Isn’t the idea of “holy anger” strange? I mean, how can anger be holy when we consider it sinful? But if we think about it, we know that anger itself can’t be a sin. Read the Bible! More than just once, it describes God getting angry with His people. And since God doesn’t sin, anger can’t–by itself–be a sin.
Does that mean that those of you who feel a twinge of guilt about getting angry can relax? Or can you? For anger can be dangerous. And anger can be an emotion expressed and lived out in the most-sinful of ways.
The apostle Paul chided the Ephesians, “In your anger do not sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger” (Ephesians 4:26). And Jesus also warns us: “Everyone who is angry with his brother will be in danger of judgment” (Matthew 5:22).
“Holy anger” is God’s anger. Not only is God fully justified when He becomes angry, but when His anger turned away, it brings us more than just quiet from the storm. In our Old Testament text, Isaiah shows us that God’s anger finally leads us to praise Him.
How so? The Lord’s anger is never rash or unleashed in a sinful fury. The Psalms tell us: “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love” (Psalm 103:8). And the Old Testament repeats that same thought many times: In Exodus 34:6, Numbers 14:18, Nehemiah 9:17, and even Jonah 4:2.
Yes, God does get angry. But He is slow to become angry and quick to turn it off. “Although you were angry with me, your anger has turned away,” wrote Isaiah. And the Psalmist sang, “Sing praises to the LORD, O you his saints, and praise His holy name. For His anger lasts only a moment, but His favor, a lifetime” (Psalm 30:4-5). And the Psalms further say, “[God] will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever” (Psalm 103:9).
In the Parable of the Prodigal Son, Jesus shows us how different God’s ways are when compared with ours. In the parable, the father had a “right” to be angry, for his younger son had wasted half of his possessions. But what a surprise! The father didn’t become angry; instead, he celebrated the return of his son.
But everything was different with the older son. He bristled with sinful, unholy anger. He burned inside. For he just knew that his younger brother was getting a better deal than he was. He deserved to be angry. He had served his father faithfully for many years and had never wasted anything.
Did you notice how quickly the older son became angry? He refused to celebrate his brother’s return. His anger was so intense that it caused him to forget the blessings that he already had.
Can you not see? Any anger that causes us to forget God’s blessings is a sinful, unholy anger. The father had to remind the older son that he already had blessings heaped on top of blessings. For everything that was the father’s was also the son’s. The older brother had no need to be angry with his younger brother.
Like in the parable, God has the right to be angry with us because of our sins. Our sins deserve judgment. In Isaiah’s day, God’s people, by their unfaithfulness had earned God’s deserved wrath: Assyria’s invasion (Isaiah 8:5-8), God’s abandonment (Isaiah 8:16-22), and their exile into Babylon (Isaiah 39:5-6).
Yet, we see that Isaiah didn’t make excuses for himself. He didn’t make excuses for his people and their well-deserved anger from God. He didn’t rationalize. Isaiah told it like it was: God, “you were angry with me.”
Like Isaiah, we must not make excuses for ourselves. For our sins, which also include our sinful, angry outbursts, also deserve God’s judgment. Think back to a time when you were unjustly angry. Only one example, please–for, if you are like me, you will have many! You may have lashed out. You may have yelled words you later regretted. Yes, we also deserve God’s judgment!
Yet, this is where it gets strange: God’s anger finally leads us to praise Him. How can that be? That’s because God’s holy anger over the sins of the world, over my sins, and over your sins was turned away toward His Son. On the cross, Jesus took in all of God’s holy anger. There, Jesus turned away God’s anger from you and took it all Himself. And when God raised Jesus from the dead through the Holy Spirit, it was His declaration that He was angry no more. That’s why we have an Easter season.
The payment was in full. God’s wrath was satisfied. And, even more, Jesus Christ reunited the whole world to God the Father. Through His death on the cross, Jesus turned away God’s anger. That’s why we now we receive His compassion. What a comfort to know the salvation Christ gained for us. For it is a comfort, not only now, but even into eternity.
This salvation resulted in Isaiah’s song in our Old Testament reading. He no longer feared God’s holy and righteous anger. Isaiah sang confidently. He knew that God’s attitude toward him had changed, from a burning anger to become his strength and his song. That’s why Isaiah could rejoice and sing.
And Isaiah’s song is also our song, my song, and your song. Yes, the LORD has done gloriously. Although He was angry with us because of our sin and rebellion, His anger was turned away in His Son, all so He might comfort us with forgiveness and life. Believe that, and your heart will sing with joy! That’s what you do when you finally realize and trust in the mighty deeds that God has done for you.
In Jesus, we have many praises to sing. Yet, in His dying to save us, have you ever viewed His death as the most-glorious act He ever did? Jesus did! He viewed the cross the way the book of Hebrews describes it: “For the joy that lay before Him, [Jesus] endured the cross, scorning the shame” (Hebrews 12:2).
Would you like a reason to praise God? How about this: Jesus has made your own suffering and dying His own. Yes, Jesus has made your own suffering and dying His own. That means, in the same way that Jesus’ death brought Him to God the Father, so also will your death bring you to God the Father. Now, that’s worth many praises!
But has your singing in Church been halfhearted and lackluster? Have you only been going through the motions? Then ask yourself this: “Have you been focused on the glorious deeds of the Lord, or on something else? Have you let something else take away your God-given joy?” It’s easy for that to happen. Just like in the battles we face, we let the small stuff suck away our God-given joy. It even happens when we gather as God’s people.
Is the melody for a hymn hard to sing? So what! Jesus has saved you! So you still have reason to sing God’s praises.
Did you ever think that sometimes a hymn might be the right hymn for you because it may be hard to sing? For through singing such a hymn, you are being trained to see the joy in the words even, even if for you, the melody gets in your way. You are being trained to see what life is like for one of God’s chosen in this world. For in this fallen world, God calls you to see eternity despite all the chaff that may get in your way.
A plant does not become strong if you only coddle and overwater it. Yes, the plant flourishes when it receives proper nutrition and water, but it also needs to suffer through times when water is not as plentiful. Through the times of less-plentiful water, the roots grow deep and strong. That is how God causes you to grow: He feeds you through Word and Sacrament and, yet, He also calls you to bear your crosses. And through those crosses, by faith, you see eternity all the better as your roots of faith grow deeper and stronger.
Are your problems overwhelming you? Is that opinion or reality? You know that God is still in control. You know that your problems will fade away into oblivion in eternity’s gleaming light. So you still have reason to sing God’s praises.
You have no reason to fear, or to be jealous, resentful, or sinfully angry. For when we gather here as Christ’s Church, it is always a celebration of God’s forgiveness and eternal blessings. It is always an occasion for joy that overcomes anger and fear. The new self within you naturally responds to this restored communion with God, proclaiming His praises for the entire world to hear. Our sturdy hymns of praise, above all, declare the mighty deeds God has done for us though Christ in the Holy Spirit. That’s true praise!
Yet, our praise to God is for more than just what He did, and does, for us. Oh, what God did and does for us is marvelous, indeed! But Isaiah gives us another reason to praise God: “The Holy One of Israel is among us in His greatness.”
This completes the fullness of our joy: Christ is among us! For our joy is more than simply that God is no longer angry with us because of His Son. That’s a halfhearted joy. The joy that becomes full-hearted and full-throated is the joy that also realizes that–here and now–our God, Jesus Christ, is still with us.
And so through the Church’s song, we call the world to share our trust in the Lord Jesus, even when our lives are shaken to the core. We praise God, for we know that this world, which will one day end, is not our true home. Our home is eternal, kept for us in the heavens.
Yes, anger can be holy. And yes, God is angered with us over our sins. And He is holy and righteous to be angered in such a way. Yet, because of Jesus, God’s anger is turned away and is no more. In place of anger, God showers us with His mercy, forgiveness, salvation, and joy. And, even more, Christ is among us as we live through, and deal with, whatever this fallen world may throw our way.
Yes, that’s reason enough to sing! And so we sing that Word, the Word who is even now among us, the Word, Jesus Christ. We sing the Word, so God the Holy Spirit may even plant Him deeper within us. We sing the marvelous deeds God has done–and is doing–because He is still among us, still saving us even to this day!
That’s why the Church of God can’t stop singing. For that is who she is. So “shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion, for the Holy One of Israel is among us in His greatness.” Amen.
