anger

And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart…  Mark 3:5

Jesus got angry. While on earth he experienced the very human emotion of anger.  In this passage we see that that is his response to the religious leaders’ hard hearts, their stubborn unwillingness to admit that it was more lawful to do good than harm on the Sabbath.  This made Jesus’ blood boil.

Before we begin giving into our anger in our cars and the grocery store or worse yet with our spouse, citing Jesus’, it would be good for us to remember that James tells us to “put away anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” Probably because the kinds of things that you and I get angry about have more to do with the pride of life than the honor or will of God.

How often do we refer to ourselves as being frustrated instead of angry (isn’t that a nicer way to put it, a way to cloak our sin)?  And even when we are honest with ourselves knowing that the anger that we feel will not produce the righteous of God, what are we to do when it is there burning in our stomach and chest?  We know it isn’t right, but feel incapable of doing or feeling differently in the moment.

Repent.  That is the best place to start.  Repent to God for any unGodly thoughts or emotions we have had.  Including anger that is a result of sin.  Yes, this is where the majority, if not all of our anger comes from – our own selfishness.  We may feel justified in our anger, but if our anger has anything to do with us (how we have been offended, hurt, etc), it is probably a result of our own selfishness.  Regardless of how selfish the other party has been.  Remember Jesus did not become angry when people treated him badly, he became angry over God’s honor.

Repent.  Repent to any person that may have been affected by our anger, by our words or deeds (yes, even a cold shoulder).  To be sure, I’m not saying that we should go around telling every single person we’ve ever had a hard feeling toward.  That would not be wise.  We should take those feelings to God and repent.  Only, we should also repent to another person when the feelings we have experienced have directly affected them with our actions (including  ignoring, avoiding etc.).

Finally, we should ask God to help us respond differently in the future.  As with all emotions, anger is not something we will ever be able to completely avoid experiencing here on earth, although we are to attempt to put it away.  Yes, Jesus perfectly experienced the emotion of anger, but we aren’t perfect yet.  Hopefully as we become more like him, our wills will be so in tune with the Father’s, we will rarely become angry and only about the things that anger him.  Until then, we must continue to put anger away and repent.