WHEN ANGER SETS by Rev. Ken Rickett

“Do not let the sun set on your anger.”

Biblically speaking, anger is not a sin. However, unresolved anger leads to a multitude of sins that invites disrespect of others as a child of God. So, the Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesian congregation, “Be angry, but sin not, do not let the sun set on your anger.”. (Eph. 4:26-27). Keep in mind that this admonition is directed toward personal anger and does not address righteous anger against injustice and unfairness.

What happens when anger sets at the end of the day instead of the sun? If anger is forgiven or released by sunset, then anger has no power to create havoc and chaos in personal life and throughout the community. If anger is released before sunset, peaceful existence comes with the dawn of another day. The next day begins with agape, willing ourselves to love others.

BUT if anger sets…. instead of the sun.???

Anger sets like wet cement just poured into a mold. Anger hardens. Anger is heavy, like a weight shackled to the ankle. When anger sets, one’s worldview (the lens through which one views the world) and one’s actions, thoughts, behavior, and disposition are guided by the weight of a set and gelled anger.

The story of the Crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ serves as an example. The promise of a Messiah who will bring a kingdom without end became, over the centuries, not a brave new world of God’s reign on earth that is breaking in among us, but a political kingdom for Israel that would become far greater than the glorified reign of King David. Over the centuries since the prophets spoke of a coming Messiah (“anointed” one, as an earthly King is anointed), this interpretation stiffened like poured cement to the point that no one dared to question this understanding of Old Testament prophecy. Anger toward anyone who dared to voice a different interpretation hardens quickly.

Jesus dared to paint a different picture of the Messiah.

First, He, Jesus, was the Messiah! Such a thought was the worst sort of blasphemy! How dare He to hint at such a thing!

Second, Jesus taught that the Messiah would rule a kingdom without end, and this Kingdom would include all nations and all peoples. How dare He to paint such a picture of God and His Kingdom because the descendants of Abraham alone were the chosen ones!

Third, Jesus taught that the Kingdom of God was “without end” WOW! If Jesus implied that He was the Messiah, and that He would rule “forever and ever”, then the anger will inevitably erupt. AND ERUPT IT DID!!!!

ANGER took over! First, in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was arrested by the guards of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish High Court. Anger has a way of setting its own rules! Anger ignores law…even by those who enforce the law. So, anger justified, without a second thought, a trial at night (not allowed by law) AND a trial without two witnesses in defense (the Law required two witnesses for the defense). And without the consent of the full Sanhedrin, the Chief Priest rent his clothes and declared Jesus to be guilty. The punishment was death. The heat of anger melts all safeguards to fairness and impartiality.

BUT there was one problem. Since the Romans took over Jerusalem and Palestine some thirty years before Jesus was born, the Sanhedrin could not enforce a death sentence. Hence, the appeal to Pilate, the Roman governor. AH! Pleas before Pilate was that Jesus claimed to be a KING! Surely Jesus as a King was an affront to Rome…Roman government surely could not allow anyone to make such a claim of kingship. So anger was used to incite anger as a crowd hostile to Jesus gathered in the courtyard of Pilate.

“Crucify Him!” cried the crowd gathered around in Pilate’s Court. Pilate, desperate to avoid a decision that would entrap him, asked, “Who would you rather I release to you, Barabbas or Jesus? 

Barabbas was an insurrectionist, one who rebelled against the rule of Rome. “Barabbas!” the crowd shouted. And the anger of the crowd led to the release of a criminal who neither voiced nor acted in remorse…as anger defeats reason.

As a postscript to the whole sordid affair of the crucifixion trial of Jesus, Pilate, in a way, had the last word by an “earthly ruler.” Pilate had the words, “King of the Jews” attached to the cross of Jesus. Naturally, the Sanhedrin complained, they wanted the sign to be changed…. they wanted it to read “HE SAID HE WAS KING OF THE JEWS” Please don’t miss the irony! Jesus never admitted to being the King of the Jews in the trial at night before the Sanhedrin…nor anywhere else! Jesus taught that God would give Him (Jesus) the Kingdom of God composed of ALL NATIONS and ALL PEOPLES of All TIME AND ETERNITY. Both Pilate and the Sanhedrin UNDERSTATED the width and breadth of the Kingdom.

And so it is. Whether it be family, community, national, or global, power and decision making is too often disrupted by by anger that sets, hardens, stiffens, and becomes unyielding as sunset after sunset passes. Anger is not nurtured, rather it feeds on itself until the world…as well as angry persons…become hostile. At the end of the day, what sets???, one’s anger or the sun????

At the Lord’s Table, Elders offer thanks that Christ laid down His life for us. We ministers preach that Christ died for us. But the rest of the story is God raised Him (Jesus) from the dead and placed Him in Heaven with all power….and especially the power to grant eternal life (zoe) to those who enjoy the sunset because all anger is gone, and one discovers daily the amazing peace of agape love…which we, by choice, will and choose over the power of anger…..The Psalmist declared, “Joy cometh in the morning”…and this joy is experienced by those who let the sun, not anger, set in the evening sky. 

And we call this marvelous experience…RESURRECTION!