Jesus explains his command to go and be reconciled in the preceding two verses:, I dehumanize the objects of my anger in three steps : 1) holding onto ordinary anger long enough that, instead of me controlling it, it controls me; 2) telling myself or other people that the object of my bitterness is worthless to me, less human than I am, because of what they did; then 3) showing contempt that tears down another person's humanity directly, by speech and action pointedly directed at them. Then, I am only a step away from murder.
YouTube video link: Why Reconcile Quickly?
Matthew 5:23-24, the command to “go and be reconciled,” begins with the words “if therefore…” the “therefore” shows that Jesus’ reason for giving the command is found in the preceding context. So I must go there to understand the command correctly. The thought that immediately precedes verse 23 is stated in verses 21 and 22:
Jesus immediate concern in these verses is what it takes to keep, or to fulfill, the command of the Decalogue “you shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13 and Deuteronomy 5:17) and the traditions that had developed from Moses’ numerous statements that a murderer should be subject to the judgment of death. It is clear from Jesus’ words that simply refraining from actually physically killing someone I hate is not enough. If I hold onto my anger against that person long enough that it develops into saying bitter things against them and holding them in contempt, that is enough. I have already killed them in my heart by converting them from people for whom I show ordinary care into non-people for whom I show no care. Even Moses, in Leviticus 19:18, commanded his people not to bear a grudge against their neighbor, but each to love their neighbor as themselves. When I let my anger toward one of my neighbors drive out that love, replacing it with open denigration and contempt, I am only a step away from murder. So Jesus here connects the grudge forbidden in Leviticus to committing murder in my heart. They are the same.
And in this passage, Jesus describes the three steps by which anger, if allowed to grow, leads to the contempt which is the same as murder in my heart:
First comes allowing anger to hold onto me. The verb here translated “is angry” is not the active voice form of the verb but its passive or middle voice cousin. The active voice form would imply simply to be aroused to temporary, transitory anger, which I am able to control and properly dispose of. This is a normal part of life which I cannot control, though I can control what I do with the emotion once it is present. However, the passive voice form Jesus uses implies not transitory anger which I am able to control, but anger which passively moves and controls me. Rather than simply being temporarily angry, now I am in a more permanent state of anger that controls me. It is at this point that ordinary anger has become a sin.
Next comes openly, with my words, insulting or denigrating the person with whom I angry. Jesus’ example of this is calling the person rhaka, a common Aramaic insult which meant something like “empty-headed” or “worthless.” I’m still telling the people who hear my insult that the object of my anger is human, but they are less human than I and my respectable hearers. They have not just acted stupidly, they are, by nature, stupid. They have not just done something I consider immoral–most likely to me–they are, by nature, immoral. They have not just hurt me, they are, by nature, harmful, a danger to everyone. There is obviously “something wrong with them.” They not only have no value to me; they have no value at all. They are “worthless”–human, but barely so. They are no longer my “neighbor” whom God commanded me to love.
The last step in this chain is to show my contempt directly to the person who has aroused my anger. Jesus’ example of this is telling the person themselves that they are a mōre–yes, this is the Greek word from which the English word “moron” comes. The usual translation is “you fool,” although the word also carries the connotation “stupid” or “dull” (i.e., moronic). The difference here is that, instead of just telling myself and other people that the object of my anger is unworthy of their humanity, now I am saying this to their face, quite likely as justification for simultaneously doing something else that hurts them. Contempt that tears down another person’s humanity directly, by speech and action pointedly directed at them, is what Jesus identifies as murder in the heart, the last step before the physical act of murder. And it is very common.
If I let transitory anger settle into bitterness–anger that controls me–I have taken the first step in this chain. From there, the natural course leads through the second step and eventually to the third–open contempt, murder in the heart. The farther I let myself go down the chain, the more difficult it becomes to avoid reaching the end of it.
In fact, as later posts will show, once the first step is taken, only God intervening in grace can reverse its progress. So this is a very serious matter
This is why the very next sentence of Matthew 5 commands a believer who knows he has offended a fellow believer to go and be reconciled promptly, before the offended one has had a chance to let angry feelings take control of them and become bitterness. If I love my brother or sister, I will try to reconcile with them promptly when I know I have aroused their anger.
