“You Shall Not Murder”
Exodus 20:13
Rev. Clark Lynn Callender, 10/17/10
Someone once said: “Every day, other lives move through our own. Some we recognize, many we never even notice. But often, unbeknownst to us, we affect these lives greatly – in a word, in an action; deciding what their day will bring – sometimes, if they will know a tomorrow.”
This is what I would like to talk about this morning: The lives that move through ours every day.
This morning we arrive at the commandment that most would argue ought to have come first, Number Six on our hit parade - in the old English: “Thou shalt not kill.”
This is generally the commandment most people mention when asked to list the Ten; it is the one that many consider to be the most important; and it is (traditionally) the commandment around which most people decide ultimate GOODNESS OR BADNESS. For example: How do people who see themselves as basically good often describe themselves? They’ll say: “Well, I know I’m not perfect; but... I’ve never killed anybody!”
We set such high standards for ourselves.
Beyond this, this is also the commandment that stands at the center of so many of the most heated ethical debates within our modern culture – and to which many point as validation of their opinions within those debates: Capital punishment, war, pacifism, self defense, euthanasia, abortion, use of deadly force... even animal rights and vegetarianism all circle around this commandment and make appeals to it.
More so than any other commandment, this is the one most people think they best understand. It seems so simple. This is the one we best know what it says and doesn’t say, the one we can best tell if someone has kept or has failed to keep.
But do we really know any of this? Or is this commandment, perhaps, the most complex and confusing of all; and the most demanding and difficult in what it asks of us?
In the original Hebrew, the command is just TWO WORDS (again, in the traditional English translation): “NO KILLING.” Now, that would seem fairly straightforward; what’s the problem, where’s the complexity, the difficulty of application? Well, let’s look ahead in the story, shall we, to say... just the next chapter of the book:
If there’s not supposed to be any killing, why is God then giving all this instruction as to WHEN TO KILL?!
It gets worse... The Israelites, having received the Law at Mount Sinai, eventually leave the wilderness and are given (by God) the land of Canaan, the “Promised Land” – and how are they to acquire it? BY KILLING its present inhabitants:
“No killing”?! Oh, really?! The Bible is filled with killing. What gives here? What does this commandment actually say to us? Three thoughts...
(I)
First this commandment says to us that SOMETIMES THERE IS NO RIGHT ANSWER.
Right off the top, in order to properly understand and apply this commandment, the first thing we need to note is that the traditional word “kill” here is perhaps better translated, in modern English, as “MURDER”: “You shall not murder.” As we know, there tends to be a slight distinction between these two words: All murder is killing but not all killing is murder. And the Hebrew picks up something of this distinction:
The Hebrew word here is RATZACH. It’s a word that’s used about 40 times in the Old Testament, always referring to a human being that is killed. It can be intentional or unintentional; but always there seems to be certain sense of malice aforethought, or callous indifference, involved.
Now we’ll come back to this later; but for the moment I believe it’s interesting to note that in choosing this word, God passes over 9 other Hebrew words that (are used in the Bible to) refer to killing. That is, right off the top, a certain distinction seems to be set up here as if to say that some types of killing are permitted while some are not; leading many scholars to argue that what this commandment actually prohibits is UNAUTHORIZED KILLING. That is, not just killing in general; but killing not “cleared”, not “permitted” - that this commandment could be read: “NO UNAUTHORIZED KILLING.”
Well, if there can be said to be “unauthorized” killing, what must there also be? Authorized killing. This is possibility that this commandment opens up - as witnessed right within the very, seemingly conflicting, scriptural context in which it is found! And we are all already aware of the possibility of such a distinction – for example:
If you shoot someone for no reason, that’s clearly murder; but if they were first coming at you with a knife... That may be self-defense. It’s a question of AUTHORIZATION. It’s like...
Do you remember the action movie “True Lies”? Arnold Schwarzenegger is a spy; but his wife, Jamie Lee Curtis, doesn’t know this. When she finds out, she says to him: “You’re a spy?! Well, have you ever killed anyone?” To which Arnold, like a little boy, replies: “Yes, but they were all bad!”
Authorization! We see this same kind of thing throughout the Bible itself: It’s not that there is no killing by the people of God; it’s just that some of the killings are said to be authorized by God, while others are said to be not authorized by God. All of which, of course, raises the question: What, specifically, is authorized and what is unauthorized?
Unfortunately, the commandment itself doesn’t specify. It doesn’t directly tell us what is permissible and what is impermissible; it doesn’t tell us where we can go to discover such information; it doesn’t tell us that, even finding such a list, whether such rules are universally binding for all time; at best, it hints at intention as having something to do with it – but even this is vague and unclear – a lot of uncertainty present... Yes, this commandment is an “answer” if you will: “No unauthorized killing.” But just as much, if not even more, it is an endless question: “What is unauthorized?” There’s a lot of “gray area” here... and that’s precisely the point!
This commandment is, I believe, deliberately both EXPLICIT and AMBIGUOUS – that is, both FINAL and OPEN-ENDED – AT THE SAME TIME; this in order to draw us into full participation within its reality, namely: The tremendous complexity - and often irresolvable nature – of OUR ROLE within the activity of LIFE AND DEATH! Yes, this commandment provides us with an answer; but just as much, asks us to struggle endlessly with a question – a question for which, in many situations, we can NEVER have PERFECT CLOSURE:
Allied troops in World War II, seeking to liberate a concentration camp, encounter fierce opposition. Use of deadly force – authorized or unauthorized?
An extremely ill person, no chance of recovery, in tremendous pain, slips into a coma, brain stops. Living Will notwithstanding – feed them or don’t feed them? Authorized or unauthorized?
A pregnant woman in labor. Suddenly, due to complications, her life in grave danger. The doctors can save either her or her baby, they can’t save both. What’s authorized, what’s unauthorized?
In these, and in so many other instances where this commandment “touches home”: to STRUGGLE with the QUESTION being the real point! And why? Because it is only in this constant struggle that our attention and trust are focused where they should rightly be: ON GOD ALONE. Any other use of this commandment being an attempt to diminish (if not outright absolve) that focus – see no need for it: “I don’t need God on this. I’ve got this down!”
Remember, the commandment itself does not specifically define all the particulars of what killing is permissible and what is not. And even if it did, we could undoubtedly question and debate it – as we do! For example:
I just read (from the Law of Moses):
Now, even the most fundamentalist of Biblical interpreters today does NOT APPLY this authorization. Let’s face it: If we did apply this, none of us would have ever lived past our teenage years! There’s even some question whether the people of Israel ever applied this themselves or just ignored it!
We don’t “buy” this - times change... authorizations change! And if on this issue, why not others? It doesn’t mean that everything is “up for grabs,” open to the whim of the moment; but only that the WORD OF GOD is a LIVING THING NOT DEAD!
In other words, in many real life circumstances, sometimes the best one can possibly arrive at in applying this commandment is to be UNSURE whether your application is correct of incorrect. And that’s a GOOD thing – it’s the point! Because when you are unsure, you look to God, you lean more on God. You GO TO GOD seeking God’s constant guidance and correction – the only way to keep yourself on the right path! But if you think you’re SURE? Well then, who needs God!
Consider the way most people attempt to apply this commandment amidst the heated debates of our day: Sure thing; or profound, endless, ultimately irresolvable struggle of faith? Which is really closer to God – despite the claims?
And remember, the only thing we’re talking about here is AUTHORIZATION; NOT necessarily RIGHT OR WRONG. This commandment says that unauthorized killing is wrong; but (contrary to popular belief) it does not then follow that AUTHORIZED killing is RIGHT! Authorization, even God’s, is simply the granting of PERMISSION; it is NOT MORAL “CARTE BLANCHE”!
As a society, for example, we AUTHORIZE our military to wage WAR. But does that mean that, even against the most evil of enemies, war is ever a GOOD THING?
NO! All killing is wrong! It’s just that, as this commandment implies: in a fallen world, sometimes it will be authorized. That doesn’t make it right; it simply makes it permissible – forever wrong, yet due to whatever uniquely painful circumstances, needful and necessary. Authorization is not absolution – and we are in serious trouble whenever we BLUR the two! Yet this is exactly what so many try to do every day, on all sides of many troubling issues: to dismiss any personal responsibility or sin! It misses the point!
Being a real, full, human being, created “in the image of God” means having to live, in a sinful world, something like God does: Frequently finding that what must happen is not what should happen. It’s called life. And then having to forever live (as God does) with the irresolvable pain of that “must happen but should not happen” event. And in this, then finding the even greater truth: that one finally stands (or falls) solely by the grace of God – a grace that can redeem even the worst of falling. The struggle is the thing!
To put it another way: The first thing this commandment tells us, by its very setting: a prohibition against killing set within the context of permitted killing - is that, at times, we will encounter situations where there will be NO RIGHT ANSWER. No matter what path we choose, there will be pain and loss of life. Both ways are wrong - each situation and its decision being different for each individual. The issue being: Do I seek simply to absolve myself of any responsibility for my decision; or, better, to endlessly wrestle with it that I might be changed – grow closer to God through the struggle. To change who I am because of it – and from this, change the world so that this struggle might not exist for others!
One author shares the following story about a U.S. triage facility doing its best to save the lives of two Iraqi insurgents:
“The U.S. medical team moved heaven and earth to save their lives. One insurgent, however, was not going to survive unless he got 30 pints of blood... The call went out for volunteer donors; minutes later, dozens of GIs put down their weapons and lined up. At the head of the line was a battle-hardened soldier. Asked if it mattered that his blood was going to an insurgent, he smiled and said no — ‘A human life is a human life.’”
Living in the core of the struggle; and seeking to have something change because of it. SOMETIMES THERE IS NO RIGHT ANSWER. Which leads us into our second thought here:
(II)
MURDER BEGINS IN THE HEART.
As mentioned, the word “murder” here refers to a killing, intentional or unintentional, that entails a certain callous disregard for another individual – or, what we might term nowadays: DEPRAVED INDIFFERENCE. Basically, the person takes the life of another because, to them, that other person’s life, for whatever reason, DOESN’T MATTER – whether this is due to anger, or hatred, or prejudice, or selfishness, or simple apathy. That is, the text seems to be not only getting at the act itself but the INTENTION that drives it – what is going on IN THE HEART. And in this regard, our Savior’s teachings on the matter are completely consistent. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addresses this commandment, and he says:
Notice how Jesus focuses on what is going on WITHIN A PERSON’S HEART. And from this, note the points he makes:
First, that murder is NOT LIMITED TO PHYSICAL DEATH.
You know, I was once in the supermarket and I saw a little boy act up a bit, with which his mother proceeded to ream him out something awful, eventually saying: “You make me so angry, I wish you had never been born!”
We’ve all witnessed scenes like this, haven’t we? She never laid a hand on him, but let me tell you: If you could have seen his face. This was obviously nothing new. She was killing him, a little more every day, sure as anything!
It is exactly to this type of thing that the ancient prophets extended the meaning of this commandment. They understood that anything that cut at the root of someone’s life to be murder plain and simple, anything that supported or encouraged the downfall of life rather than built it up. A failure to help the poor, a refusal to fight for the rights of the oppressed – both were as good as murder.
Likewise, Jesus says that even anger and hatred and insult and indifference can kill! And this, of course, points things back directly at ourselves in our daily lives. This is the one commandment that many believe they have best kept; but is this, perhaps, the one we LEAST keep?
That word of whispered gossip that cuts at the reputation of another; that snide comment that breaks the legs out from under another’s self esteem; that critical word that crushes another’s hope; that disbelieving facial expression that laughs at another’s dreams; that unchallenged bigotry that considers some group of people as sub-human; that callous indifference that says to those in greatest need, “Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps;” the recent cyber-bullying that resulted in teen suicides.
There are a lot of ways to kill! But, even more, Jesus makes the point that the issue that one really has to look at is: WHAT IS GOING WITHIN YOUR HEART? This is what gives rise to murder (in all its forms) and this is what you have to fight – because it takes you down that deadly road!
You know, I remember once hearing the story of a little girl who came forward during a revival meeting and told the pastor she needed to be saved. After church the mother went up to the daughter and said, “Why did you go forward?” She said, “Mother, I needed to be saved from my sin.” The mother said, “Honey, you’re a good girl. You read your Bible. You go to church. You never give me any trouble. How can you say that you need to be saved? You’re too good to need to be saved.” The little girl looked at her mother and said, “Mother, you can’t see my heart.”
She knew that, to really get right, she had to address what was in her heart. This is the second key point here: What is going on in our hearts? We murder – we participate in it, allow it, enact it; whenever we fail to address the “depraved indifference” that so often takes over our hearts. Whenever we permit anger or resentment to fester within us unchecked; whenever we willfully turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the lives crushed far across the world to support our opulence – not wanting our lifestyle disrupted; whenever we say “Amen” to our government sending agents around the world to assassinate our enemies not bring them to justice; whenever our nation undertakes a war that we personally feel is wrong and we never speak up against it! We have to combat this or it will consume and destroy us!
We, who are Christians, should know this best for our entire faith is based upon a MURDER: the killing of our Savior. And as one author reflects: “God was executed by people painfully like us, in a society very similar to our own... by a corrupt church, a timid politician, and a fickle proletariat led by professional agitators.” Sound familiar? People who wouldn’t confront the wrong in their hearts; but who, instead, sought only the voices of those who fueled their fear and hatred! How do we need to fight this within ourselves? Consider the following:
In the fall of 2002, Georgia native, Rick Garmon’s daughter, Katie, became a victim of date rape. She was 18-years-old at the time and a freshman in college. Too humiliated to speak about what had happened — even with her family — Katie switched schools and attempted to move on with her life.
However, the scars of that traumatic event began to fester. Over the next 14 months, she withdrew from her family and friends. She developed an eating disorder and began losing weight. Finally confronted by her mother, Julie, Katie confessed the truth. Fortunately, after a year of fervent prayer and support, Katie was able to overcome the pain and return to a normal life.
Unfortunately, Katie was not the only one struggling with inner-demons during that year. Her father was fighting his own battle against the desire for revenge. In fact, as soon as he heard the news, Rick Garmon developed a plan to kill the man who had so deeply wounded his daughter. In his book, My Secret Hate, he writes:
“I pulled back from Julie and everybody else. Get up, go to work, think about the plan, try to forget, go home, try to go to sleep, dream the plan. I plotted to drive through the campus and use my Smith and Wesson bolt-action rifle. I’d sit in the parking lot as long as necessary until he walked by. Then I could get it out of my head, and Katie could start eating again.
“Katie came home for the weekend two months after the truth came out. It tore me up to see her. She and I didn’t talk much anymore. I missed watching the Atlanta Braves with her. I missed laughing with her. I just plain missed her.
“Julie tried to tempt her with a great meal on Saturday. Sitting across from Katie, I kept my eyes on my food. It felt as though we lived in a funeral home. The only sounds were clanking of silverware and the clinking of ice. I couldn’t take the phoniness. I slammed my chair to the table and took off to my room in the basement. I’d spent a lot of time down there in my room of guns and the sports channel. Methodically, I started cleaning the rifle I’d use.
“Then I heard [my son] Thomas trotting downstairs. ‘Whatcha doing, Dad?’ (he asked). I kept on cleaning and never looked at him. I rocked in my recliner with the gun across my lap. ‘Can I help you clean?’ I didn’t say a word. ‘You going hunting?’ I looked up at him, his eyes so brown they looked almost black, just like mine. He stood inches from my knees...
“Our eyes met. Thomas’s eyes brimmed with tears. He knows. Dear, God. I think my son knows my plan. I stopped polishing the gun and laid it on the floor by the chair. ‘Come here, boy. Give your daddy a hug.’ He wrapped his arms around me tight as a cobra. Thomas’s love was somehow stronger than my hatred. His hug began to crumble my rage like a sledgehammer breaking a wall. Chip by chip.
“Locking the gun in the cabinet, I made a choice to forgive. Lord, I gotta let go of this hate. It’s killing me. The decision started in my head, not from any feeling. Swallowing back tears, Thomas and I walked upstairs together, my arm on his shoulder. I came so close.”
MURDER BEGINS IN THE HEART. All of which brings us to our third and final point...
(III)
LIVES ARE ENTRUSTED TO US.
In the end, the question this commandment raises that some may ask is: “WHY? Why does it matter if I take another’s life – particularly if they’re doing wrong?”
The answer: Because all life belongs to God, it’s sacred. An attack on a person being, in effect, an attack against God. Think of it as a parent: If anyone hurt your child, what would it do to you?
In effect, built upon our commandment last week that dealt with family, this commandment broadens that idea out. It is based upon the premise that WE ARE ALL FAMILY, ALL GOD’S CHILDREN. We are inseparably INTERCONNECTED; and thus an attack against one is an attack against all.
And from this, basically, the final point here is that, as family, everyday lives come to us, LIVES ARE ENTRUSTED TO US – family members - and what we make of them ultimately makes our own lives, makes the “family” we know every day. To put it another way: This commandment is stated negatively: “No murdering.” But what is the POSITIVE restatement of this? “NURTURE LIFE!” This is what it ultimately comes down to: Not just avoiding the negative; but pursuing the positive! And how do we do this? Two closing thoughts:
First, as with God, SEE EVERY LIFE AS SACRED. Remember that even the most messed up life, the most annoying, most sinful, most broken, is holy – beloved of God. Strive to see all this way: the Godly. Look for the good in others.
Do you remember the story of the two evil brothers? There once were these two brothers – Jim and Tom. They were the richest men in town and they controlled much of the town, and they were just plain rotten people. They were vicious in their business practices, corrupt, cruel. They stole, cheated, drove people to ruin. They seemed to just like to go out of their way to hurt people. They were terrible individuals.
Well, one day, Jim died and his brother Tom went to the local pastor to ask him to perform the funeral. The pastor agreed, but then Tom made one stipulation, he said, “Pastor, I want you to perform the funeral, but at the service I want you to say good things about my brother. In fact, I want you to say that my brother was a SAINT.”
The pastor couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He replied, “You’ve got to be kidding! There’s no way I can say that your brother was a saint!” Tom continued, “Well, listen pastor, I’ll make you a deal. If, at the funeral, you say that my brother was a saint, then I’ll give the church 10 million dollars.”
Again the pastor couldn’t believe what he was hearing, he couldn’t believe the incredible gall of Tom. I mean, he had seen the brothers do some terrible things in their day, but this was the worst: Trying to bribe a man of God in the house of the Lord to betray the truth?! To say his brother was a saint?! It was outrageous! However, as the pastor also knew, his little church could really use the money! He was in a quandary. He couldn’t possibly tell a lie, but he also desperately needed the cash. What was he to do? He wrestled with this constantly in the days leading up to the service.
Well, finally, the day of the funeral arrived, and as the pastor entered the sanctuary still struggling with this, as he walked up to the pulpit, he looked down at the casket containing Jim’s body, and then saw Tom sitting in the front pew; and suddenly an inspiration came upon him. He began his eulogy:
“Brothers and sister, today we have gathered here to pay our last respects to Jim. As all of you know, Jim was a most evil and wicked person. He was corrupt in business and mean to his neighbor. He lied, cheated, and stole. He never did a kind thing for anyone and he never had a good word to say. He was a terrible individual. But know this: No matter how evil and rotten and wicked he was; one thing is for sure... compared to his brother, he was a SAINT!”
Tom was forced to pay up! There’s always something good – sometimes it just takes some real digging, real creativity, to find it! Sometimes it’s tough, but see every life as sacred. And then, finally, ACT ON THAT. Realize with every life you come in contact with that they have been entrusted to you for a time: How can I give life not take it? How can I nurture the sacredness of this life not callously disregard and neglect and abuse and destroy it? Encourage, praise, hope, lift, give... Christian author Skye Jethani writes:
“Ghassan Thomas leads one of the few public churches that emerged [in Baghdad] after Saddam Hussein was toppled. His congregation erected a sign on their building that said ‘Jesus Is the Light of the World,’ but the church was raided by bandits who left behind a threat on a piece of cardboard. It read: Jesus is not the light of the world, Allah is, and you have been warned.’ The note was signed ‘The Islamic Shiite Party.’
“In response, Pastor Ghassan loaded a van with children's gifts and medical supplies — which were in critically short supply following the American invasion — and drove to the headquarters of the Islamic Shiite Party. After presenting the gifts and supplies to the sheikh, Ghassan told the leader, ‘Christians have love for you, because our God is a God of love.’ He then asked permission to read from the Bible. Ghassan turned to Jesus’ words in John 8, ‘I am the light of the world.’ He then showed the cardboard note to the sheikh. The Muslim leaders, astounded by Pastor Thomas’s actions, apologized profusely.
“’This will not happen again,’ [the sheikh] vowed. ‘You are my brother. If anyone comes to kill you, it will be my neck first.’ The sheikh later attended Pastor Thomas’s ordination service at the church.”
Pastor Thomas saw not enemies but lives worth saving – sacred – and acted on that; and life came to him... family!
The sixth commandment, a most difficult command reminding us that we are caught up together in life and death: Sometimes there is no right answer. Murder begins in the heart. And lives are entrusted to us. How are we doing with that?
“You shall not murder.”
No comments:
Post a Comment