Is God angry? What is God angry about? Some say that God is angry at sinners. Then others quickly say, “He hates sin not the sinner.” What does that mean? He doesn’t expect us to stop sinning, right?

Jesus said, “Go and sin no more” to several people.

Does he really believe people can stop sinning. And who started all this sinning anyway? Let’s look at the first two people. What did they do to start this sinning?

They had one rule. One rule! Don’t eat from a particular tree. That seems easy enough, I mean, why would they? But why even have a rule anyway?

It was like an exit sign in the Garden of Eden. There was a conscious choice to be made. The eating of the fruit came with a warning. “Dying you will die.” The other tree that came with a name was the Tree of Life. Self-explanatory, I guess. What attraction did the first tree have? It would give you a knowing of good and evil. We know they ate from it eventually. So, they got the knowing. We still have it. So, Adam said, “Hey! This is great. I feel wise. How about you, Eve?” No. He said, “I feel naked! And it is not a good feeling.” “Yeah, let’s make some coverings,” said Eve.

So God spoils their clothes-making by booming out, “Ha! You did it! Here are some punishments to go on top of your miserable state.” Not at all. He simply asked, “Where are you?” He didn’t accuse them. He gave them a chance to explain but they used it to cast blame elsewhere. But didn’t he curse them? Read it closely. He did not curse them. He did curse the serpent. He did curse the earth in that it would not be so friendly to them now. But would he curse those he had blessed? No, he did not.

He made them clothes to help their uncomfortable condition. Good clothes, better than leaf ones. And the ‘punishments’? They were more like reminders that something was wrong now. So, what was their sin? Eating fruit? No. Choosing their own way to live without God’s good guidance. So ‘to sin’ is to make your own decisions without reference to God, and even to go against his clear direction.

Let’s look at someone Jesus told to “sin no more”. Her sin was clear. It had become a lifestyle with her. But where was she now? She was close to Jesus. Close to Jesus and away from the condemnation being heaped on her. She was near Jesus and forgiveness. She was in that circle of righteousness Jesus always had about him. Outside of it was wrongdoing and hypocrisy. That is when he says to her, “Go and sin no more.” Yes, take your new righteousness with you into the world and don’t trade it for a sinful life again.

Now, if God is so angry with us, why do we see it so rarely in Jesus? He takes time to reason with with those who purposely misunderstand him. Yes, he has no time for those who want to manipulate him and make him conform to their ideas of him. But, he simply leaves them, rejecting their plans for him.

We do see his frustration with his friends. When the ones closest to him who would not accept his words and embrace them in faith, he is abrupt at times. He got angry with Peter for the idea that the Messiah should not suffer? He knows the Messiah must suffer. But he shows great patience as he explains to Martha about her brother, Lazarus, and says, “I AM the resurrection and the life!” Right here. Right now. But when her sister, Mary, comes complaining about his late arrival, he says, “Show me where you have laid him.”

He weeps. Is this an angry person? No. He feels the sadness death brings to people. He understands people who don’t realize that death is not the end. Lazarus must return from bliss to show them he is still the same person. But listen. Now he speaks: “Lazarus, come forth!”

God sees you as you were meant to be. That you and I don’t see that, concerns him greatly. Though his love compels him to act, he does say we need to believe him. His love is freely given and can only be freely received. He says, “Come, follow me.”

The Jewish people had a pretty clear idea of sin. But some were using it to separate people into groups or kinds of people: Good and bad. Sinners and righteous. Our kind and their kind. Jesus didn’t accept the idea that people could not change for the better. His message of good news is that God will forget your past and bring you into his family. He extended this message to all people before he left for heaven.

So, where is all this God anger? We didn’t see it when our first parents went against his good advice. People insist on their own way to happiness. How did he show his love? He put himself into the hands of sinful men. They discredited him. They rejected him. They condemned him. But that was not enough. They demanded his humiliation and brutal death by their hated overlords. A reluctant Roman governor yielded to their threats and he was then given Rome’s worst punishment. This had been carefully crafted to give a slow, painful and humiliating death.

This was his demonstration for all time of what sin did to people. It made them jealous, hateful, vindictive, merciless, and conniving. It turned people against a fellow human without any sense of pity for one so unjustly accused of wrong. He became just one more of so many hundreds of Jews killed by the Romans. They were to be subjugated by force. Who cared if some died undeservedly?

But this righteous man returns. He offers to change people from doing evil from a bad heart to doing good from a new heart. He offers a powerful change for any and all who will believe.

But will you and I embrace that change. We will begin to hate sin, too. We will become aware of the death and destruction that are the results. Will we, like Jesus, delight in the good will of God? Will we trade our heart of uncaring stone for a human one?

We can stand with God. We can love God and love goodness. This is the only cure offered by the Doctor of human souls: Jesus. All others are charlatans and quacks who cannot cure the soul. They offer remedies that never reach the deep part where the change is needed. This change toward God will turn us again toward people with love and hope for them.

Yes, the anger of God will be seen one day. It will be toward those who opposed God and his redemption of men. First, against the adversary of God who is not a human. Those who side with him against God will share his punishment. All lies will be exposed. All motives will be shown. All secrets will be told. And Jesus will be seen as he is in all his glory. He will take his rightful place and continue his work of making us into the image of God.