What Are You So Angry About?

Mark 11:12-19
Rev. Clark Lynn Callender, 2/28/10

What are you so angry about?
How’s that for a question just about all of us could be asked on any given day?
It’s probably safe to say that not a week goes by, let alone rarely even just a day, in which each of us, at some point or another, does not get angry about something. Whether it’s some unkindness done to us by another, some disruption to our plans, some inconvenience, some injury, some jerk at work or school or out on the road... Or lately, just those folks on the Weather Channel, right?! I mean, if they gleefully forecast SNOW one more time...
Anger always seems to be lurking nearby, waiting to grab hold of us – invariably with disastrous results!
Many sociologists argue that the one illness, the one epidemic, that has always plagued humanity is this: Anger. Taking form in everything from stress and high blood pressure to domestic violence and international warfare. Society’s approach to the problem continually fluctuating between two equally ineffective and destructive extremes: either REPRESSION or FREE EXPRESSION - GIVING FREE REIGN.
The latter being the case in our culture today in which anger is encouraged and almost worshipped: Reality television that glorifies temper tantrums. “Shock Jocks” on the radio. Biased news casting (from all perspectives) designed solely to incite the listener. Feeding the beast! We can all see what a better world this has created!
Well make no mistake: You can feed it or you can starve it, either way it’s out to get you! Repress it and it will eventually explode. Give it free reign and it multiplies.
Is this all we’re left to?
Such a universal, seemingly unavoidable element of life. What’s all this anger doing to us? Even better: What is it saying to us? That is: Is anger just some “necessary evil” we are left to struggle with, just part and parcel of being human; or is something more at work here? Is this universal condition trying to speak to some deeper universal aspect of the human condition?
Is our anger actually attempting to call us to something deeper? Well this is precisely the issue our text today explores. This explored by taking a question that can be asked of us each and every day, and turning into a question we are moved to ask of Jesus on one day:
“What are you so angry about?”

This morning we pick up our study of Jesus’ final week with the events of the second day of the week: Monday. Last week we saw Jesus arrive in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, greeted by an adoring throng; only to weep over how lost the city was. Well, today we see a whole different side of Jesus:
The morning begins with Jesus on his way into the city. As he is walking along, he sees a fig tree. He goes over to it and, finding no fruit on it, proceeds to curse the tree which subsequently withers and dies. He then heads into the temple and tears the place apart: overturning tables, driving people out, shouting, disrupting everything. You can well imagine the headlines for the day: “Trouble at the Temple... Carpenter Creates Chaos... Menacing Messiah... Rabid Rabbi!” ?!
Well, needless to say, this is not the way we normally picture Jesus. This is not Jesus “meek and mild” healing the sick, taking children on his knee. No, this is an ANGRY Jesus. This is a rough and tough Jesus taking no prisoners! What’s the problem? Is he just having an “off day”? Hasn’t yet had that first cup of coffee in the morning? What gives? Why does Jesus lose his cool here? What is he so angry about?
Well, right off the top, notice what he is bugged about in the temple: That the house of God has become CORRUPT. “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations; but you have made it a den of robbers,” he says. Basically, the Law of Moses outlined how offerings were to be made and sacrifices purchased; but over time these rules had been manipulated, and things had deteriorated into a religiously sanctioned system of price gouging and kickbacks to the temple authorities.
For instance, the worship was based around SACRIFICES. And historians tell us that, in Jesus time, if you were a poor person and could only purchase a dove to sacrifice, you could buy it outside the temple for about a dollar (a week’s wages); but the priests would make a point of refusing it. So you had to purchase a dove from one of the vendors inside the temple – where suddenly, the price was $45! Of which the “house” took about 43 (depending upon how well the vendor could finagle the books). No wonder your offering was no good!
Jesus is outraged over religious practices gone wrong – worse than wrong: actually hurtful rather than helpful to people (this being part of the symbolism of the tree that he curses: something that is supposed to be producing life, bearing fruit, is failing to do so); and thus he takes his first “shot across the bow” of the religious establishment. A confrontation that will increase over the days ahead, leading to the call for his death.
But, even deeper, notice what is really going on here, what is driving this corruption Jesus is attacking - once again, Jesus says: “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations; but you have made it a den of robbers.” Notice his fundamental point: That the temple IS NOT WHAT GOD CREATED IT TO BE. This is what really has Jesus all “bugged” here: Something is not what God created to be. Think about that...
What does EVIL, what does SIN, do – at its most basic, most elemental level? It causes God’s creation to fail to be what God created it to be.
Sin causes the world not to be what God created it to be. Sin causes society not to be what God created it to be. Sin causes families not to be what God created them to be. Sin causes marriages not to be what God created them to be. Sin causes individuals not to be what God created them to be! Sin causes God’s creation to fail to be what it was created to be. Many scholars claim that what Jesus actually expresses here is a most fundamental definition of the work of sin: God’s creation gone wrong. And this is what Jesus is truly angry about here, what he is really angrily attacking: SIN – the EVIL that seeks to take us down, to take life as God intends from us! And this is crucial:
We tend to see anger as something inherently BAD - at best, a necessary evil; far better, something we need to avoid and repress because it will destroy us. But here Jesus himself is angry (leading to our salvation), thus demonstrating to us that anger, in and of itself, is not inherently bad – rather, the issue is its focus and its purpose. That is:
Anger, at its core is a GOOD THING. Anger stems from a sense of something being WRONG, some INJUSTICE, that UPSETS us and that we REFUSE TO ACCEPT. That’s a good thing. As it has been said: “Anger is a divinely implanted emotion. Closely allied to our instinct for right, it is designed to be used for constructive spiritual purposes. The person who cannot feel anger at evil is a person who lacks enthusiasm for good. If you cannot hate wrong, it’s very questionable whether you really love righteousness. The inability to feel anger exposes a catastrophic moral void.”
A catastrophic moral void. We judge a person’s sanity by whether or not they can tell right from wrong. We should get angry about injustice and evil. But what happens, you see, is that very sin that angers us takes hold of this anger and twists it around and turns it against us. Sin causes us to misuse and misdirect our God-given anger, basically aiming our anger at the WRONG THINGS: at each other, at destroying rather than creating, at blaming rather than helping, at (in our current culture’s situation) simply becoming angry for anger’s sake and believing that’s enough – just get mad at wrong but don’t actually do anything about it!
All of this basically causing more brokenness and wrong – and anger - rather than correcting things; and we thus get caught in this ever-increasing “cycle” of frustration (that we all feel every day) that seeks to consume and destroy us! Evil taking us over!
In effect, our anger is the SIGN pointing us to the fact that there’s something wrong with us – that we know that, that we can feel it. But through this very wrong – the evil that’s trying to take hold of us; it’s then also the SYMPTOM of the wrong – it’s most basic expression, the most fundamental way it takes shape.
It’s the sign, it’s the symptom... Yet, ironically, it’s also the SOLUTION – that is: Jesus saves us THROUGH ANGER - by GETTING ANGRY at the RIGHT THING (“God is not hostile to sinners but to sin”) and he calls us to follow him there to salvation! To take our anger and give it to him that we might find life.
To put it another way (the “punch-line” of all of this – pardon the pun) is that if you want to get to the life God wants for you, to break free from not only the frustrating annoyance that so often overtakes you; but even deeper, the evil that continually seeks to control and destroy you, and keep life as God created from you, FOCUS ON YOUR ANGER. Go there – that’s the key. Give your anger over to Jesus and follow him into it. What does this mean in a practical sense? Well, it means a couple of things:
(I)
First, it means: LOOK AT WHAT MAKES YOU ANGRY.
Returning to where we began – this is how things start: To get hold of the life God wants for us we first really have to ask ourselves, “What are you so angry about?” We have to look at the things we’re angry about all the time.
Now, in this, right off the top, we need to begin by simply considering how much of the stuff we’re getting all worked-up about doesn’t really matter, isn’t that important in the grand scheme of things. And particularly how what we’re bugged about pales in comparison to the good that’s around us. We’ve just lost our perspective. Christian author Brian Holt illustrates it this way:
“Fighting rush-hour traffic from suburban Maryland to Washington D.C. can cause its share of near misses and irritating moments. One morning, a young lady darted her compact car from a side street into the stream of traffic immediately in front of a driver just a few car lengths ahead of me, forcing him to brake sharply. He avoided hitting her by inches and was obviously furious. Within seconds, traffic stopped at a red light, and I watched him pull up behind the offender, leap from his car, and stride angrily toward hers. Clearly, he intended to give her a royal chewing out.
“Seeing him coming, the very attractive young lady jumped from her car and ran to meet him - a big smile on her face. Before he could say one word or know what was happening, she had thrown her arms around him, hugged him tightly, and planted a passionate kiss on his lips! Then she was back in her car and driving away, leaving her antagonist standing in the middle of the street still speechless and looking somewhat confused and embarrassed - but no longer angry!”
Are you angry about something that doesn’t really matter... especially in light of how good life is? Jesus only got bugged about things that mattered, the big issues. We need to look at what we’re angry about – and, first, see, frequently, just how insignificant our anger is; but then, even deeper, to realize that, if we’ll look at our anger we’ll see specifically HOW SIN HAS A HOLD OF US.
Simply put: The things that we get angry about in the world and in others, ultimately reveal what is wrong in US, how evil is trying to get a hold of US: If you’re angry that no one seems to care about you; odds are you are not caring about others. If you’re bugged that no one seems to be doing anything to change the world; odds are you’re not doing anything either. If, from your perspective, the “wrong voices” are doing too much of the speaking in the world – how much are you speaking up? If no one’s doing what they’re supposed to be doing – what are you doing? If your feelings are always hurt by inconsiderate people – is the problem really their rudeness or your pride?
If we get angry about tiny things – odds are this is all our lives are about: tiny things. If we get angry with ourselves – odds are we’re worshipping ourselves, seeing ourselves as some sort of ‘gods” who must be perfect. If we get angry with God for some pain or sorrow – odds are, again, we’ve set ourselves above all else, worthy of some personal exemption from the laws of creation!
The subtext of all anger is: “I have met the enemy, and it is me.” Our anger will reveal how sin has hold of US, evil trying to grab us – if we’re willing to look. The first absolutely necessary step in salvation: identify and confront what’s wrong. It’s like going to a doctor: the first thing he does is an examination, he runs tests. You have to identify what’s wrong if you’re going to have any hope of ever getting better. One author writes:
“A man received notice that his son, during his senior year in high school, had failed a course. The father, determined that his son would attend the best college, realized that a failing grade would jeopardize his son’s chances to enter a top school. The father’s immediate reaction was to blame the teacher for his son's failing grade.
“Storming into the teacher’s classroom, the father proceeded to accuse the teacher of unfairness. He threatened to have the teacher’s job if the grade were not changed. The teacher, believing the grade was deserved, would not change the grade and held his ground.
“The father left the classroom in a heated rage and headed for the principal’s office, where in a torrent he demanded the principal’s intervention. The principal, knowing the situation and believing the teacher to be right, stood behind the faculty member and refused to intervene. The father’s rage escalated and he began to shout obscenities and to make threats against the principal. He would go to the school board and have the principal’s job. At the height of the tension, there was a brief pause, followed by these words from the principal: ‘Sir, I can see that you love your son very much.’
“At that instant the anger that had controlled the father suddenly melted away, and he became a shower of tears. The comment had struck a deep nerve. Struggling to gather himself together, the father whispered, ‘Yes, I do love my son very much.’ And with that he revealed all the ways he felt he had failed to spend time with his son, to help him and care for him, how distant and self-involved he had been – and how guilty he felt about. He was taking his own lack of care out on the school.”
What we’re angry about will tell us what’s wrong with us, how evil is trying to get a hold of us and destroy us – if we’re willing to look – and be saved. The first step in the crucial journey into anger to find life: Look at what makes you angry. From this, then...
(II)
Secondly: PLACE YOUR ANGER ON JESUS.
Having discovered how evil has a hold of us, we then need to give that evil over to God. That is, we need to realize that we can’t beat it on our own – only Jesus can. We need to give our sin (revealed in our anger) over to Jesus to take to the cross – it’s no longer ours, it’s his. Die to it by putting him in charge of it!
This is the second mistake we all so often make: We try to handle evil, our sin, all on our own. “I just need to try harder. Control myself.” Basically, we repress rather than treat. Not a good approach. Not only does repression invariably (as mentioned) lead only to an EXPLOSION; but, obviously, as with any sickness: a failure to treat the problem just allows it to fester and grow.
We need to treat the problem, this by giving our sin to Jesus and putting him in-charge of getting rid of it. As he does here: He takes it on himself. Basically, what this means (in regards to anger and the fundamental evil that hold us expressed there) is giving the things that anger us over to Jesus and inviting him to use them to his glory, to ask things of us in them that work his purposes – enacting what he wants to make of it.
Place the things that BUG you – how evil is trying get a hold of you – ON JESUS and let him make something out of it, turn it to good. As he does on the CROSS: turn the bad into something good. If someone has hurt us to reach out to them. If something needs to be done, being the one who does it. If something is needed, being the one who gives.
To put it another way: Giving our sin to Jesus that we might be healed of it involves actually PLACING OUR SIN ON HIM. So, likewise, giving our anger over to Jesus involves actually PLACING THAT ANGER UPON HIM. That is: Imagine that HE IS THE ONE YOU ARE ANGRY AT. What would you do if that were the case? What would happen? How would you handle it - and what might result? Author Max Lucado explores exactly this idea...
In his book, The Applause of Heaven, Lucado writes about a big, muscle-bound man named Daniel who was swindled by his own brother. He vowed that if he ever saw him again, he would break his neck. A few months later, Daniel became a Christian. Even so, he couldn’t forgive his brother. One day, the inevitable encounter took place on a busy avenue. This is how Daniel described what happened:
“I saw him, but he didn’t see me. I felt my fists clench and my face get hot. My initial impulse was to grab him around the throat and choke the life out of him. But as I looked into his face, my anger began to melt. For as I saw him, I suddenly saw the image of my father. I saw my father’s eyes. I saw my father’s look. I saw my father’s expression. And as I saw my father in his face, my enemy once again became my brother.”
The brother found himself wrapped in those big arms - but in a hug. The two stood in the middle of a river of people and wept. Daniel’s words bear repeating: “When I saw the image of my father in his face, my enemy became my brother.”
See your heavenly Father in all your anger and act accordingly. The second step in the crucial journey into anger to find life: Place your anger on Jesus. He can take it – that’s why he came! And finally...

(III)
Third: GET ANGRY ABOUT SOMETHING THAT MATTERS.
Christian author Kim Sullivan writes:
“Recently, I had the most aggravating day. I got yelled at at work. The commute home was horrible. I arrived home and discovered that my husband hadn’t taken out the garbage as he had promised – again! I began to make dinner and dropped and broke a glass, and with that the kids started pestering me for help with their homework and fighting with one another. Finally, I yelled, ‘I’ve had it. Everybody leave me alone!’ And I stormed upstairs to my room and slammed the door shut.
“About five minutes later I noticed a little handwritten note being slid under the door. It was form my six-year-old and it read: ‘Dear Mommy – Isn’t this a bit much? PS: When is dinner?’”
A great question: “Isn’t this a bit much?” Particularly in regard to the insignificance of so much of what we are angry about?
It has been said: “In the final analysis, the core problem of our lives is not that we are too passionate about bad things, but rather, that we are not passionate enough about good things.”
“Not passionate enough about good things.” This is the final lesson here: You want to drive destructive anger out of your life for good, get out of this frustrating destructive “loop” of evil, solidify the two steps we have just talked about? Then get angry about something that matters. Develop righteous anger instead of self-righteous anger. Instead of trying to push out bad, fill up on good!
And how do you tell the difference between common, destructive, self-righteous anger and divine, constructive, righteous anger? Easy. As with Jesus’ anger: Righteous anger is ultimately concerned with injustices incurred by another not just oneself. And, as Jesus’ anger ultimately led to him being taken to the cross, paying the price; so righteous anger ultimately costs US, asks only of oneself not others!
Basically, drive out all the petty annoyances that so often rule and destroy your life by developing a passion for right. Find the cause that truly moves you and costs you, and give your all to it. Anger is finally about PASSION – an intense desire for right – in which (Jesus is trying to direct us here): Life can either be found or lost!
We so often die, are consumed by petty annoyances, because we miss this. We either waste our time on insignificant pettiness, or settle for some sort of bland commitment to nothing – either approach ultimately stripping the life God wants from us!
There is an old Franciscan blessing that says: “May God bless you with great discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships so that you may live deep within your heart. May God bless you with overwhelming anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may hope for justice, freedom, and peace. And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you will do what others claim cannot be done.”
We SHOULD get angry about poverty. We should get angry about prejudice. We should get angry at oppression. We should get angry at war. We should get angry at ignorance. We should get angry at suffering. There’s something wrong with us if we don’t! Get angry about something that matters – and find life.
Recently, I read a news article that told the story of David Heim, age 47, of Marlborough, Massachusetts. A man more commonly known as “The Wheelchair Recycler,” although he wasn’t always known by this title.
In 1995, Heim became paralyzed in a car accident. Needless to say, he became very angry. He was angry at the driver who hit him. He was angry at the doctors who failed to heal him. He was angry at God for allowing this to happen. And as he went through his recovery, he discovered a new thing to be angry about: His wheelchair. It was awkward. It didn’t fit him. He had a hard time using it.
Well, Heim was always a mechanical-inclined individual, so he began working on his wheelchair, eventually adapting it to his own needs – and becoming quite proud of his accomplishment. Other paralyzed individuals saw what he had done and asked him to work on their chairs. This he gladly did and word began to spread that he was the man to go to.
Long story short: Today, 15 years later, Heim runs a non-profit organization that takes used wheelchairs and donated parts; and makes brand new wheelchairs for those who cannot afford them – and specifically tailors each chair to the individual. Heim has so far helped over 500 people across the country and the world. People are mobile, have independence, who might never have known such blessings.
The effect on many lives has been profound. But the effect on Heim has been, perhaps, the most noteworthy: He is no longer angry. Rather, he now finds tremendous happiness in life, helping people. People return to him who have received one of his chairs and they hug, weeping for joy.
Out of his anger he found a cause beyond himself to which he has given himself – which has rescued him from his pain.

What are you so angry about?
Anger is the sign, the symptom, and the solution to what keeps us from what God created us to be. Jesus gets angry and invites us to follow him into life.
Look at what makes you angry. Place your anger on Jesus. And get angry about something that really matters.