Whips, Wild Animals, and Green Thugs

I was reading in Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis today, when I read something that got me thinking: “Strictly speaking, there are no such things as good and bad impulses.  Think once again of a piano.  It has not got two kinds of notes on it, the ‘right ones’ and the ‘wrong ones.’  Every single note is right at one time and wrong at another.  The Moral Law is not any one instinct or set of instincts: it is something which makes a kind of tune (the tune we call goodness or right conduct) by directing the instincts.” 

This connects well with something I once heard from someone much wiser than I: all sin is a perversion of something created by God for good.  Sexual sin is a perversion of sex, which created for the marriage relationship, which He calls “good.”  Sins of the tongue such as lying, slander, and filthy speech are perversions of speech, which God gave us so we could worship Him and build each other up.  Satan is not very creative.  That fact relates just as much to emotion and impulse as it does to speech and sex, which brings me to the point of this article: anger.

Anger is an interesting thing.  When you become angry, your body temperature rises, you clench your fists, and find it necessary to breathe heavier than  normal.  Anger can lead you to believe you have suddenly become The Hulk, or to become convinced that your sweet little sister is actually Satan incarnate.  Now, reread the last sentence.  Anger sounds like a pretty bad thing, right?  However, like all emotions, anger was given to us for a reason.

Jesus is very patient.  Most of us would become furious realizing that one of our closest friends had betrayed us or being crucified for a crime that we didn’t commit.  Not Jesus.  He did, however, become angry.  Twice in His life here on Earth, in John 2 and in Matthew 21, he drives vendors out of the temple, overturning tables, driving out the animals, and even making an impromptu whip for a little extra “encouragement.”  I’ve done some things out of anger, but I’ve never made a whip on the spot.  So why then?  Why did Jesus become angry then but not the other times?  The answer is very humbling.  Let’s compare this event to the betrayal of Judas.  Why was Jesus angry about the misuse of the temple, but not about the betrayal of Judas?  The answer is in who the focus is on.  Jesus was angry about the misuse of the temple because it showed blatant disregard for God.  The betrayal of Judas was against Jesus, not God.  In other words, He became angry over disregard for God, not when His rights were violated.

We often have the wrong focus when it comes to anger.  We think “I have a right to be angry because my rights have been violated, so I am going to take every step legally permissible in order to right the wrong.”  Anger is not inherently wrong.  It should be used when we see people blatantly disregarding our Father.  Otherwise, we have become self-focused and selfish.  Let’s take a step back and see who it is we really care about pleasing: God or us?