Rev. Tatiana Cantarella

Psalm 4, 1 Samuel 25:2–35; James 1:12, 19–21

Matthew 5:20–26

Anger and murder 

Humans are creatures that have feelings; very different feelings - both good and bad, acceptable and unacceptable in God’s eyes. One of such feelings is anger. Tolstoy wrote in one of his journals: "Three days ago Vanechka hit Kuzka.  I told him that he was a bad boy. He got offended and angry and was in a bad mood. He started avoiding me and saying that he won’t go with me for a walk and won’t let me into his room. And what do you think? I got offended, and an unkind feeling rose within me towards him, a desire to "break” him. So, pretending to totally ignore him, I walked straight into his room, where he didn’t want me to go.  Oh, how difficult it is for us, proud souls, to forgive offence, to forget it, to love our enemies even such tiny ones like my dear 3 year old Vanechka”.

In one of the episodes of "ER”, some of the doctors were in the lecture room waiting for a lecturer.  He wasn’t showing, so with nothing better to do, some were talking, some were reading but Dr. Carter and Dr. Kovach found some props’ swards and decided to fence. Everyone watched them with interest. (Let’s see a little clip about how it developed). As they were fencing, Dr. Carter and Kovach exchanged words, trying to get to each other, when finally a first real strike was made. Carter’s hand got hurt but also his pride was wounded and the battle started getting serious. Somehow Carter manages to get Kovach in the chest, continuing to hurt him with his words.  Now everyone is watching this no longer "fun” fight with tension.  There rest happens very fast: Carter’s wounded pride looses it and he strike Kovach on the back who immediately responds with an angry hit on the face.  Both burst with anger and throwing their swords aside they throw at each other…and everybody else is left with trying to pull them aside.

We also heard a story of David today. David, a man after God’s own heart, remembered being kind to Nabal’s servant and decided to send his servants to Nabal for help.  But in response Nabal being a bad and greedy person, says to them: "I don’t know any David, am I supposed to give away my bread to anybody who shows up at my door?” David’s people returned to David and told him what Nabal said. David was furious: "How is that possible? I was so kind to Nabal’s servants, my people shared everything they had with them and that’s how he repays me?!” Could David leave such injustice alone? He began to prepare his soldiers to go and destroy Nabal, his entire household and his servants.  But Nabal’s wife Abigail heard about it and knowing her husband’s bad character decided to take care of the matters with David. So, she goes and asks David for forgiveness for her husband’s wickedness. She asks David not to shed blood, not to take upon himself a sin he might commit in his anger.  And David, having listened to her, says: "May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands”. Praise the Lord that this story ended well because David listened to Abigail and not to his own anger. We all witnessed such situation around us or even participated in them.  It happens and we consider such situations natural, and David’s reaction we believe to be natural. But is our anger so natural?

There was a monk named Isaac who fought with another brother and kept an angry feeling against him in his heart and that feeling arose every time when he thought of that past fight. The feeling weighed so heavily upon him that he didn’t know what to do to find peace. Suddenly a young man he didn’t know walked into his cell and said: "commit to me and I will give you peace”. Sensing that it’s a wicked spirit talking to him said: "I am God’s servant”. "Oh no, you are mine”, said the devil, "you are holding a grudge against your brother and have been angry at him for three weeks now. And those who hold on to their anger will rip judgment and eternal death, so you belong to me and not to God”.  Shocked by such words and realizing how detrimental his heart condition was because of the anger he kept within him, Isaak got up and went immediately to his brother and bowed to him and humbly asked for reconciliation.

And like the words of the devil’s messenger shocked this monk with how dangerous anger is for us soul and that it’s not as "innocent” as it seemed, in the same way Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:21–25 shock us and overturn all our previous beliefs about what is "normal” and what is not in God’s eyes.

Read Matthew 5:21–25

Many believe that if they never participated in a murder, they’ve perfectly kept the sixth’s commandment ("do not murder”) and thus are pure before the Lord.  And anger? It can happen to anyone? Right? It’s not that easy.  Jesus says that those who have not murdered are not guilty before civil judgment. But God doesn’t only look to external things (what one has done and has not done) but also at human heart.  Jesus shocks us again saying "thoughts, words and actions which are born of anger and offend other people in God’s eyes are not better than murder!”

So, is any anger sinful? No. And sometimes anger can arise at social injustice; tyranny, exploitation and oppression, when human heart is angry just like the heart of God would be again such injustices. But the bitter truth is that human anger too easily leads people to sin when they begin hurting the other person.  Tolstoy demonstrated how being angry even his three year old child becomes harsh and isolates himself from everything and everybody, and how he himself – an adult – begins to respond childishly, desiring to show what he can crush the will of his son. ER doctors in the heat of their ego (although it all started like a game) began hurting each other for real. David almost committed murder in response to Nabal’s wickedness.

Have you noticed that Jesus says: "anyone who is angry with a brother or sister without a cause”? He is trying to say that the problem is in fact in that most of the time our anger again others is based on a mistake they’ve made which we could have made ourselves but would consider that it’s not worth that others be angry at us for it! One time I was at a supermarket and witnessed a typical way in which human anger develops.  There was a father with his little son who was pushing a shopping cart. All of a sudden the father began yelling at his son, cleaning the back of his pants: "don’t you see where you are going?!” The boy was trying to explain something but his father wouldn’t listen… he yelled at him for what the boy has done by accident and wasn’t really guilty of! And if we are honest enough we will see that our anger most of the time is just like that.   But in a feat of anger we manage to hurt another person and another person hurts us in response and at the end a wall of hurt and misunderstanding grows tall between us.

You may say: "but I never hurt anyone”. But Jesus said: "even if you hurt others with words, if you say to another "you are a fool”, you are subject to God’s judgment”. When you say to someone or about someone: "fool, idiot, stupid” you are trying to hurt his intelligence. Jesus says that we often look down upon others, considering them "stupider” than ourselves.  Jesus also says, "whoever says to another ‘Raca’” (which is a name of contempt) is subject to the judgment of by the fire of hell.  Sometimes in our anger we consider another person deserving God’s punishment, we judge them as "hopeless sinners, reprobates or jerks” beyond help. But according to Jesus if we proclaim such judgment on others we ourselves deserve such judgment. In both cases the root of the problem is that we consider ourselves better than the person we judge.

Anger and hatred are the symptoms of prideful attitude, of considering ourselves better than others, a sign of wanting to get rid of the one who stands in our way and that shows in our words, actions and thoughts like "I wish you’d just disappear forever”. That’s why John also says "the one who hates is a murderer”. The face of anger is not as harmless as we think because as Shakespeare said something like "In his anger, a man hurts even those who desire him nothing but good”.  Anger is dangerous because it’s blind and because it expresses our wounded ego and our refusal to see our own faults and when a person is wrong but won’t admit it, he/she becomes angry. That is why if we say that we are in Christ but consider our anger justified we get lost and confused because anger contradicts the heart of Christ. Paul says to us, "let everyone of you consider another better than yourself and let your attitude to one another be like that of Christ Jesus who humbled himself for our sake”. That’s why the apostle warns us to be "slow to anger”. We must ask God to help us with His Holy Spirit to overcome anger in our heart. We need to be slow down before we rush and say words that will hurt a person.  

But if we fell into our anger and burst out again a person, what then? This monk Isaac was able to see deeply into the root of his problem – into his own heart and saw that his anger made him a slave to the devil.  That is exactly what Jesus says. Sin is like a poisonous tree where murder is the fruit upon it, while anger is the trunk and the branches. But the tree has root that are the source of both the branches and the fruit.   A person things that if he or she won’t let the fruit grow (allowing himself to murder) then he/she kept the commandment but the poisonous tree continues to grow because there are still the roots and the trunk and the branches of our angry outbursts that hurt people and kill love and relationships.  And if we don’t care about how we deal with other people, then before too long we’ll realize great problems in our relationships to God.   

Jesus says: "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift”. Most often than not, having blown up and having offended someone we comfort ourselves with "it happens” or "she started it” or "it’s his own fault”. But Jesus tells his disciples that there is only one right way out: instead of justifying one’s own anger we pour on others we need to look into our own heart and to make a step towards reconciliation. And as long as we don’t do that we won’t find true peace and relationship with God.  With his example of a court dealings Jesus is trying to emphasize that reconciliation needs to be sought urgently. Jesus is not saying that they need to clarify who was wrong and who was right. He shows that human anger always leads to someone being hurt and offended and that for his disciples there is only one way out: to seek reconciliation immediately, taking initiative in reconciliations, asking forgiveness for his or her OWN words, thoughts and actions towards another.

A man had a dream.  He saw an angel that called him to follow him to church.  There were different people in the church and they were praying. In front of each of them set a big white bird. "Listen how these people pray and see what happens to their birds”. I will only mention one of the people. There was a man who seemed to pray very fervently and with great faith.  His white bird soared into the sky towards the clouds. But suddenly his face chanced and his eyes filled with anger and hatred and the white bird fell down dead on the ground.  "When he prayed”, said the angel, "he remembered his fight with his friend and that he was both offended and offended his friend but doesn’t want neither to forgive nor to ask forgiveness. Look how he rushes to conclude his prayer and it never reached the Father.”

Too often people wonder why their spiritual life seems to be stuck in one place and why God doesn’t seem to answer their prayers but they are not willing to see how their own anger and spite are the roots of a poisonous tree that prevents them from belonging fully to Christ and from opening their hearts completely to the Holy Spirit. So certain in our own being right and justified in their anger we miss the fact that if we won’t seek God’s help and humbly seek reconciliation and renewal of our hearts now, when we stand before God’s judgment we won’t be able to justify ourselves.  Who of us will be able to defend their rightness before the holy God? Who will be able to stand for one’s purity? Human anger does not do what is acceptable to God and won’t be able to justify oneself before Him. Our only salvation in anger is a humble submission before God and a desire that God replace our anger with His mercy and grace by helping us to see how ugly our anger is in the light of His holiness and truth; our readiness to free our hearts for the Lord to dwell in and for His love.