Chapter Sixteen--Anger
Chapter Sixteen
Anger
dra·ma: a situation or succession of events in real life having the progression of a play or a story
The bottom line: life in the big kingdom is all about being good and angry.
I won’t soon forget the first time I watched the movie Magnolia. Though I would hesitate to recommend it to the average reader of Christian books, it had a gripping plot, interesting characters, confusing details, seemingly contradictory themes, and a multi-thread storyline that developed in unexpected ways. The sin and brokenness portrayed was hard to watch, but it was a captivating drama. As I came to the conclusion of the film, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing! My reaction careened back and forth between disappointed shock and confusion. There was one thing for sure: I hadn’t really understood the story all along. I couldn’t wait until I had the opportunity to watch it again. I have watched Magnolia several times since, and I am no longer surprised, because now I understand what the plot is really all about.
The biblical account of the building of the big kingdom is just that shocking of a story. And because it is, it needs to be revisited again and again. It is the greatest drama ever recorded, and it simply cannot be understood in one reading. And so, as we consider what big kingdom living practically looks like, I want to invite you to consider this story with me one more time. I want to invite you to examine the plot in a way you probably have not examined it before. To do so, I want to quote a very familiar passage of Scripture that I am convinced is largely misunderstood. That passage is James 1:19—20. “My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.”
The Anger Chronicles
To fully and practically understand this passage, you have to understand how the Bible operates. The Bible is essentially a narrative, a story. Maybe it would be more accurate to say that the Bible is a theologically annotated story. It is a story with notes for the reader’s understanding. James 1:19— 20 is not a mechanical life maxim or an isolated biblical principle. This passage is rooted in the plot of the war between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of self. Let me explain further.
The way the Bible is organized is that the main body of content is the unfolding drama of the story of redemption. But as I said before, it is a story with notes. On one side of the narrative are propositions. In the propositions, the great themes of the story are distilled down into universal truth statements. The purpose of these statements is to help you understand the plot of the story.
On the other side of the narrative are principles. The principles apply the story to the situations and relationships of everyday life. The purpose of the principles is to help you know what it looks like to live within the plot of God’s story.
This leads us to James 1:19—20. What you have in this verse is a principle: “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry,” and a proposition: “Man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life God desires.” Let me restate the proposition in a way that is closer to its original form. “Man’s anger does not work God’s righteous cause.” When you see the statement in this form, you begin to get clued into what James is actually saying. He is not just saying it’s good to be nice and quiet. What he is saying is incredibly more profound than that.
What James is saying is that God’s story is an anger story. You could title the biblical story, “The Holy and Unholy War.” The narrative of the Bible is really a story of two angers. First is the anger of God. And why is God angry? God is angry because he wants his way—his holy, righteous, perfect, loving way. The second is the anger of people. And why are people angry? We are angry because we want our way—our unholy, selfish, unrighteous, imperfect, unloving way. These two angers cannot coexist. They are mutually exclusive. And as you course your way through the biblical story, encountering both the anger of God and the anger of people, you just know that somehow these two angers are heading for a collision! The Bible really is the chronicle of these two opposing angers.
As you go through the story, you meet the anger of God very early as he drives Adam and Eve out of the garden of Eden. The anger of people runs close behind, unfolding in that shocking moment of sibling homicide as Cain jealously snuffs out Abel’s life. The story is marked with the violence of these two angers. You see God’s anger against Israel because of Achan’s larceny, you see Nebuchadnezzar’s anger as he throws the three Israelite young men into that ultraheated furnace, and you see God’s anger as he reduces that arrogant monarch to a grazing beast. You watch Israel descend into a social-political quagmire of envy and anger, as king murders king for possession of the throne, and you see God measuring out his anger against his people who have forsaken him for other gods. You see the anger of people in the national infanticide of Herod that accompanies Christ’s birth, and you see the anger of God as Christ, in holy fury, goes after those who have turned the house of prayer into a market. These are just a few of the recorded incidents, but they make the point clear. These two angers are at war with one another. There cannot be peace between them.
Two Angers, Two Causes
As the story marches on, you realize that these two kingdoms cannot coexist. God cannot, will not, and must not forsake his righteous cause, his glorious plan. His angry zeal for his righteous cause is the hope of the universe. The hope of the universe is that God will be angry at anything that gets in the way of his cause. His way is the right way. His will must be done.
Yet man seems spiritually incapable of abandoning his cause. He wants what he wants, when he wants it, and in the way he wants it. He holds on with determination to what he has set his heart on. He is not willing to compromise, and he does not want to wait. He is angry at anything or anyone that stands in his way. And his anger is his doom.
What James is saying is that the anger of people has one fatal flaw: it is not motivated by God’s righteous cause. Because we do not want what God wants, we are not angry when he is angry and we are angry when he is not. Because we are not motivated by what God is seeking to accomplish, our anger and God’s anger do not get along very well.
As you read the biblical story, you can almost feel the drama. You can almost smell the smoke of the war. And you wonder, will God’s anger win? Will he give up in disgust and let man have his own selfish way? Will he obliterate us all? Will people ever get it right? Will they ever let go of their selfish cause? Will they ever be angry with God, instead of being angry at God? How will the story end?
The Collision
As you see the anger of God and the anger of man woven through the biblical story, the dread of the coming collision grips you. And you know that when these two angers collide there is going to be a whole lot of carnage. God wants his holy way, and having his way is the golden hope of the universe. God makes it very clear that he will never abandon his righteous cause. Yet man wants his unholy way and because he demands to have his way, he is in God’s way. There simply can be no détente between these two angers.
These two angers do finally collide, but where they collide is unthinkable. They collide in one man. His name is Jesus. Anger explodes in one dramatic moment of violent grace and eternal change on the cross. Listen to the words of Peter’s first sermon in Acts 2:22—24:
Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.
What took Christ to the cross? The anger of a holy God who could not tolerate a world of sin and rebellion any longer. This God had planned to express his anger in just this way. But the anger of man also got Christ to the cross. Angry men who wanted their own way and hated the Messiah drove him to the cross. So, on that hill of death, the full anger of God and the full anger of people collided on the back of Christ. He carried the carnage of that collision so that we would never have to carry it again.
This moment of anger did not result in judgment or condemnation, because it was the violent anger of grace. On the cross, Christ was freeing us by grace to give us new life.
Good and Angry
What was God seeking to produce by the cross? Was his goal a kingdom of unangry people? No, the cross was meant to produce people who are angry every day. Perhaps you are thinking, “I don’t understand. I thought anger was bad and destructive. Doesn’t God want us to be peacemakers?”
It is true that most of our anger is dangerous and destructive. This is because it is idolatrous anger. I do not get angry because of your brokenness or the world’s brokenness, but because in your brokenness you get in the way of what I crave! On the cross, Christ died to free us from this kind of anger, but not from anger. You see, if you are living for the big kingdom you will be angry with God, rather than at God.
Jesus died to produce a culture of people who are so in love with him, so committed to his righteous cause, and so distressed by what sin has done to them and their world, that they cannot help but be angry every day. This is not the old, selfish, unholy anger. These people are able to be good and angry at the same time.
This new anger is an unquenchable zeal for God’s cause and an uncompromising distaste for sin. It is the anger of compassion that cannot help but seek to relieve people who are suffering from sin’s damage. It is the anger of mercy that responds to the foolishness of sin with understanding and grace. It is the anger of restoration that refuses to condemn, but believes that lost rebels can be rebuilt into the likeness of Jesus. It is the anger of service that finds delight in helping burdened pilgrims bear their load. It is the anger of peace that hates the division that sin has birthed in our world and does everything that can be done to restore harmony. It is the anger of forgiveness that hates sin’s guilt and despises its shame.
Jesus died not only to free you from your anger, but to enable you to take up his righteous anger. He died so that you would not rage inside because people and circumstances loom as constant obstacles to the realization of your little kingdom cravings. He died so that you would not be a captive to the self-absorbed anger of your claustrophobic little kingdom. He died so that you would be angry with sin and the way it has harmed you and everyone around you. He died so that you would be angry at the way sin has damaged the world you live in. He died so that your anger would be holy and pleasing to him. He died so that your anger would propel you to act in deeds of mercy, love, forgiveness, compassion, restoration, and peace.
Anger: The Big and Little Drama
This macro-drama of these two opposing angers, which is played out on the pages of Scripture, is the mini-drama of your life as well. Your response to the situations and relationships of daily life will be shaped by which of these two angers rules your heart. Will you give way to the temptation to fight for your own way? Or, will you grasp the fact that Jesus died for you, not to make your little kingdom work, but to invite you to a better kingdom? Will you take up his righteous cause and express the dissatisfied anger of grace that will cause you to make a difference wherever you are?
Will you be an angry friend, not because your friends, with all their flaws, drive you crazy, but because you see what sin does to them and you want better for them? Will you be an angry spouse, not fighting with your husband or wife, but fighting for them as they battle with sin? Will you be an angry citizen, refusing to tolerate poverty, racism, corruption, and injustice? Will you be good and angry...
when you give yourself to the self-sacrificing anger of love?
when you act with the restorative anger of mercy?
when you respond with rescuing anger of justice?
when you act in the reconciling anger of peace?
When you are angry in this way, you are no longer a captive to your self-focused dream. Your anger is now the result of taking up God’s righteous cause, and you expand everything you touch to the size of God’s kingdom.
Sarah is very angry, but she looks anything but angry. She isn’t easily irritated. She doesn’t have a lot of conflict in her life. She isn’t known for being loud and argumentative. But Sarah is angry. She is angry that so many elderly people are institutionalized and alone, so she spends each Sunday afternoon going room to room at the retirement home in her neighborhood. She is angry that in our highly educated culture many inner-city children do not learn to read, so she tutors children on Tuesday night. She is angry that so many friendships end in unreconciled conflict, so she works to be a peacemaker whenever she can. Yes, Sarah is angry, but it’s not the self-focused anger of the little kingdom. No, her anger is the anger of the big kingdom and it propels her to look for ways to do good.
The final question: right now, where you live every day, whose kingdom does your anger serve?