Our passage today gives us the gospel in reverse. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus turns up the volume on the commands from the Old Testament.
What we must do…
Jesus does not condemn all types of anger. He condemns a specific kinda of anger. A ‘raca’ anger.
Raca is an empty, non-existence. Jesus is suggesting that there is a type of anger that diminishes. Diminishes the humanity of the person the anger is focused on.
There are a lot of moments in scripture where God get’s anger. But we never see God’s anger diminish us. It is rooted in, and stays in, love.
Our anger can often be a seedbed for something much more deadly- it can cross the line into a raca anger.
In order to prevent us from becoming raca angery, we must be patient, gracious, and kind. In Jesus’ eyes, this is sin and the first step of murder.
We must treat the people we are angry with like the precious, eternal beings that God created them to be.
We may be able forced ourselves not to lash out in anger, but we cannot force ourselves too will the good of someone who has made us raca anger.
What we can’t do…
The gospel is not only that our past sins are forgiven, or that out present and future sins are forgiven. The beautiful news of the gospel is that we are treated as if we had never sinned to begin with.
What we can do…