into come our “inner waters” and transform this space into something beautiful (use bowl of water)… We ask Jesus to fill us with HIS words, HIS Spirit, we invite Jesus to cleanse our spirit of impure anger and to purify our river within…
As the river within is touched by the Jesus we become life givers and part of what this looks like is that we become reconcilers…
If we release bad anger to the wind and ask Jesus to touch the water of our lives—we are much less likely to say to hell with her, to hell with him… If we release bad anger to the wind and we are filled with God’s Spirit we…we will have the spirit of reconciliation…
In our text Jesus shows us what this kind of person (i.e., the kind of person who has experienced what a person transformed by a relationship with God as described in Matthew 5:1-12); will do if they are at odds with someone in their orbit:
Jesus says: 23"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
Jesus was speaking to a crowd of people that was highly religious so being in an act of worship like bringing your gift to the altar would have been very important to his hearers.
But Jesus says as important as that is it is even more important for you to make sure that you seek to make something right with a brother or sister.
When it comes to relational “issues” we can easily put them on the backburner because while they are “important,” we don’t typically consider them “urgent.”
What Jesus words have the effect of making catapulting this “important matter to the top of priority list.
He says if you are offering your gift at the altar…. Even if you are in the process of worshipping God and you realize that your brother, sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar, first go and be reconciled to your brother, sister and then come of and offer your gift.
Here Jesus is saying that our relationship with our sister and brother is SO important that in order to reconcile we will rearrange otherwise more important priorities—even an act of explicit worship to living God--to do this.
A couple of weeks ago on the CBC radio apparently there was a theme on apologizing. Someone this past week told me that I was featured in a story by told by my brother. Let me retell that in a way that’s probably a little less embellished.
As a teenager, as many of you heard me say, I was talking martial arts and hung out with tough, “bad-boy,” athletes. One day we were walking down one of the hallways and there was a group of kids sitting in front of some lockers. They were soccer players, with longer hair in the back. This group was quite image & style conscious. Pretty nice guys. One of the them, Mark, was eating an apple, and I decided to use some of my martial arts and kick the apple out of his hand, but I missed the apple, but ended up catching his chin with my foot and driving his head back into one of the metal lockers in front of all of his friends. I acted like I meant to do that and kept walking. I don’t think I inflicted any real physical damage on this kid, but I humiliated this him in front his friends.
Within a year, I gave my life over to God.
And when I was going into grade 11 I transferred to a different school, some time there after what I had done to Mark came to mind. So I tracked down where he lived and knocked at his door (thinking I hope he’s not home); Mark opens the door. I said a couple of years ago, I walking down the hall and I kicked you in the head and I’ve just come to apologize and ask your forgiveness. He forgave me. He said, I’m curious, why after all this time, do you come now to my house to apologize. I said I’ve become a Christian. Jesus Christ has changed my life. He said that’s interesting my dad is a Christian pastor. You’re kidding. No I’m serious, come on downstairs and let me show you my dad’s library.
The reason I share that with is not to wow you with me, but to say 2 things:
1) When you enter into transforming relationships, you want to reconcile wherever possible. Without God in my life I was NOT going out of my way to apologize to anyone, I was more into: wipe on, wipe off (a scene from the movie Karate Kid).
Second, I was teenager who postured and who was very insecure. Jesus slowly begun to heal that: one of most difficult things I’ve ever done in my life was to go people I had hurt and ask their forgiveness and going back to places where I had stolen from or vandalized and making restitution. It’s hard to do, but with Jesus you can. If I could, you can.
It would be wonderful if the only time I sinned against people was a young person, but that’s not the case. A few years ago, I was struck a fresh by this passage and I made a phone call to someone in a different part of the continent… We had experienced tension and hostility in our relationship; I think there was a mutual contribution, but I felt I had to own my part and ask for forgiveness.
I’m in process of seeking to build bridge to someone I’ve hurt. It’s ongoing.
There are times when we hurt someone and we can’t achieve reconciliation because they won’t respond to our phone calls or because they’ve moved and we can’t track them down or because they’ve died.
In the movie, Friday Night Lights, the movie based on the true story of the Perriman Panther’s high school football in Odessa, Texas. The Panthers end up on season playing for the state championship and at half time they are way behind—they’re getting killed. At half-time break Coach Gaines, played by Billy Bob Thorton (a coach ruthlessly obsessed with winning…. and whose mantra is “Be perfect”) gives his team a pep talk. He says, perfection is not about having the higher score at the end of the game…. Perfection means knowing that you did your best, knowing that there wasn’t one more thing you could have done to achieve your objective… it means having love in your heart for your fellow players and your fellow man.
Being perfect as a reconciler doesn’t mean we “win” or “win over” the situation, it does mean we’ve done our best, that we’ve done all we can do to achieve reconciliation…
If we release our destructive anger to the wind and invite Jesus Christ into the water of our lives we can become like this, people who are whole within and people who bring wholeness to world. Let’s pray:
Do you need to release anger you’re holding on? Close and open your hands… release it…
Do you now need to invite Jesus into the river of your life and ask him for his cleansing, his purity, his beauty? If so, do it now.
Are you at odd with someone? Is the Holy Spirit asking you take a step to reconcile with some?
-----------
Jesus on the night he was betrayed took bread and said this is my body broken for you…
As we celebrate this meal, remember that on the cross Jesus… absorbed the righteous anger of God over our sin into his own body, so that we could be at peace with God and brought in our right relationship with ourselves and others.
Communion:
Lord, Jesus Christ, we thank you that you left heaven and came to earth and allowed your body to be broken on the cross so that we could have a whole relationship with your Father. Thank you and fill us with your Spirit so that we become like you.
What makes you angry? Do you get angry when someone cuts you off in traffic? Do you get angry--when you’re a long line that doesn’t seem to be moving (a cashier is getting a price check that is lasting for eternity)? Do you get angry when your sports team loses or goes on strike? Do you get angry when you think someone who is not suited for high office is elected? Do you get angry when you’re at party and the person your “talking” with is looking over your shoulder and scoping out the crowd (and you feel invisible)? Do you get angry when someone lets you down?
We ALL get angry some of the time.
Some anger is healthy and some anger is even honorable. It is honorable for example to be angry because people are oppressed and because there is injustice. The Bible teaches us in the book of Ephesians that a person can be angry and not sin.
But there is an anger that can be terribly destructive for us and others.
Bill Clinton, in talking about his autobiography says his political enemies tried to destroy him by making him angry. He quotes the ancient Greek adage Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make angry. He says, it’s not good for a person to be as mad underneath as I was. I think if people have unresolved anger, it makes them do non rational, destructive things. He would know.
Anger can be very destructive and so Jesus addresses this issue early on his famous Sermon on the Mount.
If you have your Bibles please turn to Matthew 5:
21"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' 22But 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. 23"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. 25"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. 26I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.
Jesus says, 21"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' 22But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.
When Jesus uses the expression here, “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago,” and follows that with the expression, “but I tell you,” it sounds like he is going against Scripture.
Whenever Jesus uses the expression you have heard it said, but I tell you, he is not going against Scripture (based on the passage just before this one, we know that Jesus recognizes the Holy authority of Scripture), Jesus is not going against Scripture, but he is going against the Pharisees’ and teacher’s of the law’s interpretation of Scripture. The Pharisees and teachers of the law had atomized God’s laws into some 613 rules—248 commands and 365 prohibitions (last week I believe I said 350 commands, I had my facts wrong and I apologize. The Pharisees and teachers of the law split the law of God 248 commands and 365 prohibitions equaling 613--these rules were bolstered by 1521 amendments).
The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were incredibly micro about keeping the law, but they often missed the “spirit of the law,” the true intent of the law.
Imagine that you are walking through a park near where you live and you walk past a lawn in the park that has recently been planted. You stop and you see some of the wispy blades of grass coming up out of the soil. There is a little sign at the front of the lawn that reads, “Please do not walk on the grass.” Now someone could say, it doesn’t say anything about not running on the grass or not stomping on the grass. I suppose a person could rationalize running on the emerging grass and say I’m keeping the rule here by not walking on the grass; that person may be keeping the “letter” of the law but that person is breaking the “spirit” of the law by running or stomping on the grass, because the spirit of the law says don’t do anything that could possibly damage the grass. It’s possible to technically not break a law, but violate the spirit of the law.
So, it is with God’s law. We can “technically” keep the law, but break the spirit of the law.
It is possible to technically keep the letter of the law thou shalt not murder, but break the spirit by seeking to harm someone.
Jesus recognizes this and so he says 21"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' 22But 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.
Jesus recognizes that murder is wrong, but he also recognizes that the spirit of murder, the desire to harm another person is also wrong.
Jesus recognizes that the seed of murder is anger. As we look at the trees particularly in the fall as the leaves and seeds drop, we are reminded of the fact that each tree, began as a small seed. In every seed is the tree, at least in embryo. So it is with anger. In the seed of anger there is the potential to harm others and even the potential for murder, if that seed is protected and nurtured.
Now when Jesus uses to the word anger is vs. 22 (orgizomeno) he is talking about the kind of anger we brood over, nurse, and keep alive.
Sometimes anger will flare up inside us in response to some circumstance. We have very little control over that kind of anger, but we do have control over whether we nurse it and keep it alive. Resentment literally means to re-feel, to re “sent”, means to re-feel. While we can’t always control the rising of anger, we can choose to not to keep rewinding and replaying the event over and over in our minds so we keep the anger alive and well.
Jesus knows that if we allow anger to fester in our lives we may harm others through what we say. So, he says, “Anyone who says to his brother “Raca” will be answerable to the highest court. “Raca” literally means “empty head” and was a term used to put down a person’s intelligence. The equivalent term today would be you idiot! Jesus says if you call someone Raca you’ll be subject to judgment from God.
The second term here that Jesus uses is translated “fool” and comes from the word “more” is used to describe someone who lives as if there is no God. In this religious culture into which Jesus was speaking, more would have been used to describe a person with no moral integrity.
To describe some as a fool or foolish today is not typically overly harsh. Last weekend Terrell Owens of Philadelphia Eagles scored a touchdown against Baltimore and he mimicked Ray Lewis one of the Baltimore defenders and danced in the End Zone… If you’re not an Eagles fan, you likely thought Terrell was acting like fool, to call someone a fool or foolish can be fairly benign.
But the word translated fool comes from the Greek word “more.” It is the same root word from which we get our current word moron. A passerby was this week here in Vancouver was asked what he thought of a particular well known person, he said, “I think he’s the biggest moron.” The word moron is a pretty good translation from the text.
But, I think today’s cultural equivalent of calling someone a fool would be to call some a F________ jerk or F__________ asshole.
Jesus here is referring to someone who uses words in a way that will harm someone.
As I as young kid, I used to think that that if I murdered someone I was going to hell, but if I didn’t I was going make it to heaven. For some reason (and I have no idea where the idea came) I thought those who killed other human beings were hell bound and those who did not kill other human being were not hell bound. So, as a young boy, I thought it was a very important goal in life is avoid literally killing someone.
But Jesus here is saying, anyone who nurses anger at his sister or brother is subject to judgment… because this how the harming another person begins--by harboring anger… Jesus says if you allow that anger to erupt in a way that harms another human being you will be judged for that and could go to hell from that…
Our words can have much more power than we think to harm people:
We never know how much a word will impact someone; I know someone who has spent time in pretrial prison and he says one the word you never use in prison is the “g” word. The word goof. Goof on the outside of the prison can seem quite harmless. There’s a Disney character named goofy. Doesn’t sound so acidic. But according to this person, the word goof always provokes a fight: people will die in prison over the “g word.” So, he says you bite your lip and pray like hell that no one ever calls you that.
Sometimes people become extra sensitive to a word that may seem harmless to us--maybe because it was used in derogatory way to describe them as children—and the word re-said can opens old wounds.
We never know how our words may affect people.
I don’t know if you know the work of the Japanese researcher Dr. Emoto Masaru. Dr. Masuru Emoto has a special microscope that can detect and photograph the molecular structure of water.
Masuru Emoto has shown how if you say something to water it will change its molecular structure.
For example this is what the molecular structure of water looks like if you say: you make me sick, I want to kill you… (look at the website:
http://www.life-enthusiast.com/twilight/research_emoto.htm
Here’s what looks like after you say thank you (website).
Here’s what water looks like before a prayer of Fujiwara Dam (website):
Here’s what it looks like after prayer Fujiwara Dam (website):
Over 70% of our bodies is composed of water so what we think about, what we say and pray affects ourselves and others.
Jesus words about not nursing anger and not spewing anger through reckless words are totally organic, totally consistent with our design.
Here in Vancouver we are so conscious of our diet, of eating low fat foots, eating organic wherever possible, we’re so conscious about exercising, we so about conscious of the environment—but we’re not very conscious of keeping our spirit free from anger toxins and our mouths free of words that destroy the physical and spiritual molecular structures of our lives and the lives of others.
Dale Bruner says Resentment and hard words kill more people than drugs, alcohol, or tobacco combined. There are more pollutants in the world than we think. Jesus performs a major act of public health and ecology when he bans this source of sickness and damnation from the community.
Jesus’ teaching is so organic—if we follow it, we and our world will become a healthier a more whole place.
How do we become the kind of person who contributes our own inner well being, the well-being of others and the well being of the world?
1) We refuse to consciously hold onto anger (Jesus in the text talks about a person who holds onto anger). We let anger go… The Samurai warriors before going into battle would meditate and release their fears to the wind. They kept releasing their fears--until they were free of them… we need to release our destructive anger to wind… They will come back… but we keep letting them go…we refuse to hold on to them…
2) We invite Jesus Christ to speak into the water of our lives: we invite him into come our “inner waters” and transform this space into something beautiful (use bowl of water)… We ask Jesus to fill us with HIS words, HIS Spirit, we invite Jesus to cleanse our spirit of impure anger and to purify our river within…
As the river within is touched by the Jesus we become life givers and part of what this looks like is that we become reconcilers…
If we release bad anger to the wind and ask Jesus to touch the water of our lives—we are much less likely to say to hell with her, to hell with him… If we release bad anger to the wind and we are filled with God’s Spirit we…we will have the spirit of reconciliation…
In our text Jesus shows us what this kind of person (i.e., the kind of person who has experienced what a person transformed by a relationship with God as described in Matthew 5:1-12); will do if they are at odds with someone in their orbit:
Jesus says: 23"Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
Jesus was speaking to a crowd of people that was highly religious so being in an act of worship like bringing your gift to the altar would have been very important to his hearers.
But Jesus says as important as that is it is even more important for you to make sure that you seek to make something right with a brother or sister.
When it comes to relational “issues” we can easily put them on the backburner because while they are “important,” we don’t typically consider them “urgent.”
What Jesus words have the effect of making catapulting this “important matter to the top of priority list.
He says if you are offering your gift at the altar…. Even if you are in the process of worshipping God and you realize that your brother, sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar, first go and be reconciled to your brother, sister and then come of and offer your gift.
Here Jesus is saying that our relationship with our sister and brother is SO important that in order to reconcile we will rearrange otherwise more important priorities—even an act of explicit worship to living God--to do this.
A couple of weeks ago on the CBC radio apparently there was a theme on apologizing. Someone this past week told me that I was featured in a story by told by my brother. Let me retell that in a way that’s probably a little less embellished.
As a teenager, as many of you heard me say, I was talking martial arts and hung out with tough, “bad-boy,” athletes. One day we were walking down one of the hallways and there was a group of kids sitting in front of some lockers. They were soccer players, with longer hair in the back. This group was quite image & style conscious. Pretty nice guys. One of the them, Mark, was eating an apple, and I decided to use some of my martial arts and kick the apple out of his hand, but I missed the apple, but ended up catching his chin with my foot and driving his head back into one of the metal lockers in front of all of his friends. I acted like I meant to do that and kept walking. I don’t think I inflicted any real physical damage on this kid, but I humiliated this him in front his friends.
Within a year, I gave my life over to God.
And when I was going into grade 11 I transferred to a different school, some time there after what I had done to Mark came to mind. So I tracked down where he lived and knocked at his door (thinking I hope he’s not home); Mark opens the door. I said a couple of years ago, I walking down the hall and I kicked you in the head and I’ve just come to apologize and ask your forgiveness. He forgave me. He said, I’m curious, why after all this time, do you come now to my house to apologize. I said I’ve become a Christian. Jesus Christ has changed my life. He said that’s interesting my dad is a Christian pastor. You’re kidding. No I’m serious, come on downstairs and let me show you my dad’s library.
The reason I share that with is not to wow you with me, but to say 2 things:
1) When you enter into transforming relationships, you want to reconcile wherever possible. Without God in my life I was NOT going out of my way to apologize to anyone, I was more into: wipe on, wipe off (a scene from the movie Karate Kid).
Second, I was teenager who postured and who was very insecure. Jesus slowly begun to heal that: one of most difficult things I’ve ever done in my life was to go people I had hurt and ask their forgiveness and going back to places where I had stolen from or vandalized and making restitution. It’s hard to do, but with Jesus you can. If I could, you can.
It would be wonderful if the only time I sinned against people was a young person, but that’s not the case. A few years ago, I was struck a fresh by this passage and I made a phone call to someone in a different part of the continent… We had experienced tension and hostility in our relationship; I think there was a mutual contribution, but I felt I had to own my part and ask for forgiveness.
I’m in process of seeking to build bridge to someone I’ve hurt. It’s ongoing.
There are times when we hurt someone and we can’t achieve reconciliation because they won’t respond to our phone calls or because they’ve moved and we can’t track them down or because they’ve died.
In the movie, Friday Night Lights, the movie based on the true story of the Perriman Panther’s high school football in Odessa, Texas. The Panthers end up on season playing for the state championship and at half time they are way behind—they’re getting killed. At half-time break Coach Gaines, played by Billy Bob Thorton (a coach ruthlessly obsessed with winning…. and whose mantra is “Be perfect”) gives his team a pep talk. He says, perfection is not about having the higher score at the end of the game…. Perfection means knowing that you did your best, knowing that there wasn’t one more thing you could have done to achieve your objective… it means having love in your heart for your fellow players and your fellow man.
Being perfect as a reconciler doesn’t mean we “win” or “win over” the situation, it does mean we’ve done our best, that we’ve done all we can do to achieve reconciliation…
If we release our destructive anger to the wind and invite Jesus Christ into the water of our lives we can become like this, people who are whole within and people who bring wholeness to world. Let’s pray:
Do you need to release anger you’re holding on? Close and open your hands… release it…
Do you now need to invite Jesus into the river of your life and ask him for his cleansing, his purity, his beauty? If so, do it now.
Are you at odd with someone? Is the Holy Spirit asking you take a step to reconcile with some?
-----------
Jesus on the night he was betrayed took bread and said this is my body broken for you…
As we celebrate this meal, remember that on the cross Jesus… absorbed the righteous anger of God over our sin into his own body, so that we could be at peace with God and brought in our right relationship with ourselves and others.
Communion:
Lord, Jesus Christ, we thank you that you left heaven and came to earth and allowed your body to be broken on the cross so that we could have a whole relationship with your Father. Thank you and fill us with your Spirit so that we become like you.
posted by Shigematsu at 9:25 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home