21 “You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’[c] 22 But I say, if you are even angry with someone,[d] you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot,[e] you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone,[f] you are in danger of the fires of hell.[g]
Matthew 5:21-22
I went for a walk with a friend a little while ago and we started to talk about money. He said that tithing was an Old Testament principle and that Jesus taught that we no longer needed to worry follow the Law. Naturally, he did not give.
I agreed but not in the way that he was thinking. When Jesus taught about the Law, he never lowered the bar on its teaching. Instead, he pointed deeper. Jesus starts this section with the words, ‘you have heard…’ He is not referring to sayings or gossip but to the Law of Moses. He is, in each instance showing how the Law does not go far enough. The Law can transform our actions but God wants to transform our hearts.
Jesus does not want us to abandon the Law but to go deeper with it. He wants us to write it on our hearts so that it transforms our inner world.
Every now and then I try to chat to my children about politics and encourage them to have opinions on what is happening in the world. Trying to explain the war in the Middle East is so challenging for them to understand. Who are the good guys? How will it ever be resolved? Is there hope?
Jesus’ teachings go right to the heart of the greatest challenges of our time. He says, that if you have war in your heart, then you are in danger of hell. If you have anger and hate, then you will bring that into the world. The goal is not just to build systems and rules that stop us from killing each other, the goal is to love one another. It is to have a clean and pure soul. To be free of anger and hate.
Often we justify holding onto a little anger towards others. Perhaps we were in the right. They deserve for us to be angry. Or maybe we are afraid of being weak and use anger as a form of defence defence. For whatever reason we find ourselves angry, it is because life has not gone how we wanted it to. Our response to disappointment, challenges and frustration is anger. At its root, anger is a control issue.
To release control is not easy. It may feel like releasing hope and dreams. It may mean to release justice and righteousness. They are good things. However, our hope and zeal should not lead us to grow angry at other people. It is the humble and meek who inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. This does not mean that we do not need to stand up for justice or stand up for others. Of course we do! However, we realise that it is not our world to control. We do not just respect other people with our actions but we examine our hearts as well. The world that we create flows out from our deepest places. Jesus wants to heal our souls.
