SERMON ON THE MOUNT
ANGER – SEVEN DEADLY SINS
COMMUNION SUNDAY
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW 5:21-26
JUNE 10, 2001
In the 13th century, St. Thomas Aquinas wrote his famous work, “Summa Theologica.” In this writing, he dealt with many things including the Seven Deadly Sins. St. Thomas Aquinas was not the first to list the Seven Deadly Sins. That distinction belongs to Gregory I, known to history as St. Gregory or even Gregory the Great. Gregory I was one of the Seven Bishops of Rome, and the year was 590 when he ascended the Papacy. He was the first Pope to take the beautiful title, “The Servant of the Servants of Christ.” The Gregorian Chant takes its name from Gregory, who codified, collected, and wrote hymns that were popular in the cathedrals and monastic communities of his day.
He was a prolific writer, and his commentary on the Book of Job was called “Moralia.” In there, he listed the Seven Deadly Sins: pride, greed, gluttony, sloth, envy, anger, and lust. These sins were not called deadly because they were thought to be mortal or unforgivable. but they were called deadly because they were considered to be “root” sins, sins from which all other sins spring. All of these sins are mentioned in the Bible. Although they are not listed there, many of the Seven Deadly Sins are dealt with by our Lord Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount. This is true of anger.
We come, in our passage of scripture for today, to this subject of the deadly sin of anger. This sin is unusual. This sin is unusual because biblically it’s not always a sin. I mean, the Bible tells us that God the Father gets angry. There are two Greek words for anger, the word “orge” and the word “thumos.” Both of these words are applied to God the Father. God experiences righteous indignation. He has at times throughout history, expressed holy wrath. The Bible also tells us that our Lord Jesus Christ at times got angry. These two words, orge and thumos, both applied to Him. He was angry when He overturned the tables of the moneychangers in the temple. Time and again, He was angry with the scribes and the Pharisees, a righteous indignation.
The Bible also tells us that earthly governments are to express the wrath of God upon evildoers. Thus, tomorrow morning we will have the execution of Timothy McVeigh through lethal injection. But, you see, for us as individuals, in our personal relationships, anger is very, very dangerous. It’s very dangerous, and therefore the Bible warns us to be slow to anger. It cautions us to be slow to anger. The Bible tells us not to let the sun go down on our anger. We are to work out our anger before we go to sleep at night. The Bible says in Ephesians, chapter 4, “Be angry but sin not.” Of course, the problem is that so often our indignation is not righteous, and our wrath is never holy. So, in our passage of scripture for today, Jesus describes three instances in which anger becomes sin.
First of all, He tells us that anger becomes sin when it leads us to want to hurt somebody. Anger becomes sin when it creates in us a desire to harm somebody. Jesus said, “You’ve heard it said to men of old, thou shalt not kill. Whoever kills will be liable to judgement. I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother or sister will be liable to judgement.” Of course, He’s referring to the kind of anger that would make us want to kill, want to harm somebody, want to hurt somebody. When we even feel a desire to hurt somebody within ourselves, that anger is sin. Now, that anger, wanting to hurt somebody but not doing it, is never going to be prosecuted in an earthly court, but it will in the heavenly court. God sees our innermost feelings and our innermost thoughts.
Recently, not too long ago, on a Philadelphia Expressway, a man was driving his car. He was becoming increasingly angry because two lanes were merging into one, and it was taking forever. He’d been 15 minutes and still hadn’t reached where the two lanes became one. Finally, he reached that point. Just as he was going into the one lane, a car came whipping up on the right side, off of the road, This car had just circumvented the traffic and gone in a non-lane and just cut right in front of him.
This guy really lost it and really became angry. He hit the horn, and the guy in front of him turned around and laughed at him. Then he became more angry. He hit the horn again, and the guy in front of him turned around and gave him an obscene gesture. This guy was beside himself now. He followed this guy until the traffic stopped again. When it stopped again, he reached into his glove compartment, and he took out a gun which he had put there to protect himself against the possible road rage of others.
He took the gun out of the glove compartment, went up to this guy in the car in front of him, stood by the window, took aim and he fired. He murdered that guy. He said to the newspaper that he just “couldn’t control his anger.” He said he “couldn’t stand the injustice of it all.” And so, in anger, he murdered another human being.
I don’t think there’s anyone in this worship center this morning that would do that. You have better control of your anger than that, and your road rage would never reach that point. But has it ever reached that point? Has it ever reached the point where you WANTED to hurt somebody? Maybe not kill them, but hurt them? Have you ever wanted to use your car just a little bit to maybe nudge them into something? Have you ever wanted to hurt somebody? Have you ever had those feelings that you were angry enough to want to harm them? That feeling is sin, and that’s what Jesus is telling us in the Sermon on the Mount. That feeling is sin—when you even want to harm somebody.
This guy committed sin long before he took the gun out of the glove compartment. He committed sin long before the guy gave him an obscene gesture. He wanted to harm this guy before the guy turned around and laughed at him. He wanted to hurt and harm this guy as soon as the guy cut in front of him from off the road. That’s when the sin first surfaced. So, here’s the warning of Christ. We’ll be liable for judgement if, in anger, we even want to harm somebody.
Secondly, anger is a sin when it leads us to insult somebody. Anger is a sin if it leads us to insult somebody. Jesus said, “Whoever says to his brother or sister, whoever insults his brother or sister, calling him or her ‘raca,’ will be liable for counsel or liable for the Sanhedrin (which, of course, was the highest court of the Jews).”
Many Bible scholars believe that in this teaching from Christ there is a gradation of sin, and that this sin of anger is more serious than the prior sin of anger. I mean, it’s one thing to want to hurt somebody, and it’s something else to actually hurt him or her through a verbal insult. It is a more serious sin when you call somebody “raca.” The word raca was an Aramaic term. You look in the commentaries, and some say it means “nitwit.” Some say it means “numbskull.” It certainly refers to intellectual bankruptcy. Some say it means “idiot” or “fool.” But it was more than that. It was a word of abuse. It didn’t just mean “idiot.” It meant “worthless idiot.” It might have been an obscene word. We don’t know for sure, but it might have been an obscenity so that you were referring to somebody as a worthless idiot and you were doing it in an obscene way. If your anger leads you there, Jesus says you’re liable for the Sanhedrin, the highest judgement of the Jews. You deserve that.
Years ago (in fact, it was 25 years ago), Barb and I were at LAX, the airport in Los Angeles. We were fogged in. The airport was pretty much shut down. There were no planes leaving and no planes coming in. The fog was thick. We were waiting, and it was late at night. The fog just hovered there. We were sitting in chairs near our gate. Suddenly I heard shouting real close by. I looked up, and a man was shouting at a young woman behind the counter at the gate, an employee there at the airport.
This man was yelling at her, and he was yelling, “I want you to get me on a plane, and I want you to get me on a plane NOW!” I recognized the voice. I looked at him, and he was one of our elders from the church that I was working at. It was one of our elders, and he was enraged. I knew this guy to be a wonderful man, but he was clearly under stress, and he was clearly enraged.
He was saying, “Get me on a plane and get me on a plane NOW!” The young woman said, “I’m sorry, sir.” Everybody was listening in. I think in his rage he just didn’t care. She said, “I’m sorry, sir. There are no planes available.” He slammed his fist on the counter. He said, “I work for the United States Government, and I want you to get me on an airplane right now.” She smiled. She said, “It doesn’t matter who you work for. There are no planes available.”
Then he really became angry. He said, “You either get me on an airplane or I’m going to have your job!” She smiled again and she said, “Sir, you wouldn’t want my job!” Then, enraged, he took his wallet out and he showed her his card that showed that he worked for the government. He slapped it down on the counter. He said, ‘‘You either get me on an airplane or I’m going to shut this airport down.” She said, “Sir, the airport is already shut down.” I can’t describe to you the look on this man’s face when he turned around and saw Barb and me. I mean, I cannot describe to you the look on his face. He was so embarrassed.
When we finally got on an airplane, which was hours later, we came back here to Denver, and he drove us home. He told us about all the stress he was under in his life. I mean, he’s a great guy, but he had a moment of uncontrolled anger. Isn’t it true that when we have moments of uncontrolled anger, we tend to kind of make ourselves look foolish? I mean, isn’t that true? Oftentimes, in moments of rage, we make ourselves look foolish. The irony is when we’re angry, we think everybody else is stupid. Isn’t that the irony? When we’re angry, we think everybody else is dumb. It’s like the little boy who said to his mom, “How come whenever Daddy drives, all the idiots come out?” Of course, we know the answer. It’s because Daddy is angry. Daddy is angry, so everyone seems to be an idiot.
Have you ever, in anger, just called somebody an idiot or worthless idiot? Or have you ever given an obscenity to someone either through gesture or through speech? It’s a sin in the sight of God. It’s a sin in the sight of Jesus. So, anger is a sin when it makes us even want to hurt somebody. Anger is a sin when it moves us further to insult somebody.
Finally, Jesus said anger is a sin when it prompts us to ruin someone’s reputation. This little passage is a little more difficult. Jesus said, “Whoever says to his brother or sister, ‘You fool,’ will be liable for the fire of hell.
I want to say, first of all, the “fire of hell,” Jesus uses the word “gehenna” which is from “Gehinnom,” which means “Valley of Hinnom,” the Hinnom Valley, which is south of the city of Jerusalem. It was the valley which was so abused in Jewish history, a valley where the pagan god Molech was worshipped. All the abominations associated with that pagan worship took place in that valley. They are described in 2 Kings, chapter 23, and in 2 Chronicles, chapter 28, and in Jeremiah, chapter 7, Ezekiel, chapter 16. You can read about Gehinnom and the pagan worship of Molech and all the atrocities associated with it. Josiah brought all of this to an end, but he then began to use the valley as a garbage dump and also to throw away the carcasses of dead animals. The fires were constantly burning in the Valley of Hinnom.
In the time of Christ, it was a place of refuse where garbage was thrown. The fires were constantly burning, and it was kind of an image of hell. Jesus said, “Whoever says to his brother or sister, ‘You fool!’ will be liable for the fires of hell.” This is not the same as raca. This is the Greek word “morai.” This word morai is probably not a Greek word at all. I mean it means, “you fool” if it’s taken from the Greek word “moros,” but most Bible scholars agree it’s not taken from the Greek word moros and it doesn’t mean “you fool.” It’s a transliteration of the Hebrew word “morai.” “Morai” is a transliteration of the Hebrew word “morai” into Greek. That Hebrew word refers to moral apostasy. “If anyone says to his brother or sister or if anyone views his brother or sister as a moral reprobate, you’ll be liable for the fire of hell. If you think someone else should go to hell, you’re in danger of hell yourself.” That’s what Jesus is saying here. If you view people as moral reprobates, and you feel spiritually superior and morally superior, you’re in danger of hell yourself.
Of course, this was the Pharisees. This was the great sin of the scribes and the Pharisees. They viewed everyone as moral reprobates, and they viewed themselves as morally superior. They felt self-righteous. They had taken the laws of Moses, and they had added to them the scribal or the oral law, and they had created hundreds and thousands of petty rules and regulations. They became angry when anyone every violated any of those regulations. When anyone ever violated any of their petty rules and regulations, they became angry. They viewed themselves as morally superior and everyone else as reprobate. That’s the sin of Phariseeism—a grave sin, the sin of fundamentalism today at times. A grave sin.
You know how Jesus was constantly in trouble with the Pharisees and the scribes. You know how the scribes and the Pharisees had taken the Sabbath Law from the Decalogue. They had taken the Sabbath Law and the Oral and Scribal Law they had expanded on. They had created literally hundreds of rules relating to the Sabbath Day. Jesus healed on the Sabbath, and they considered that a violation of their law, and they were angry with Jesus. They considered Jesus a moral reprobate.
Jesus and His disciples took grain from the grain fields because they were hungry on the Sabbath. The Pharisees said that was work, that was labor, that was threshing, that they were violating the Sabbath Law according to the Scribal Law. They were angry with them, and they viewed them as reprobate. Jesus said to them, “You don’t understand. Man wasn’t made to serve the law. The law was made to serve the needs of man. You’ve got it all flip-flopped. The law is summed up in love.” They didn’t understand.
How do you feel when someone judges you morally? I mean, have you ever been with anybody who you can tell feels morally superior to you? Have you ever been with someone who just judges you morally and you sense that your behavior angers them? Don’t you feel angry? Don’t you feel angry as Jesus did with the scribes and the Pharisees?
When Heather was born, we started praying for Heather’s husband. We prayed through the years. Four years ago, Heather met Chris. They fell in love. Just a little over three years ago, Heather and Chris were married, and this was the gift of God. We thank God for Chris, and he’s become just a wonderful member of our family.
Chris got his doctorate from C.U. in pharmacy, and he works at a hospital in Washington State where Heather and Chris live. He was offered a job at two Washington hospitals. He chose the hospital that ministers to the poor and is in the community of poor people, mostly Hispanics who work in the Yakima Valley in the agricultural farms. He’s a guy like that. He just cares about people.
Chris wasn’t raised in the church. He accepted Christ later in life through Young Life. Heather and Chris now volunteer 15 hours a week in the ministry of Young Life. They live in Yakima, Washington. They have looked for a church. Since Chris had never really been part of a church, Heather really wanted Chris to find a church that he could really enjoy and feel great about. They church shopped for a while. Then they went to this one church where they loved the music. They found that they had Bible study groups, small groups, and they offered to be part of that. They began to have a Bible Study that met in their home. The Bible Study meets in their home every week. They explained to the other couples (and they’re all young couples in the Bible Study) that they were really wanting to make some friends in Yakima.
Well, just a couple of weeks ago, they had their Bible Study. After the Bible Study, Chris and some of the guys played a board game. The gals did some other stuff. Then when the evening was over, everyone went home. Chris and Heather thought that it was a great night. They were cleaning up the house and feeling great about everything. Suddenly the phone rings. It was two of the guys who were calling Chris. They said, “Chris, we want to come over and talk to you.” Chris said, “Well, sure.”
They came over to the house. They said, “Chris, what we want to say to you, we don’t want to say in front of Heather. Would you come outside into the yard? We have something we want to say to you.” He could tell they were kind of angry and indignant. He was trying to think, “What did I do?” They got out in the yard, and they explained to him that when they were playing a board game, he used a word that they didn’t like. It wasn’t a swear word. It wasn’t even an obscene word, but it was a word that bothered them, and they wanted to correct them.
The irony is that Chris had called these same two guys in the prior weeks asking them to go mountain biking with him and wanting to be friends with them. They were too busy, but they weren’t too busy to come over that night and correct him for this word.
Heather called and she was angry. They felt judged morally, and Chris felt judged. She felt bad because she was wanting Chris to really love this deal, and here the guys do that… I said, “You know, Jesus said, ‘Love those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those that abuse you,’ and I just said that they should try to win them by loving them.” That’s what Heather and Chris are trying to do. But isn’t it hard when you are with somebody who feels morally superior? Isn’t it hard?
I think that’s kind of a fundamentalist church. We don’t want this church to be that way. We want to remember that the law is summed up in love. We want to be people who “love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind, and love our neighbor as ourselves.”
Anger is a difficult sin. It becomes sin when we want to hurt or harm somebody. It becomes sin when, in anger, we begin to insult somebody, and it becomes sin when we view ourselves as morally superior and we consider others moral reprobates.
In this little passage of scripture, Jesus concludes by calling His followers to be people of reconciliation. He says, “If you’re offering your gift at the altar and you there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift at the altar. Go first, be reconciled with your brother or sister.” He’s telling us to be people of reconciliation. If we don’t seek to be right with others, we can’t be right with God. We are to be people of reconciliation rather than people of wrath and people of anger. We are to be people of reconciliation, seeking friendship even with our enemies.
As we come to this table, the Lord’s table here, and the bread and the cup, and we remember what Jesus did for us, we celebrate the reconciliation He provided when He came and propitiated the righteous indignation of the Father and, in love, offered friendship by His blood shed and His body broken. As we come to this table, let’s resolve we’re going to be people of reconciliation, and if we have sinned, confess. Let’s bring it to the Throne of Christ. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.