Righteous Anger
Opening Prayer
Lord, help me to not grieve Your Spirit or unknowingly make You angry.
Read Matthew 23:25-36
[25] “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. [26] Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. [27] “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. [28] In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. [29] “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. [30] And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ [31] So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. [32] Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started! [33] “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? [34] Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. [35] And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. [36] Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation. Scripture taken from the THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION, NIV Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
What makes you angry? Do you share Jesus' anger?In this passage, Jesus is getting really angry. It’s hardly the meek, mild image of the Savior we find in fine art or stained-glass windows. This is the table-turning revolutionary, not the peacemaker found in Matthew’s opening chapters.Why is Jesus so furious? The religious leaders of his culture are total hypocrites. They care only about outward appearances; Jesus knows that his Father looks at the heart (1 Sam. 16:7). Jesus is angry at their hypocrisy and also at the idea that they might be misleading others who look to them for religious guidance. In fact, he even invokes hell itself (33), saying the Pharisees’ lifestyle of duplicity suggests the question, “How will you escape being condemned?” If the perfect Jesus can boil with anger, we deduce that anger itself is not a sin. Religion which is all about appearances should make us angry, too. When the need to appear righteous overrides the needs of the poor, we have license to imitate our Savior in this regard. Perhaps we should even get angry, about the right things, a little more often.
Apply
Journal about what makes you angry. Are they the right things? Do you get angry too often? Often enough?
Closing prayer
Lord, help me turn from selfish anger but join You in anger against injustice. Let it move me toward bringing change.
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