Week 4 | Surrender: From Anger to Stillness

After the Beatitudes and other introductory comments, Jesus zeroed in on the heart. In a religious culture where outward practice and adherence to the law was paramount, Jesus knew He had to get past the surface to help people live contemplatively – to rest in the gaze of God. In our world today, we also frequently choose to focus on what is outside of us rather than the vulnerability of an open heart. 

Jesus started with anger in Matthew 5. He addressed murder, lust, divorce, lying, and retaliation with a common phrase, “You have heard that it was said … but I say to you.” Jesus went past the outward action, right to the heart. External obedience, saying the right things, and even believing the right things can be protective measures to keep us from our hearts.

For example, in Mark 10:17-22, Jesus honored the wealthy young man for keeping all the commandments, but He wanted his heart. The Gospel says, “And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, ‘You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me’” (v 21). As Jesus lovingly looked at him, He invites the young man to his heart – to a place of surrender. Jesus lovingly challenged him to let go of what his heart was holding onto, which was wealth, and give Himself to God.

The text goes on to describe the man’s response: “Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions” (v 22). How often is this our story? Pause for a moment and consider things that your heart holds on to for dear life.

It is Jesus’ love that implores us to let go – to surrender. He knows that life is experienced in the fullest as we live in the gaze of God. When our hearts hold on to things for control, we’ve turned from His gaze.

In Matthew 5:21-22, Jesus exposed the real issue of control which is anger. We become angry when we cannot control things. This is a primary anger. We can also become angry as a secondary response to protect ourselves from deeper, more vulnerable emotions like grief, shame, and fear. This is about control as well. The reality of anger (either primary or secondary) is in all the other examples Jesus brings up in this part of the Sermon. Rather than seeing murder, lust, divorce, lying, and retaliation as a list of things to stay away from, Jesus referenced them more as “examples” of how we can try to control things. 

Jesus started with anger (or, the issue of control) because it is the first line of defense in our hearts. If we release our anger, our hearts open and we can experience God’s gaze in our shame, fears, griefs and our hurts. In the contemplative path of Jesus, surrender is the first movement.

Jesus taught, “If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift” (Matthew 5:23-24). It was not a new law that Jesus was offering but a pathway to the heart. If there is an issue of anger or control that can reconciled, Jesus invites us to pay attention to our heart. We may come with an outward “gift” for God, but not have an open heart. We may erroneously think that we can shut down our heart in one area and leave it open in other areas. However, Jesus invites us to consider that compartmentalization is an illusion. 

Anger does not always express itself in the stereotypical ways of shouting and fighting. It can also come through more passive aggressive means. The invitation to leave one’s gift at the altar is an invitation to stop – to stillness. From the stillness, we are able to open our hearts to the gaze of God. 

Often, much of what we do in life is engaged as an effort to control outcomes. Anger is a signal to us that something feels out of control. As we experience anger, we are invited to stillness as the psalmist writes in Psalm 46. Against a backdrop of war and chaos, God calls us to “Be still, and know that I am God.I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” Being still opens space for knowing God, and this further invites surrender.

Pause for a few moments of stillness. Once you feel your body, mind, and heart relax into the stillness, recall a time in which you found yourself angry. Hold that scenario before God’s loving gaze. Ask Him if there something you were trying to control or perhaps other emotions you were trying to deny.

Prayer: Lord, help me to enter the stillness of surrender. Still my body, my mind, and my heart. Help me to dwell there. Amen.