A Sunday school teacher was discussing the Ten Commandments with her five and six year olds. After explaining the commandment to "honour thy father and thy mother," she asked, "Is there a commandment that teaches us how to treat our brothers and sisters?" Without missing a beat, one little boy (the eldest child of a family) answered, "Thou shall not kill." Having grown up the baby of the family, I’m sure that my older sister would have to agree with the little fellow.
We started this series on the Ten Commandments early in January and I hope you remember how the first four commandments dealt with our relationship with God. They were vertical commands, and now they have become horizontal commands in that they deal with our relationships with one another. You might remember the first commandment was to not replace God, the second command was to not reduce God, the third was to not belittle God, and the fourth was to honour God by celebrating the Sabbath. But then we got to commandment number five and it took a different direction, it’s as if God was saying, “now that you’ve got our relationship straight let’s work on your relationship with others”. And so we went from the vertical to the horizontal. And so at that point we went on to discuss honouring our parents which is the fifth commandment.
So here we are at number six, a commandment which most of us, I’m sure, figure that we are pretty safe on. It says: Exodus 20:13 Do not murder. I’m aware that most of us grew up hearing the commandment as “Thou shalt not kill” but it’s a little narrower then that. First, regardless of what International Vegetarian Union says this commandment had nothing to do with animals, it not talking about us swearing off meat and becoming vegetarians; did I hear a collective sigh of relief? This commandment was dealing exclusively with people, with human beings. Nor was it given in relation to war, or to self-defence.
Without trying to get into a deep study of the original language the Hebrew word used here is jx’r; raÆtsach raw-tsakh. And it refers to the intentional and conscious act of taking the life of another. It is deliberate and calculated.
And so the first thing we need to look at this morning is Physical Murder. In its purest sense this commandment relates to:
· Murder, taking the life of another
When we lived in Truro murder was not something you thought about, if you did it was in relation to what had happened in the city. During our five years in Truro I can’t remember one single pre-meditated murder happening. Maybe there was but I don’t remember them. And then we moved to Brisbane, a city of 1.7 million people. It seemed that every other day someone was killing somebody else. Two weeks after we arrived a murderer was arrested less then a kilometre from our house, Angela wanted to move home. Outside of the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the country.
--Mayor Marion Barry, Washington, DC
And so we begin with this prohibition of physical murder and from that I believe by implication it also deals with
· Abortion, taking the life of the pre-born
· Infanticide, taking the life of the newly born
· Euthanasia, taking the life of the elderly or infirm
· Genocide, taking the life of a group of people
· Suicide, taking your own life
As I said earlier the original meaning of the word did not reflect acts of war or self-defence and so we are not going there this morning. The questions are ageless as are the answers so it is something that you will have to settle in your on heart, between you and God. No one else can settle it for you and they aren’t easy questions, and they don’t have easy answers.
Some people would even say that this commandment doesn’t apply to capital punishment. At one time I’d say that I agreed with that statement and I was a fairly vocal supporter of capital punishment, however over the past number of years I’ve changed my mind. In our country we don’t have to look farther then Donald Marshall or David Milegard to see instance where someone has been convicted of murder and then later it was discovered they were innocent of that crime. To quote US author Anne Smedley “There’s something dreadfully decisive about a beheading.”
Even though the Old Testament clearly stands in favour of capital punishment there were several safe guards that were put in place to assure that the wrong person was not executed. The most obvious of course was that a person could not be convicted of a capital crime without the testimony of two eyewitnesses.
One of the arguments used in favour of Capital punishment is that the recognized authorities carry it out, and therefore in a democratic society, they have a mandate from the people and so it is legitimate. May I remind you that Hitler came to power through the democratic process, and the support of the people kept him in power? But to say that what the Nazis’ did to Jews, gypsies, homosexuals and whomever else they deemed inferior was right, that would be outrageous.
But enough of that. Why is there a prohibition against physical murder in the Ten Commandments? It has to go beyond what Oscar Wilde said “Murder is always a mistake. One should never do anything that one cannot talk about after dinner.”
Two reasons, the first is We Are Taking Authority That Doesn’t Belong To Us. It is God who is supposed to decree how long a person will live. In 1 Samuel 2:6 we read The Lord brings both death and life; he brings some down to the grave but raises others up.
No one has the right to number a persons day, whether is in the very first months of life as was depicted in the drama. And by the way you don’t have to look very far into pre-natal development to discover for your self that what is growing in a mother’s womb is a lot more then foetal tissue, it is a life. And I also realize that as time passes that there becomes a greater and greater chance that there will be someone sitting in front of me when I make statement like that about abortion. And I truly believe that abortion is wrong, and I truly believe that it ends an innocent life. But the preborn child isn’t the only victim often the mother is a victim too. Let me reiterate that abortion is not the unforgivable sin, but I would be amiss in my duty if I didn’t tell it you that it is a sin, and you need to ask forgiveness for it.
Nor do we have the right to determine at what point the elderly or the infirm should die. That is the providence of God, and God alone. And I realize that this is a touchy subject but active euthanasia, however noble the motive, cannot be condoned, even if it is intended solely for the purpose of ending the persons suffering. It is not our right. The simple fact is that it is not up to us to play God by deciding when somebody’s’ time is up. Active euthanasia is when steps are taken to end a person’s life another term for it is Physician assisted suicide. By the way I saw a bumper sticker in Florida that said “Dr. Kevorkian can fit you in next Tuesday at ten”
And while active euthanasia is considered murder, the use of passive euthanasia is less clear. And again you will have to decide for yourself on this one, but personally I consider discontinuing medical procedures that are burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary or disproportionate to the expected outcome to be legitimate. And I have made my views and my wishes known to my family.
In Truro I had a woman from my congregation approach me concerning her mother. The mom was quite elderly, probably in her 50’s just kidding. She was in her late eighties and had had several major strokes and could do nothing for herself, she was comatose in a vegetative state. The doctors had approached my friend and her two sisters and told them that at this point the only thing that was keeping her mother alive was science. That she would only survive if a feeding tube was placed down her throat. It would keep her alive but she would never recover. The question they asked me is “What should we do?” Man I was 26 years old, what did I know. And so with all the grace I could muster I responded, “If you are looking for my permission to allow your mother to die I can’t give it to you, but I hope if I’m ever in that situation that my family will won’t keep me alive in those circumstances.” That night their mother died in her sleep and they didn’t have to make the decision but it doesn’t always end that easily.
When someone ends the life of another or of themselves then they are trying to be God, they are assuming a responsibility that isn’t theirs to assume, and power that’s not theirs to exercise.
And second we are destroying that which was made in the image of God.
Genesis 1:27 So God created people in his own image; God patterned them after himself; male and female he created them.
The thing that makes man different then all the other critters on this earth isn’t that we can verbally communicate with one another, it’s not that we have vertically opposed thumbs, it’s not that we walk upright or any of the other explanations that science tries to give. What makes us different is that God created all the other animals in the world. Period. But God created man in his own image.
When Capital punishment is first mentioned in the Bible this is what is says Genesis 9:6 Yes, you must execute anyone who murders another person, for to kill a person is to kill a living being made in God’s image. And so to murder isn’t just to kill a living creature it is destroying something made in the image of God. And again when people break this commandment they are trying to put themselves above God, because what they are saying is; “Look at how powerful I am, I can destroy what is made in God’s image.”
Probably most of us here will never struggle with physical murder, you’re thinking, “Hey Denn I’m cool here. No problems.” Unlike our neighbours to the south you probably don’t have guns in your home and if you do they are for show, or target practice or maybe once a year you take them out to shoot little birdies and bunnies. Oh, that was low wasn’t it? And intentional.
But I’m sure that if Jesus was here today that he would look out and say, “There are murderers among us.” And you would look nervously around and wonder who they were, and what they looked like. And maybe, as if he could read your mind, he would hand you a mirror. You see not only was Jesus concerned with Physical murder he was also concerned with Verbal Murder.
It was to a crowd on a hill that Jesus spoke, and this is what he said, in Matthew 5:21-22 You know that our ancestors were told, “Do not murder” and “A murderer must be brought to trial.” But I promise you that if you are angry with someone, you will have to stand trial. If you call someone a fool, you will be taken to court. And if you say that someone is worthless, you will be in danger of the fires of hell.
I’m sure those people were a little taken back that day. This probably wasn’t a saying that they immediately embraced and talked about. This was a tough one; this is something we all struggle with even today. It’s not a scripture that people talk about as being their favourites passage in the bible. It’s not one of those scriptures that we memorize to pull out in hard times. It’s a tough one. That’s why Jesus brother wrote in the book that bears his name James 3:5-8 Our tongues are small too, and yet they brag about big things. It takes only a spark to start a forest fire! The tongue is like a spark. It is an evil power that dirties the rest of the body and sets a person’s entire life on fire with flames that come from hell itself. All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and sea creatures can be tamed and have been tamed. But our tongues get out of control. They are restless and evil, and always spreading deadly poison.
Now I know that he wasn’t talking about anyone here, but never underestimate the destructive power of the tongue. Even words said in jest can cut and destroy people. Words can murder a persons self image and self esteem. Remember what we used to say when we were kids and someone was picking on us verbally, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me.” But that’s a lie isn’t it? They do hurt. At least broken bones heal; a broken spirit can stay with us forever.
The initial command prohibited only the outward blows, which would kill. Jesus expanded the command to include the inward things such as resentment, bad feelings, anger and insults. Jesus is saying that they only difference between murder and anger is degree. And really isn’t that all path of the downward spiral. Resentment, insult, hatred and finally murder. And sometimes we don’t even have to speak a word. George Eliot said “There are glances of hatred that stab, and raise no cry of murder.”
And while I wouldn’t suppose there are people here today who need to talk to God about physical murder there are probably people here today who need to talk to God about verbal homicide.
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