Friday of the First Week in Lent
Today's gospel reading (Matthew 5:20-26) is one of those readings that makes people scratch their heads and murmur that Jesus's teachings are great, and all, but they're also just too idealistic. What can Jesus mean by comparing the traditional prohibition against murder with being angry? Who doesn't get angry? Isn't there even "righteous anger", times when we should get angry about evil in the world? And yet, Jesus is clear here: whoever gets angry gets the same kind of judgement - perhaps even worse judgement! - than a person who murders.
Perhaps part of what Jesus is trying to tell us is that none of us - absolutely none of us - get to be proud about "really" following God, not even in comparison to someone who murders. Today's first reading (Ezekiel 18:21-28) emphasizes, in fact, that even the wickedest, most murderous person who changes her mind at the last possible second and starts doing good is better, in God's sight, than the virtuous person who has lived all her life well but commits one blatant sin. In other words, even thinking that we are good is sinful.
Those are pretty difficult words to hear, and if that were the whole of the reading, we might well feel like this is just too idealistic. No one can live up to the perfection of never being angry. And moreover, that virtuous person in the first reading seems so much like me and most of the people I know: aren't we all just kind of living our lives the best we can, trying to be good? But if we make one mistake, that all falls to the wayside?
I think Jesus is emphasizing something even more important, though. Note that when he compares murder to being angry, the one is absolutely prohibited, but being angry is not stated as "You shall never be angry." It is as though Jesus knows, we mere humans aren't really able not to get angry.
However, Jesus also knows that we mere humans can get very twisted in knots because of our anger. Anger has a way of going on and on, and turning into long-held grudges. I am constantly amazed (though I shouldn't be) at the people I know who are pretty nice, hospitable generous people by my reckoning. If they see or hear of some particular person or group of people who did something wrong to them in the past, it's amazing how fast they can become bitter and inhospitable (and truth be told, I've been there myself). At its most extreme, anger and accompanying bitterness has even been the source of murder, along with other evils.
So what does Jesus say? Not, "You shall not be angry" but rather, "go and be reconciled." Settle, and quickly. However you settle with others, yourself, or God, it doesn't have to be perfect, but it does have to be a way of not letting anger take our life. Don't let anger become a festering wound. What is the way out of the vicious cycle of anger and bitterness that can even lead to violence? It is to deal with anger well.
One final but very significant point: Jesus asks us to presume that we ourselves have made other people angry, perhaps even unknowingly. The onus is not on victims to go and seek forgiveness from their oppressors; the onus is on each of us to consider times when we have hurt another person.
So, Jesus does not give us a prohibition (do not be angry) but a positive command: go and be reconciled. Seek reconciliation in all life, in every day. What would it look like to be people who constantly seek reconciliation and forgiveness from each other and from God? This Lent, let us pray for all of us, that we may find ways to deal rightly with our anger.
- Jana M. Bennett