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Hey, I'm Matt Brownell.

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And I'm Van Owens.

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And I'm Tim Adams.

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Welcome to Climbing the Mountain, where we dive into the scriptures and discuss themes,

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connections, and real life application.

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We're kicking off a series here where we're going to examine the sermon on the mount and

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discuss implications for this teaching for Christians today.

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So before I began preparing for this podcast, I had the foolish thought, oh, this will be

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an easy one.

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Anger's bad.

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I get it.

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Okay.

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This isn't easy, though.

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Anger permeates our society, our political discourse, and so many, many people feel justified

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in their anger.

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I know I did.

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And I know preparing for this, it's like God was like, yeah, you think you got this?

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Here, let me give you some opportunities to feel it now.

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And I felt more angry in the week preparing for this than I have in a long time.

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And I had to deal with that.

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If someone wrongs me, it's not okay to just be angry about this and stew in that.

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Anger, if it's not rooted out of our hearts, will grow into a variety of horrible things,

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rage, violence, and bitterness.

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So this is a huge one for our society and for our fellowship.

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And Christ's church should be a welcoming place where we love each other.

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And anger is at the heart of one of the first greatest sins, Cain and Abel.

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And if we're not careful to root it out of our hearts, it will infect our fellowship,

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too.

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So let's dive in.

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Matthew 5:21.

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You've heard it said to those of old, you shall not murder.

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And whoever murders will be liable to judgment.

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But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.

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Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council.

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And whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire.

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So if you're offering your gift at the altar and they remember that your brother has something

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against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go.

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First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift.

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Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you were going with him to court, lest your

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accuser hand you over to the judge and the judge to the guard and you be put in prison.

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Truly I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

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This section of scripture is the first of six units now that we're about to dive into

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that really expound on Jesus' meeting in the verse immediately preceding Matthew 5:

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For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees,

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you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

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There's a refrain in each of these units.

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You've heard it said, but I say, and then Jesus takes us to the heart behind the letter

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of the law, how our righteousness is to surpass that of the Pharisees.

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So first off, we've talked about how Jesus takes us to the heart of the law and he's

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pretty dramatic here with the language he uses.

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Why do you think he uses such stark language here?

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Well, I think that the language is stark because the particular thing that he's talking about

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anger is so prevalent and so virulent.

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It is.

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It's so dangerous and it's so abundant everywhere.

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And I think you mentioned Cain and Abel and I think it's remarkable that the first story

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about a horizontal relationship.

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So you've got Adam and Eve and the sins that happened there were vertical.

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They sinned against God.

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The first story that we really have about a horizontal relationship, a brother to a

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sister, it ends in murder.

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And it tells us how poisonous a thing, anger is, how swiftly it takes root and how bitterly

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it grows and how bad the consequences are when it's happened.

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So I think it deserves the stark language that Jesus gives it here.

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Yeah, I mean, I think when I consider anger here, Jesus is making this direct connection

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with murder.

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But when he's talking about, he says, if anyone who says you fool be in danger of the fire

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of hell, there's a feeling of contempt that you have for the other person.

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There's bitterness, I think that you brought up can grow.

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And so many of these sources of conflict are rooted in anger.

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And I think that's, you know, we're supposed to be people of love and it's really like

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oil and water, like these things don't mix.

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And so if we've got anger in our hearts, then we can't be people who are loving God and

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loving our neighbor.

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And so I think that when Jesus is saying that, you know, anyone who says you fool be in danger

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of the fire of hell, he's being really intense.

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But I don't think he's really doing anything except for stating the reality of the situation.

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You know, if we're consumed by anger, then we're, we can't be in God's presence.

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Wow.

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That's, and you, I love how you bring out love.

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You know, the anger and love, oftentimes I hear, you know, that apathy is the opposite

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of love because you just can't care less at that point.

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But anger, you have some relationship and this is, this is so fundamental to our relationships.

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And I think stepping back for a minute, we were talking about this, you know, how, what's

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the fulfillment of the law, it's love, right?

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One of the main purposes of the law was to teach us to love others the way Jesus wants

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us to love them, we, he demonstrated, right?

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And I think that each of these sections speak to that some failing and some breakdown in,

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in love in a way that is profound.

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And I think that the, this, this piece here where we're looking at anger, it, it really

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is such a huge thing because I, I think there are implications here for how we treat others

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that have a bearing on our, our very soul.

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You know, he's talking about that hellfire, right?

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And it's, in other translations, they, they use the word raca, right?

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Which, you know, has the, you're right.

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It's a, it's like this disdain you have for someone.

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And it literally, I think it could mean empty head or you could say airhead maybe like calling

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someone an airhead, which just kind of sounds kind of funny.

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But if you have, if you really mean that, if you, you really have that thing in your

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heart towards someone else, that imperils your very soul.

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You know, and I think that, I think what's key there is that it starts in your own heart.

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If you go back to the story of Cain and Abel, I won't, I won't try to read it because it's

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somewhat long, but they both prevent sacrifices to the Lord.

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Cain's sacrifice is unacceptable to the Lord.

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Abel's is acceptable.

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We don't get a whole lot of information about what was wrong with what Cain did.

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We don't have a lot of background for it.

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All we know is that Cain, it says that he was, his face was downcast and he was angry.

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And it came from a disappointment that he had in himself.

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It had nothing to do.

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Abel hadn't done anything to Cain.

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Abel had just done something right that Cain didn't do right.

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And so the anger just was there.

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And the language that is used around that anger, even there in that sort of first passage

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about it is very, it's intense.

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God says to Cain, sin is crouching at your door.

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It desires to have you.

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He personifies the sin in a way that is, that's monster like, it's a monster that will destroy

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you and implying it will destroy everything.

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And that it didn't, I think a lot of times when we try to justify our anger, we find

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some, we say, well, he deserved it.

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They deserved it because of something they did to me or they deserved it because of something

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that they represent or they deserve it because of something that happened to me in my past

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that this is mirroring.

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And it doesn't start, it doesn't start there though.

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It starts from within.

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That is such a deep point.

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And I love you bringing it back to Cain and Abel.

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And we're going to get to this, I think, the altar and the sacrifices that they made.

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And it is, it's something that is in our hearts that we have to deal with.

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And God sees that.

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And the word of God convicts us, it judges us to our core.

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Jesus does something really interesting though, halfway through here that I want to highlight.

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He has this word so in other translations, it's therefore.

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And anytime you see that word, therefore, you need to know what it's there for.

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And there's an argument being made here, right?

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Because having this in your heart, this hatred, this anger for someone else, imperils your

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very soul then and then he does something that I don't expect because I would say, you

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know, so if you're offering your gift at the altar and you remember you've got this bad

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feeling in your heart, go deal with that.

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You can't, he doesn't do that though, does he?

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It's really interesting.

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He says, leave your gift.

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And you remember a brother had something against you.

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So it's not, he's not saying anymore the thing that was in your heart.

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He's talking now about this horizontal relationship.

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Isn't that interesting?

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Yeah.

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And I think it raises that question of what if they're angry at me or they have something

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against me and I didn't do anything wrong.

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We should talk about that too.

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But one of the things that I think Jesus cuts through there is typically when someone has

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something against you, you have done something wrong.

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Yeah.

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And you might have not done most of the wrong, right?

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There's probably been hurt on both sides, but there has been a disconnect and almost

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always there's been some sin that you've caused and that is the breeding ground for

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anger and for all of this tension that leads up from anger to murder and everything in between.

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A lot of the scriptures that talk about Cain and Abel like in John, first John, they use

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the word hate and I think of hatred as much, much stronger than anger.

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But Jesus is acquitting anger with murder.

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I'm trying to calibrate my brain there.

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But yeah, so you've got, if you've done something wrong and even though that person has done

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most of the wrong, Jesus is still saying you need to go and you need to be the one to reconcile.

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And he doesn't really care what the other person has done in that context.

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He says you need to get this out of your heart and so you need to do everything you can to

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be right with this person.

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Yeah, you know, I was in a meeting the other day at work and something had gone awry in

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the schedule and I had chaired the meeting the week before and so people were caught

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off guard.

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They didn't know they were supposed to present at this new meeting.

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So I told the chair, I said, I'll fall on that one.

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My fault.

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I didn't announce it in the last meeting.

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So let everybody else off the hook.

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It's on me.

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And she said, well, no, it wasn't that clear.

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It shouldn't have been your fault.

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And I said, she said, thank you for saying that.

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And I said, no problem.

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The words, it's my fault have kept me married for 30 years.

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And I was kind of joking, but I was also kind of not joking because I think, I think you're

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right, Tim.

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I think that Jesus is saying he's not, he's not parsing who's more guilty, who's more

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at fault.

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And in fact, he might even be going so far as to say, you may have done nothing wrong.

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You might be completely innocent.

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But if you remember that your brother has something against you, no, without parsing

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fault or guilt or who's more responsible or who's more than you need to go and fix that

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before offering your sacrifice.

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And that is, and he says a lot of things like that in the course of this sermon that you

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have to, you need to get under it.

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You need to be willing to get under it because that anger in that brother's heart is so dangerous

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to him, to you, to his family, to the fellowship.

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You have to get under that.

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You have to fix that.

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It is more important than your worship.

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It is more important than your act of sacrifice to deal with that.

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And it does kind of thinking about Cain and Abel again.

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It is being your brother's keeper because you don't want them to have something they're

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dealing with.

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And I think, so all of us are married here.

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And I think your example about being married and saying it's my fault has kept you together

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for 30 years.

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I can hear that and think, yeah, if I, and my problem is, and I can look back now and

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think there have been so many times where I've just kind of, because I can be more reserved

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and my wife is a little bit more out there.

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I could just be in situations where she just tells all the stuff that she's actually thinking

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and feeling and she will kind of be looked at as like, oh gee, what's wrong with you?

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But inside, in my heart, and I've let that happen, I look like the good guy in the outside,

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but on the inside, I'm dirty, I am, and God sees that.

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And so there's this image here of someone going to do their religious duty, right?

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They're going to an altar, right, to sacrifice something.

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And I want to spend just a little bit of time here looking at the altar and to see how that

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informs our discussion and what that might mean to us today.

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Because it seems like there are things that God prioritizes in aspects of our relationship

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with him.

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And so let's spend a minute talking about this.

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What do you guys think?

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Well, I'd like to take it back to the first century to early Christian writing called

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Didache, or Didache, depending on who's talking.

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And it's basically a primer on what the church did in the first century.

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And it doesn't cover everything, but it spends a fair amount of time talking about communion,

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the Eucharist, Lord's supper, whatever you want to call it.

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And in this little portion, it talks about how we should be thinking about conflict with

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our brothers and sisters in the context of that.

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And so it says, but every Lord's day, gather yourselves together and break bread and give

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thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions that your sacrifice may be pure.

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But let no one that is at variance with his fellow come together with you until they be

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reconciled that your sacrifice may not be profaned, which is really intense and is taking,

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I think, what Jesus is saying really literally in the context of my sacrifice is my participation

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in the Lord's supper with the brothers and sisters.

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And that's often how I've thought about this in my own life.

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But I'll confess that I'm not in the habit of, I think it's very difficult for me to

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keep a catalog of is there a conflict in my life and to be really intentional about that.

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And I don't, I can't think of a time where I've stopped taking communion because I had

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conflict with someone.

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But I think also it's because I try to avoid conflict wherever I can.

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But going back to this point, I think that's one of the places where we are, this is our

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altar, you know, it's the Lord's supper.

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When we break bread together, this is one of the places where we're offering a sacrifice

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of praise.

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And if we're in total conflict with one another, then we're losing the point of what we're

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doing.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, I think that, you know, when I saw this question, I thought, yeah, what does that

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mean?

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What does it mean by altar?

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I thought of Romans 12, Romans 12:1 where Paul says, offer your bodies as living sacrifices.

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So your body is the sacrifice on the altar.

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And then there's 1 Corinthians 6, where he says, your body is the temple.

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So my body is both the sacrifice and kind of my body is the altar too.

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What does all that mean?

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Paul, what are you talking about?

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And I think what he's saying is it is, it is you, it is in you.

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It's the way that you, the way that you treat your life, you know, you treat your body,

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if you've got a healthy relationship with your own body, you treat it as something sacred.

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You keep it clean.

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You clothe it.

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You cut the hair off of it when it's too long.

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You do, you, you treat your body as something sacred.

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It is the most sacred thing that you have.

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And so, and I think what he's saying, if you, if there's anger there, if there's anger,

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and you know, when we, when you read that passage after the 'so' for so many years of

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my life as a Christian, and I've been a Christian for a long time, I always read that passage

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as so you have to make sure you're not angry with anybody when you go to church.

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You have to make sure you're not angry.

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Cause I just read it that way.

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It said something completely different, but what I read into it was what I thought it

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should say.

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And it goes deeper than that.

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And it says, so you need to deal with it, not even if you're just angry, you need to

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deal with it.

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If you know of somebody who might be angry with you.

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That's how serious it is.

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And it means that you, then it means that you have to neglect your sacrifice.

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You have to neglect the altar.

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You have to neglect all these things that you know are of utmost importance and deal with

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that.

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That's how poisonous anger is.

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And the challenge of that for, for me is, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm in the last little

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breath of the baby boomers.

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I was born in 1964 and I think that's the end of the baby boom.

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And growing up, I was taught as a man, you have three acceptable emotions.

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You can be content, which is baseline.

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You should try to be that all the time.

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Just content.

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You can be happy, but only sometimes because if you're happy too often, then you're a fool

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and you can be angry.

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Yeah.

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Those are the three acceptable ones.

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If you're sad, then make it look like angry.

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That's what I was taught.

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My father said those words to me.

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And so it's, it's very, it was very difficult for me to think about how, how roundly Jesus

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condemns anger, how solidly he says, no, it's poisonous.

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It's bitter, it's so bad that if you are worshiping, if you are on your way to worship, then you

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need to turn around and not attend worship.

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Go and deal with the anger before it kills somebody.

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It's, it's, it's really intense.

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You both brought up really great verses to think about with respect to, or concepts to

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think about.

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The altar, the table that we have for communion, the body that we have.

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These are things I want to pick up on because there's a lot more to mine here.

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There's so much more.

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So this has been great.

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I think we definitely have to do a part two.

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Sounds good.

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Absolutely.

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Thank you.