Obstacles to Faith
Sermons for the Sundays in Lent by the Rev. Ken Frese, Pastor of First, Venice, CA
5. An "Angry" God – Luke 20:9-19
Anger is one of our scariest emotions. There probably isn’t a person here this morning who hasn’t said or done something in a moment of anger that wasn’t regretted later. Anger and its expression are universal. Spousal and child abuse, road rage, gang murders, and just plain incivility – all are signs that anger is not far beneath the surface even of "civilized society". That surely is a dangerous situation produced by what is indeed a dangerous emotion.
In his book, The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard, professor of philosophy at the University of Southern California, reports that each year "there are 1,000 murders in the workplace, and a million other people are injured in the workplace by violent attacks from co-workers. Most of the workplace murders occur after long periods of open rage and threats, and many involve multiple murders of innocent bystanders. It is a simple fact that none of the 25,000 murders committed in the United States each year, or only a negligible number of them, would have occurred but for anger that the killers chose to embrace and indulge."
With misgivings about anger so widespread in our society, it’s no wonder that many people don’t know what to make of statements like the following, taken almost at random from the Bible. From Deuteronomy: "I the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and fourth generation of those who reject me." From Psalm 109: "May his days be few; may another seize his position. May his children be orphans, and his wife a widow. May his children wander about and beg; may they be driven out of the ruins they inhabit. . . . May there be no one to do him a kindness, nor anyone to pity his orphaned children." And finally, from the lips of Jesus himself as recorded in Luke’s Gospel: "Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls."
Bible passages like these – reinforced by angry statements and actions on the part of some Christians – lead many spiritual seekers to think that the Christian God is too angry and spiteful to be worthy of our worship and trust. Bertrand Russell, one of the most distinguished philosophers of the 20th century, spoke for many people today when he wrote in his book Why I Am Not a Christian: "God is a cosmic hypocrite who preaches forgiveness, kindness, and love but practices vengeance, cruelty, and torture." If God is supposed to be love, why is there so much anger and harshness in the Bible? Should even we Christians be afraid of his anger? As we look today at Jesus’ Parable of the Wicked Tenants we can learn some meaningful answers to these questions – and some important responses to this obstacle to faith.
It is a fact that for the first time in western civilization (since approximately the 4th century) we live in a Biblically illiterate society. More than ever before, people know only snatches of Scripture. It is easy, then, for them to take isolated Bible passages out of context and misapply them, because they have no knowledge of the context of the passage.
Looking at the context of Jesus’ teaching reveals the interesting and important fact that Jesus’ statements in the Gospels that express anger are always addressed to the leaders of the people! For the average person Jesus had compassion, even for his disciples who always seemed to manage to miss the point and never quite get things right. But for those individuals who knew better and yet were leading the people astray Jesus reserved his harshest words.
The Parable of the Wicked Tenants is certainly one of Jesus’ angriest sounding stories, and the scribes and the chief priests who heard it surely could tell who were the objects of his anger. Luke ends the account by saying: "The teachers of the law and the chief priests looked for a way to arrest him immediately, because they knew he had spoken this parable against them." A little later in the same chapter of Luke, Jesus tells his disciples: "Beware of the scribes. They will receive the greater condemnation."
Jesus was fully aware of the words of the prophet Isaiah, who prophesied about the gentleness and compassion of the Servant of the Lord, the coming Messiah. Isaiah had written about him: "A bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench." But when it was appropriate, that Messiah, our Lord Jesus, could address his anger accurately to those who needed it – calling them to change their lives and repent.
Not only was Jesus’ anger accurately addressed, when he expressed anger it was always appropriately measured. We must remember that Jesus’ strong words in the parable were spoken to individuals who were plotting to kill him! And as if this weren’t outrageous enough, in their determination to be rid of him they would even abuse their responsible positions in Jewish society. They would callously manipulate the law and falsify the truth in order to condemn him to death. Viewed strictly from a human perspective, the scribes and the chief priests committed the worst possible crime – judicial murder of an innocent person. When such an event takes place today, sensible and sensitive people around the world respond with outrage. It should be no less so in the case of Jesus.
In such a situation it is surprising that Jesus’ anger was not more in evidence than it was. No curses or obscenities crossed his lips; he made no attempt to degrade or dehumanize his enemies, as they would later do to him. Instead, as the Lamb of God, he lived up to Isaiah’s description: "He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth." But on this occasion Jesus told a story, in the hope of awakening these false leaders and others who heard him to the dire consequences of their actions. As was true throughout his ministry, it was Jesus’ love and concern for his hearers, rather than his anger, that prompted his pointed parable!
Just a few days after Jesus spoke the Parable of the Wicked Tenants he said from the cross: "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." And then he enabled what he was praying for by experiencing the hellish consequences of the sins of the world in his own person, crying out, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" And finally, his atoning sacrifice completed, he committed his spirit to his heavenly Father, bowed his head, and willingly shared the human experience of death.
The cross of Jesus is the very center of the Christian faith and life. There, once and for all, God’s anger and righteousness were placed at the service of His forgiveness and mercy. His just wrath against sin and evil was fully satisfied by the willing suffering of his Son. And now the wondrous love of a risen Redeemer allows us to say with John, "If anyone sins, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world."
In our experience with other people and in our awareness of what is true within us, we know that anger is probably the most troubling of all our emotions – the hardest emotion for us to control. The philosopher Aristotle said that the wise person is careful to be angry with the right person, to the right degree, at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way. How many people do you know who are that wise? More often Frederick Buechner’s observation in Wishful Thinking, A Theological ABC is the correct one: "Of the seven deadly sins, anger is possibly the most fun. To lick your wounds, to smack your lips over grievances long past, to roll over your tongue the prospect of bitter confrontations still to come, to savor to the last toothsome morsel both the pain you are given and the pain you are giving back; in many ways it is a feast fit for a king."
It’s no mystery why we are wary of any expression of anger in God, since we live with so many distorted expressions of it in our daily lives. But in Jesus Christ we learn that God perfectly fulfills Aristotle’s definition of proper and appropriate anger. And what is more, in Christ we see that God’s anger has been absorbed in his love, because Jesus willingly took upon himself as our Savior all of God’s righteous anger against sin and evil.
A wise Christian of this century wrote: "God cannot love moral evil; he can only hate it. Of its very nature, it stands in complete opposition to God’s essence. It is the counter-image of his holy love. There is no right love without wrath, for wrath is the reverse side of love. God could not truly love the good unless he hated evil and shunned it." (Hans Urs von Balthasar: Mysterium Paschale, pages 138-139 [Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1990]). In other words, God’s holy anger against evil is absolutely necessary as part of his Divine Personality. He is the holy God. He lovingly intends nothing but good for his children. And just as is true of human parents, his love for us demands that he be angry toward whatever or whomever threatens our true safety and well-being.
Unlike most human parents, who are not forced to give their lives for their children, Jesus offered his very life for us, showing us conclusively that God’s love is always greater even than his righteous and perfect anger. The Great Shepherd came into the world to become the innocent Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And, when they believe this Good News and stake their lives on it, the anger of God is removed as the focus of attention in the hearts of those with burdened consciences. Through faith in Christ Jesus we need no longer see ourselves as "sinners in the hands of an angry God," but may continually rejoice that we are children of God – loved forever, forever safe in the pierced hands of the forgiving Son of God.
It’s like the scene that has recurred in movies ever since they first were made. A thoroughly evil man has brutalized people repeatedly, until finally a showdown comes and he is confronted by the hero of the film in hand-to-hand combat. The villain fights dirty and appears to be completely in control, until, through courage and bravery, the hero gains the upper hand and has the villain at his mercy. With one pull of the trigger or slip of the knife the good man can avenge the death, perhaps of his wife – or other evil deeds that his enemy has done. We hold our breath to see what will happen, and we thrill to see the hero drop the gun or the knife. We know that his anger has been absorbed in his goodness. A higher form of justice than mere revenge has been achieved.
And so it is with Jesus Christ. He bore the sins of the whole world. In his righteous death we are given the ultimate assurance that God’s anger is always expressed in the service of his love and mercy. We still may not always be able to understand every passage in the Bible that depicts God’s anger – some of them seem not only inappropriate, but outrageously inappropriate, by today’s standards. But in the context of the cross of Christ we can confidently trust that God’s anger is always accurately addressed and appropriately measured, and that, through Jesus Christ our Savior, it has been absorbed once and for all in his eternal love for us.
Through the Good News of Jesus, God’s anger is no longer an Obstacle to Faith. Instead, God’s anger toward sin and evil serves the purpose of driving us to put our faith in the One whose love has rescued us from sin and hell and brought us into his own kingdom.
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