Anger

“In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. (Ephesians 4:26-27)

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, (Mark 11:15)

           Part of me wants to cheer. Christians are allowed to be angry. Contrary to the opinions of some, Jesus got angry. I’ve been told that anger serves a vital function in our lives. It tells us that something is wrong. Today’s passage doesn’t address questions of how to determine what is actually wrong. Instead, the focus is on dealing with the situation. Whatever the problem is, deal with it. Do so immediately and effectively, before “sunset,” or whatever your preferred end-of-day is. The point is to deal with it before you are left unable to do anything but stew on it for hours. Stewing time seems to be when the devil gets a foothold.

          Stewing is a time when two things happen. First, whatever is being stewed is kept in a liquid. Secondly, the heat is kept on. The idea is to make the meat and vegetables placed in the liquid tender, but if the heat is kept too high for too long, the food gets burned. The same happens when anger is allowed to stew too long, only it’s people who get burned.

          For me, one of the keys is to try to keep disagreements about the subject, and not the person. Another key is to try to keep discussions about disagreements from continuing too long, especially into an evening. I need time to detach from the discussion before bed or I do end up focusing on that instead of sleeping.

          There’s something else to think about here. While Paul was writing to Gentiles, think for a moment about the Jewish perspective of a day. It begins at sundown. So, while we think in terms of not ending the day in anger, there is also the consideration of not beginning your day in anger.