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Topic: Angry (08/02/07)
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TITLE: Jesus getting angry? Really? | Previous Challenge Entry
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08/09/07 -
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“Left hand. Right hand” I said to myself as I struck the open palms of the person I was facing. My heart was pounding, and I could feel my muscles beginning to ache as I started to tire.
“Punch him in the head!”, I heard someone else call out to me.
This was not a fist fight. I had been doing “boxercise” as part of a cardiovascular workout at the gym that I go to.
I was wearing boxing gloves, and the person whom I punched at, a fitness instructor,wore padded gloves to protect his hands.
The people who called out as I did this, were just joking with me.
I have never thought of myself as aggressive, but there are times when I feel angry. It has
been a process of growing, learning and maturing to understand how to deal with it.
Personally,I’ve found getting hot and sweaty at the gym is beneficial in dealing with stress. Often, after a workout, I feel more relaxed, and ready for the demands of work and q everyday life.
It has been suggested that Christians seem to have a problem with anger, like it is forbidden under all circumstances. Jesus is often presented as someone who was only ever passive and gentle. Yet, we find that in John 2:13-16, that Jesus did get angry.
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!”
We read in Luke 13:15-17, how Jesus reacted to the self-righteousness of the religious leaders of his day;
The Lord answered him, “You hypocrite! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what has bound her? “
In C.S. Lewis’s famous bible allegory The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Aslan, the lion (a figure of Jesus Christ) is described this way;
“Safe? Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good”.
John Eldredge writes in Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man’s Soul, that just like Jesus, within each man, there is a wild, fierce and passionate side that is at the heart of how God has made us.
So, for men, there is a place for ‘righteous anger’ in our Christian walk. There is a difference between that, and uncontrolled anger. This is wrong, not just because it is sin, but also because it hurts people that we care about.
To deny anger, means that we don’t deal with it, the consequence being that later it often comes out in other, more harmful ways. We need to learn how to resolve the feelings that lead to anger, calmly and rationally.
Prayer is helpful when feeling angry, as are journaling, and talking with people we can confide in. Physical activity, or doing something enjoyable, often helps me to think things through, and calm down when worked up, too.
We are allowed to get angry when seeing the suffering and injustice in the world, that has come about as a result of sin. Jesus did not suppress how he felt about what he saw during his earthly ministry. This should remind us that we aren’t alone in our emotional struggles.
Like Jesus, we are allowed to let righteous anger drive us to make a positive impact in the world.
Bibliography
Arterburn, Stephen & Stoop, David (1993) Suppressed Anger New International Version Men’s Devotional Bible Zondervan USA p 1128
Eldredge, John (2001) Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man’s Soul Thomas Nelson New York
Lewis, C.S. (1950) The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Macmillan New York
Walters, Richard P. (1993) An Age of Rage New International Version Men’s Devotional Bible Zondervan USA p 564
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