You Shall not Murder

     A Navy computer systems manager named Raoul Payette shot his supervisor in the neck with a derringer.  According to police, Payette fixed on the Navy's work place admonition to "Identify and eliminate barriers to quality" and decided that his supervisor was the barrier.

       We are a violent society.   Our television, movies and even video games are filled with gore.  Grand Theft Auto IV is out now.  Best seller!

        Yet, In the face of this violence, we also agree with the sixth commandment - "you shall not kill."

       There are a lot of doors we could open this morning from that one short verse.  But I have chosen to focus today on capital punishment for two reasons. 

        The first reason for this specific focus is to offer a model about how to think through important social issues from a biblical mindset.  We aren’t first of all red staters or blue staters of blue staters living in a red state or whatever.  We are first and foremost the people of God.  Paul says that our minds need to be transformed by the word of God – and that includes how we vote.

       The second reason is that capital punishment is a crucial and divisive issue in our society that tends to be debated along biblical lines.  The movie "Dead Man Walking" is a good example of this.  The hard bitten prison chaplain quotes Genesis 9:6 "Whoever sheds the blood of man; by man shall his blood be shed."   Susan Sarandon's idealistic nun counters with Exodus 20:13: "you shall not kill." 

       So who's right?  What can we say about capital punishment from a biblical framework?

       First, we recognize that ratasch, the Hebrew word used in the commandment for kill, is much better translated as "murder."  In the 46 times the word is used In the Old Testament, almost every usage carries a sense of private blood vengeance and murder.  There is another word for killing in a more general sense. 

       You may not take the law into your own hands.  That is the most obvious and simple Interpretation of the sixth commandment.  That's the way the Jews understood it. 

       God himself set the death penalty.  In Genesis 9:6 God tells Noah, "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed."  And God would hardly set the death penalty for murder and certain other crimes, and then in the commandments, turn around and renounce the use of the death penalty.      

       Second, you heard the Apostle Paul remind us in Romans 12, our New Testament text that vengeance belongs to God.  But Paul also says in Romans 13 that while we are not to take our own vengeance, there is a way that God takes vengeance beside the proverbial lighting bolt from the sky.  Paul tells us that God uses human government as His tool -- that, in fact, the state is God's avenger on the evil doer.  Paul says that vengeance is God's -- but He uses human means to carry it out.  He says that the government is empowered by God with the eis gladdai – the right of capital punishment.  Romans 13:4: the governor “does not bear the sword in vain; he is the servant of God to execute His wrath on the wrongdoer." 

       There may be biblical support for abolishing capital punishment -- but it is not in the plain reading of either the Sixth Commandment or Romans 12 and 13.

       However, now that we have said that, there is a lot more we have to say.  The Word of God isn’t done with us yet.

       First, while the government may exercise capital punishment this does not mean that it has to or even should.  The state is not biblically wrong to not execute.  In fact, God puts His mark of protection on Cain, the first murderer of all.  Permission for government to exercise capital punishment is not a divine command to execute anyone.

       Second, while the state may exercise capital punishment, there is biblical precedent for extreme attention to due process in capital cases.  We get tired of due process but it was harder in Israel .  In Israel , no one could be condemned on any evidence less than that of two eye-witnesses.  Circumstantial evidence, even that provided by a CSI Jerusalem, was not valid in a Jewish court.  The court was open all day to receive evidence which could be given for the accused person.  Even from the place of execution the condemned could appeal if he could advance any further plea on his behalf.

       In the courts right now is a case where a man who has been on death row for a long time wants to have a DNA test of hair found at the scene.  He says it will prove his innocence.  The courts are apparently saying, “We’re past that point.”  But in ancient Israel , it would be tested.

       The Jews shrank so far from the final penalty that there was a saying that a Sanhedrin which put one man to death in seven years might be called murderous. Rabbi Elizer ben Azarya said that it could be called murderous, if it executed one person in seventy years.  This helps us grasp how much the Sanhedrin hated and feared Jesus -- to do what was so rarely done and in an illegal way at that. 

       In matters of life and death there must be a profound sense of restraint.  For example, in our fallen world there may be times when war may be the lesser of bad choices.  But it must always be a decision made in grief.  A healthy society can never view war as exciting and wonderful.

       I was reminded of this when Norman Schwarzkopf, commanding general of the Desert Storm allied forces, was interviewed by Ted Koppel.  The general said, "I would never want to serve under a general who enjoyed war."  He spoke about his heroes from World War II, Omar Bradley, Dwight Eisenhower, and George Marshall.  He mentioned a couple of others who he said hated war -- and that that made them safe to be generals.

       In the same way anyone who enjoys weapons and loves to play with weapons and shoot them and looks forward to being able to play Dirty Harry should not be an officer of the law.  You must be able and willing to use the weapon but you must hate to use the weapon.  Then it is safe for you to carry the weapon.  There must be a sense of restraint, and that restraining principle on society comes from God's ancient law.  It's one of the things that we are grateful for.

       I have said that the plain reading of the Sixth Commandment does not forbid capital punishment and that there are other verses which support it as a proper action of the state. 

       These statements are true.  However, for Christians that can't be the end of the issue even if we would like it to be. The Bible still isn’t done with us.  There are some other questions we need to answer in our own lives.

       First, as we look at the Sixth Commandment, we must also look at the guilt in our own lives.  For in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus raises the stakes on murder for every one of us.  Jesus said, "You have heard it said of old, 'you shall not murder.  Whoever murders will be liable to judgment.'  But I say to you, everyone who is angry with his brother shall be liable for judgment.'"    Jesus intensifies this sixth commandment far beyond anything we may have ever imagined.  We may have thought, "That’s one law I haven't broken.  I haven't murdered anybody."  But Jesus says, "I tell you that anyone who says to his brother 'you worthless thing' is answerable to the Sanhedrin.  Anyone who says, 'you fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.”

       Attorney Clarence Darrow once sarcastically said, "I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with a lot of glee."  Have we ever done that?  Do we ever feel, “They got what they deserved?”

       Second, in the exercise of punishment, we need to look to the wholeness of our own hearts.  Is our motive a sad but necessary protection of society?  Or is it just revenge by another name?  Revenge is very hard to achieve.

       Forest Gump, in one scene has Jenny returning to her old home. Her father has died and the old farm house is dilapidated and abandoned.  As she reflects on the sexual abuse that she endured as a child, she is overcome by rage and begins throwing rocks at the house.  The photography is powerful as it shows her rapidly reaching for rocks then violently throwing them at the house.  Jenny finally falls to the ground in exhaustion and the scene closes with Forest philosophically saying, "Sometimes there just aren't enough rocks."

       Many people struggle with anger.  It can come from a variety of reasons and some anger seems very justifiable.  I have read of crimes that caused me to think, "Lethal injection is much too quick and merciful for this guy."  I frankly didn’t shed one tear for Saddam Hussein.  Yet, unresolved anger leaves us reaching and crying out for more rocks.  The rage is never satisfied.  So we need to look at the motives of our hearts.

       Finally, as Christians, we must also be aware of the larger goal.

       The intention of love is to redeem the guilty.  Therefore, love makes us very slow to close the door forever on the possibility of another person's redemption.  Love "hopes all things' -- even for the worst of criminals. Loves moves us to be slow to judgment even in the face of horrible guilt.  Love compels us to allow time for salvation – as has happened even on death row and to people who were on death row.  

        Joe Hare was an older friend of mine in the Bay Area.  Joe served as a counselor of death row in San Quentin.  One time he took me on the ultimate insiders tour.

       Joe had a very small case load at one point – Charles Manson, Sirhan Sirhan and Russell Romero of the Symbionese Liberation Army.  He knew the worst.  And Joe was a strong proponent for capital punishment.  He said it was the only way to protect other prisoners from prisoners who felt they had nothing left to lose.  But Joe was an even greater believer in the renewing and restoring power of the gospel.  That’s why he was there.

       The gospel has that power.  Joe knew that.  Novelists know that too.

       In Victor Hugo’s great novel, Les Miserable, Jean Valjean is unjustly imprisoned for seven years.  He leaves prison with a deep rage in his soul.  Valjean tries to find somewhere to fit.  He can't fit.  As a parolee, he's badly treated.  His anger builds and builds and builds.  One night he goes into the home of a priest named Father Welcome. He’s given a meal, and is invited to spend the night. 

       While everyone is sleeping, Jean Valjean steals some silverware.  The gendarmes catch him and recognize the silver as belonging to Father Welcome.   When Father Welcome sees this young man, he also sees something deeper than anyone else sees. 

       In Victor Hugo’s novel Father Welcome is a Christ figure.  He tells the gendarmes that Jean Valjean didn’t steal the silverware.  He said he gave it to Valjean to have it cleaned.  Then he asks Valjean why he didn’t take the candlesticks, too.

       After the gendarmes have left, the father walks up to Val jean and says in a low voice, 'Never forget that you have promised to me to employ this money in becoming an honest man.”

       Jean Valjean had no recollection of having promised anything.  He stood silent.  The father continued solemnly 'Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil but to good.  I have bought your soul.  I withdraw it from black thoughts and the spirit of perdition, and give it to God.'"

       Do you notice what's happening here?  This good intervention gives Jean Valjean a new motivation source.  It defuses his rage.  This is what the gospel does.  It brings a new way of life into an ancient cycle of action and reaction.

       Can we help do that with our violent culture?  Can we help introduce a brand new possibility, to withdraw the dark thoughts and bring a new possibility of  hope. That new hope comes from the gospel of Jesus Christ – and not just for us but for all.  That’s the power to celebrate as we come to the table of Jesus -- who endured capital punishment for us.