Proverbs 25

Proverbs 25:28 "Like a city whose walls are broken down is a man who lacks self-control."

The tail end of the fruit of the Spirit, self-control is also one of the most difficult virtues to obtain. In the face of emotional responses and knee-jerk reactions, self-control is rarely modeled in our world.

Recently, I saw a news report on cyber-bullying and "trolling," the act in which people intentionally try to provoke one another on the internet by posting disgraceful and disgusting things on blogs, facebook sites and other places. They do so to get a reaction, but it has also been a venting strategy for people who are angry at something. And I look at the lack of self-control in our society, from "trolls" and "cyber-bullies" to fringe groups claiming Scripture as a basis to plan paranoid attacks on law enforcement personnel, and think that the image in this verse is perfect- a city without protective walls. When we lack self-control, anything can get in. We become purely anxious creatures, always reacting.

So in the face of extreme emotional reactivity in our society today, what does Jesus look like as He faced the cross? He doesn't look reactive at all. As Isaiah 53 says about Him, "He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth." That looks nothing like the venomous speech seen today in the face of imagined persecution and oppression. Meanwhile, what does this anger produce? Transformation? Christlikeness? Or profits for talking heads, across the political spectrum, who encourage such wrath? Perhaps we have been deceived, and have spent too little time at the foot of the cross.

It's Thursday of Holy Week, called Maundy Thursday. Jesus spent time with His disciples celebrating the Passover meal, which would eventually become the Lord's Supper. After this beautiful expression of Christ's love, the disciples miss the point and fall into bickering and emotional reactivity about who is the greatest (Luke 22:1-30). Can we get the point this year? Can we see that self-control is not about just "playing nice" but radical faith that God is sovereign over all things? I pray that's true.