Is it OK to get Angry? Tips for dealing with anger | Church Livestream | Mark 11:15-19
Timestamp
00:00 - Livestream starts & Introduction
09:53 - Message: Is it OK to get Angry?
11:20 - Guilt and shame will follow if we don't control our anger.
12:46 - Mark 11:15-19
15:17 - Did Jesus Get Angry?
16:30 - What happens to your body when you get angry.
-- The two parts of the brain and how they process anger.
23:15 - Is anger really a bad/negative emotion?
23:50 - Getting angry with injustice
26:11 - Anger is in our wiring but it should be used for good
31:04 - Comments on Anger
33:50 - Worship: When I survey
44:13 - Catch Up
46:34 - Notices & Close
When was the last time you got angry?
I want to start by throwing out this question. And this question is when was the last time you got angry? I mean really angry. You properly lost it. Something might have happened to you. Maybe something didn't happen to you. And you just got absolutely livid. Can you remember that time?
What happened?
Was it this morning was it a month ago, a year ago, maybe if you've got little kids in the house, then they're at that point, the terrible twos and threes like one of my children, you kind of lose it quite often. Right?
Or maybe that's just me?
The thing is with anger is a bit of a funny emotion, isn't it? We all experience anger. And it's his natural emotion. But so often, what we do with our anger, what we say and our actions that follow can lead us to do things that make us feel absolutely rubbish. Guilt and shame can follow. If we don't control our anger, maybe we lash out, maybe we say something, maybe we did something that hurt us or someone else? The thing is when we don't know how to control and manage our anger, it can be really harmful.
In today's passage, we see Jesus, God Himself, getting angry, which is, initially, quite shocking.
“On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’” The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching. When evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city.”
Jesus gets angry
It's a fascinating passage. It's an iconic moment, isn't it? You know, we see this raw emotion from Jesus, it's quite shocking and startling, as he looks to cleanse the temple driving out those who are doing business. And I think it's shocking in a number of ways.
It shows that Jesus is human. It shows that he's like us, it shows he's got emotions like us.
It's not that selling that was a problem. But it was where they were doing it, and what they were supposed to be doing in that place. That's what really got to Jesus. He's in the temple. This emotion shown by Jesus to those "harmless" retailers would have been an absolute shock to everyone including the religious people and his disciples who hadn't seen this side of him very much. Jesus was angry. But was it OK for Him to be angry?
What happens when we get angry?
One of the times I've struggled in the past is on the football pitch. I absolutely love football, but I'm also extremely competitive. I love to find a way to win (fairly). But sometimes, if someone fouled me a couple of times, or accuses me of cheating, or if the scores are a little bit controversial, my reaction can be one of instant anger.
Everything in me wants to put leave a leg in, my heart starts to pump fast. My face turns red. I want to shout at that player.
We've all been there, right?
Have you ever thought about what happens to your body, when you get angry?
What is actually taking place at that moment? What is actually going on? Very simply speaking, you've got your upper brain and your lower brain:
The upper part of your brain is where you have reason, rational thinking.
The lower brain has this thing called the amygdala. This is the compartment of the brain that processes information related to your emotions, and it triggers specific reactions in your body. It's the adrenaline rush, it's when something startles you, when something happens to you, and you get scared or you get angry, you're on the football pitch, or you're in a car driving and someone cuts you up, and your brain sends chemicals to your whole body blood pumping to your muscles. It's where the term fight or flight comes from, and your body's reacting, it prepares you to respond.
I think with Jesus, his lower brain reacts. That's like the basic part of your brain, it reacts, it is also where breathing is stimulated. And your most basic functions come from the low brain. He's angry. The template is not as it should have been.
But He not only engages his lower brain engages his upper brain, and that is important that integration happens between these two.
The significance for the temple
For Jesus, the temple has a very special significance. You may know the story of Jesus at the age of 12. We read in Luke 2 that in the temple, it was a place of teaching and instructions of Jesus spent time there reading and talking to people about the scriptures debating its meaning and people.
Here, he hones in on the purpose of the temple as being a place for prayer. He says that it is a house of prayer for all nations not buying and selling goods. And so what Jesus saw of the temple was not fitting with what he really knew his purpose was. So Jesus getting angry and clearing out the temple serves as a symbol, of the need for change and need for reform.
This whole passage is about prayer. And in the simplest form, prayer is His relationship with God. It's communion, its connection with the Father. That's what Jesus understood. That's His practice. And here, people's lack of prayer was concerning Jesus.
Their worship had become a ritual.
The lack of this understanding about this crucial fundamental point, absolutely outraged, Jesus.
Is it wrong to get Angry?
Anger, this funny emotion, is often viewed as a completely negative emotion. But there are times a person can get angry for appropriate reasons. And in the case of Jesus, his anger was the result of ungodly attitudes and actions by those around.
God, the Father often displayed anger in the Old Testament, when people sinned against them. When we see sinful actions taking place when there are injustices around us it should cause righteous, godly anger to rise up in us, and then for us to respond well, so getting angry is okay. And it's needed in some situations.
What's crucial for me in all of this is that when we get angry (a perfectly normal emotion and reaction) is that we respond well.
And to do this, we need to engage both that lower emotion, lower brain and the upper brain, which is that reason, if we don't, if we react and respond out of our lower brain, out of our lower emotional brain, we will react and lash out or be at risk of harming someone with words or actions.
And it's something we all do.
It's a right to get angry. And that emotion is in our wiring and for good.
I heard what someone once say, we can't choose our reaction, but we can choose our response. And that's why Jesus response was good and needed.
How do we respond to Anger?
For me recently, I had I brought three parents in book books, because our response to our five-year-olds tantrums and three-year-olds, tantrums have not been that great.
How are you doing with your anger management?
The whole thing about race has been interesting, isn't it? Because there's been this global reaction, and some have responded better than others. And I've loved that people have responded well.
And if anger management is an issue for you, well, you're in great company. It's something we all grow in.
Going back to this passage, why I love it so much, is that at the heart of Jesus response is his desire for us to know God, fully. You know that is not through sacrifices that we buy our way into God's presence is not through best behaviour. It's the fact that we all have complete access to God, not by our works, but through the work of Jesus.
It is through Jesus' ultimate sacrifice on the cross, taking our place on the cross, that we get full access into God's presence. God's word promises us that all those who come to the Father do so through Jesus. And that is not by our own works, we can't earn our way. It is by God's grace, undeserved favour. Regardless of our sin, Jesus has paid the price and invites us in. And that is the best news I've ever heard.
And what's more, what's even better, is we read later in the New Testament, that it is our bodies, our very selves that are the living temples. Now, what this means is that we don't need to go to a building to pray or be close to God. God has designed it for us to is for our life to be a house of prayer at the end of the day. That's what Jesus is paying the price for that our lives are a place where he can dwell. It means that today we can pray to the God of the universe who knows us and made us for a relationship with Him.