(c) In the answer of Jesus to the Sadducees in Ml- I'T'^ff- we have another light on ^^ hat mo e 1 Him to in ii^nation In tl e scornful iroXv wXavaade with vhicl the discussion closes re umin_ the
Tr\ava<x6e of The q le t
Je us lesentment si ines out 10 that of mans immoitality n luestion It involved the t d— v\hat He was an I v\ hat odness and His faithfulnes I lo foi the soul He had made
* In Mt 1 W e u n adopts the i
ead ng , „
T M nstead
of . -zfo, „ Th s mak s th Je d
le Je
s nstead of
ser ouslv answer ng H a IWeha
t k
t so fin Is
n the vords wh h fol o v— The p hi
1 1
nto the k ngdon of C o 1 befo e the para Ic but a 7o os A
coud h ri e r I o i
th^ luf) J 11 1 ' 1
tree n a on e ar ht nf t
a nam ng (see b a i i-t y p \)
in His own image. The Sadducees had tried to degrade it and make it ridiiuldiis, and the indigna- tion of Jesus is uniiii^t.ik.il.l.'. It is an examj^le which justifies indi.nniilicjii wiili those who by unworthy controversial metliuds profane or render ridiculous subjects in which the dearest concern- ments of humanity are involved.
(d) To these passages may be added Jesus' de- nunciation of the Pharisees in .Mt '2:?""^-. Tlie long series of woes is not merely a revelation uf lliin-" which in the mind of .lesus are ill('.i;i( incite, ii is n, revelation of the passionate reseiiliiiciU. whirh these things evoke in Him. They are the things with which God is angry every day, and it is a sin in men if they can look at them without indigna- tion. To keep people ignorant of religious truth, neither living by it (nu>'-I\(s, nor Irilin" them do
so (V.'S); to make |,i,-|y .., Ihe ,„vle„re of it a
cloak for avarice (\'.", only inl i o.lurol liere from II Mark) ; to raise recruil- loi- .,uro\Mi taction on the pretext of enlisting men lor the kingdom of God (v.">) ; to debauch the simple conscience by casuistical sophistries (vv. "*---) ; to destroy the sense of proportion in morals liy making morality a matter of law in wliiili .ill tlmms sl.uid on Ih'e same level (v.-''-) ; to |.iit :i|i|ir;n;iiire .■ili(,\-e ri..'dily, and reduce life to a, play. ;il oner Ir.iue.ly .-ii'lcI farce (vv.==-=8) ; to revive {lie spirit and renew tlie sins of the past, while we alleet a pious horror of them, crucifying the living prophets while we build monuments to the martyred (v. '-""■) : these are the things which made a storm of anger sweep over the soul of Jesus, and burst in this tremendous denunciation of His enemies. Yet it is entirely in keeping with the combination of ideas in Mk 3' (/ier' opyqi . . . c!vvKvKoi}t.<Lvo%) when the Evangelist attaches to this our Lord's lament over Jerusalem (y 3Tir._ cf. Lk 13'^'). His .anger does not extin- guish His compassion, and if the city could be moved to repentance He would still gather her children together as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings.
Putting the whole of the passages together, and generalizing from them, we may infer that the two things in human conduct whirh moved Jesus most quickly and deeply to anger, were; (1) inhumanity, wrong done to the needs or rights of men ; and (2) misrepresentation ot (lo.l 1j\ imiiessedly religious people, and especially l.y n li lous teachers. He stood in the world for the nulii ^ .iiid interests, or, we may say, for the truth ul Guil and of human nature ; and His whole being reacted immediately and vehemently against all that did wrong to either.
3. Something may further he learned from thr passacjcs inivldch Jesus girr..- ,•./,,■,,,■ /r,ir/iiii:/ ,./»;/// anger.— (a) The chief of tin- .■ i. Mi .,-''. Here our Lord interprets the sixth ronini.indiiieiit tor the citizens of the kingdom of God. It is not only_ the act of murder which is condemned, but the first movement of the passions which leads in tiat Ihe f H I I I 1 lall le lial I
to tie J 1 t T t II 1
an^ry villi 1 M I 1 1 1
nient 111 I
1 no lo il t 1 11 I
of it IS 1 itl a I II I
blunlei As n I 1 I I
1 lea tl at theie ill II
■noul 1 only \ tal er tl I | II
u\ on s 1 I an ei a i I I tl i
cl e ai 1 oti ei Itl I 1 In sail
un ler (1) a 1 ( ) it I 1 I i lovel
tl t the p 1 XI lace fo i „ i tl ( 1 t an m
I II I ich \ e li\ e ^\ I at Jts is condemns
biothei s luty to him the ange
AXGEE
which leads straight to contemptuous and insult- ing words (the po\d and ixapi of v.'~), and ends in irreconcilable bitterness (v.-*'-). Anger like this on the iiart of one Christian toward another is sin, and sin so deadly that no words coiiid exaggerate the urgency of escape from it. No religious duty, not even the most sacred, can take precedence of the duty of reconciliation. If a man should be offering his gift at the altar— if he should actually be seated at the cnmmunion table with the com- munion ciiii in Ills hand, let him put it down, and go first, and get out of these angry relations with his brother, and then come and have fellowship with God (v.^'). How can an angry man, with the temper of a quarrel in him, have communion with the God of peace ? It is possible to raise casuistical questions in all ^uc li situations as are here supposed, butastho ■.jui >Uo;i, juesent them- selves only to the speetat.a>, n.it t^i the respon- sible actoi-s, it is not worth v bile to raise them. The one duty insisted on here, as in the partly parallel passage in Mt 18'=-'*, is the duty of placa- bilitjr. The person who has suffered the wrong — that is, who is in the right, who is entitled to be angry — is for that very reason to take the initiative in reconciliation, and to bear the expense of it. That is how God deals with us, who have offended Him, and that is how we are to deal with those who offend us. There is to be no an^er in tlie sense of a selfish resentment into which the bad passions of unregenerate human nature can pour themselves; and the lawful anger of the soul, whose wrong is a WTong done to the kingdom of God, will pass away at once when he who has done the wrong is brought to repentance. The penitence and the resentment are the guilty and the innocent index of the reality of the wrong ; and each is as inevitable as the other if the Chris- tian life is to be morally sincere.