Getting Angry with Jesus
by the Rev. Matt Tebbe
Be angry
Paul commands us in Ephesians 4.26, “Be angry and do not sin; don’t let the sun set on your anger.”
I’ve heard a lot of sermons on the “but do not sin” part, i.e. anger can give opportunity to the devil (Eph. 4.27) and birth all manner of hell in relationships (bitterness, temper tantrums, shouting, slander - Eph. 4.31).
I’ve heard a lot of sermons on the “do not let the sun go down on your anger” part, i.e. the danger of harboring and stuffing and stoking anger day after day that can lead to grieving the Holy Spirit through our bitterness, temper tantrums, shouting, slander, malice, etc (Eph. 4.30, 31).
But I haven’t heard any sermons on these two words: “be angry”.
Paul assumes that anger - being angry - is part of our calling to imitate God in love (Eph. 4.17-5.2). The love of God makes room for anger; we cannot imitate God, Paul indicates, unless we learn to hold our anger well.
As we deal with church abuse scandals, we can learn how to be angry in love together. And we learn this the way Paul did: from Jesus.
Learning anger from Jesus
Jesus got angry. Regularly. And we see a pattern in his anger: whenever someone vulnerable or powerless suffered injustice at the hands of the strong and powerful, Jesus opposed this injustice with loving anger.
There are a smattering of texts in the New Testament that explicitly name anger as the response of Jesus:
Mark 1.41 - “incensed” at the skin disease a man had (this occurrence is contested; some manuscripts have the word “compassion” instead. But I think anger works for the reasons I’ll name below.)
Mark 3.5 - “anger at their hardness of heart” because religious leaders don’t want to do good on the Sabbath (heal a man’s withered hand)
Mark 10.14 - Jesus was angry at his disciples for scolding the people who tried to bring kids to him.
There are other instances where Jesus appears to be angry but the word anger isn’t used:
The accounts of Jesus clearing the Temple (made a whip to drive out animals (John 2.15), overturned money changer tables and threw out the people buying and selling (Mark 11.15)
Jesus coming off the mountain after the Transfiguration to find his disciples arguing with the religious leaders (“You faithless and crooked generation, how long will I be with you? How long will I put up with you?” Matt 9.19)
Here’s what I notice about Jesus’ anger:
He is present to his anger: he doesn’t bypass his anger (denying, belittling, gaslighting his own feelings) and try to remain positive - nor is he in bondage to his anger (i.e. succumb to the devil). Rather he is present to it: he faces his anger, feels it, and is fully God and human in doing so.
He is clear as to the purpose of his anger: he is angry when others are suffering. His anger is God’s love moving to oppose those people and forces at work in the world to bring a lack of shalom. Anger is how God’s love responds to injustice.
He navigates the power at work in his anger: Jesus chooses to respond in anger when those without power are suffering at the hands of the powerful.
Disease has a man in its grip and he is moved to anger to release the captive.
Religious leaders refuse to affirm healing on the Sabbath and Jesus grieves in anger at their misuse of authority.
The disciples scolded others for bringing unimportant, powerless children to Jesus. Jesus responds in anger because they were misusing their power to exclude someone from his presence.
Likewise in the Temple: the wealthy and powerful set up a system of exploitation and abuse that took advantage of the poor. His anger disrupted and prophetically denounced this unjust and exploitative system.
Likewise after The Transfiguration: when Jesus finds his disciples arguing with the legal experts, Jesus responds with frustration and anger, heals the boy with the evil spirit, and then tells his disciples why they couldn’t heal the boy: “Throwing this kind of spirit out requires prayer.” This is quite the rebuke: the disciples, instead of praying and focusing on the boy, were instead focusing on the powerful legal experts in an argument. The disciples were focused on the wrong thing (winning an argument instead of praying and healing the one suffering injustice) and this made Jesus upset.
Jesus is present to his anger at anything that disrupts the shalom and justice of his Kingdom. This most often comes through the misuse of authority and power: bad leadership from humans (religious leaders) and evil spirits (principalities and powers).
This is how God and humans are to be angry.
Applying our anger
Some implications for us as we reckon with our response to church abuse situations:
It’s ok to be angry: Evil stuff makes God angry and it should make us angry as well.
Anger as a response to injustice for those who are powerless isn’t the same as anger as a weapon in the hands of the powerful.
Anger can be the only way a powerless person has to protect themselves. In fact, many of us who are in touch with our own anger first learned how to be angry in vulnerable situations where we were in danger.
Anger in the hands of a powerful person can be used to silence, coerce, dominate, intimidate, manipulate, etc.
We must discern the work anger is doing in each situation: who is angry? Why? What work is this doing here?
Anger at the harm done to you is good: you weren’t created for harm. Hurt isn’t your birthright, blessing is. God is angry too.
Anger at the harm done to others is good: God is also angry at injustice. In fact, God’s anger is how God’s love opposes injustice and evil.
We must learn how to ‘be angry’ in love: to hold our anger in love for ourselves and for others. To make room for godly anger is a necessary response to abuse and evil in our churches.
Let us learn how to be angry from Jesus.
Let us see how power is at work in injustices: the children molested, the women groomed, the subordinates gaslit and coerced.
And let us seek justice for those who’ve been hurt as we align the purpose of our anger with God’s.
May we seek the love together - imitating God - that has room for righteous, sacrificial, evil-naming, Kingdom-seeking, truth-telling anger in our pursuit of justice for church abuse survivors.
Matt Tebbe is a Priest in ACNA and co-founder of Gravity Leadership. He co-Rectors a church in Indianapolis, The Table. He’s married with two kids who all take delight in the family Golden Retriever.