Now a brief summary of what we’ve seen in the two passages about wrath in the Synoptic Gospels … and we’ll get to John 3:36 when we get to the apostle John. When we get there, we may have to amend what we say today … we’ll have to wait on that one.
1. The word “wrath” is found only twice in the Synoptics (Matt 3:7; Luke 21:23).
2. The word is expressed once by John the Baptist and once by Jesus.
3. When Jesus uses the word, it is apocalyptic and it is historical wrath: it refers to the act of God in judgment on Jerusalem because of the corruptness of its leaders. Historical wrath is a national rhetoric; the stuff of a newspaper-like broadside.
5. When Jesus does “evangelize” individual persons — take a good look at Matthew 8–9 and then Matthew 10 — wrath is not the language Jesus uses. Wrath is how Jesus talks to the leaders of Israel and to Israel as a nation of what may befall the nation if it does not change its ways.
6. Jesus does not motivate those who chose [check out, eg., Matt 4:16-20; 8:18-22; Luke 5:1-11 etc] to follow him [disciples] by the threat of God’s wrath.
7. But, the threat of judgment is never far from Jesus’ evangelistic message — and one can see this at the end of the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 7:13-27).
We could say that Jesus predicted judgment on his opponents and those who chose not to follow him. Is this the same as “evangelistic wrath” in your judgment?