Exodus 20:13
“The Opposite of Easter”
April 14, 2002 - Third Sunday of Easter

         “You’re being hijacked!” That’s what the two little boys said to us, as they stood there pointing crude toy guns carved out of wood. Their mother’s panty hose were pulled down over their heads, and the boys were wholly absorbed in their roles.

         We were at the home of a member of our church in Nebraska. She was the chair of our Christian Education Ministry and had invited us over to plan Sunday School with her. She and her husband were pacifists of the most extreme sort, vegetarians who opposed killing even animals for food, much less a human being. Yet here were her sons pretending to be violent, murderous offenders. She was shocked and embarrassed. She kept saying, “I don’t know where they got that from!”

         It’s likely her sweet little boys got their game from friends, but they might have learned about hijacking from the evening news. Even more than it was that day fifteen years ago, our world is permeated with violence. It doesn’t matter how dedicated you are to raising peaceful, non-violent children. You can screen every video game, avoid toy guns, and watch nothing but G rated movies. But no mother or father on earth is going to be able to shield children from the fact that people kill people… all the time.

         The Sixth Commandment was first given in a world more violent and dangerous than ours is. These were people who had watched the Egyptians kill their babies. The Israelites in turn had watched God slay every first-born child in Egypt, then drowned their army in the Red Sea. The first act by which Moses identified himself as a Hebrew was the murder of an Egyptian. These were men, women and children who could easily grow accustomed to the idea of killing.

         So this commandment is designed to bring that trend up short. It is the first of three extremely terse directions. Commandments Six, Seven and Eight in Hebrew are just two words each. A literal translation might be something like “No killing,” “No adultery,” “No stealing.” There is no explanation or expansion of these commandments. The Israelites were expected to know what they meant and see why they should be obeyed.

         However, for us, far removed from that language and culture, there is some question as to what “No killing” means. Though it has been understood otherwise, it is fairly obvious that the prohibition is limited to mean no killing of human beings. Nowhere in Scripture do we find any suggestion that God intends for people living after the fall to stop eating meat. The regular slaughter and eating of animals was part of the sacrificial ritual that came to Israel along with these commandments. And Jesus Himself had some fish for breakfast one morning after He had risen from the dead. Killing animals for food is part of God’s allow­ance for us, at least until Christ returns and His peaceable kingdom is complete.

         Yet questions remain unanswered. Another limitation seen in this commandment by most Jews and Christians is implied in the translation we read this morning. Except for the King James and the Revised Standard Version, almost all modern English translations translate the Hebrew word ratsach as “murder” rather than “kill.” The translators believe that “kill” is too general a term. What is being forbidden here is the violent, unjust causing of human death, that is, murder. Other kinds of killing, such as capital punishment and warfare, are not forbidden, but are even commanded by God. Just look down a chapter to Exodus 21:12.

         Since I’ve spent the last two Sunday adult education periods discussing war and paci­fism, I must immediately say that the little bit of biblical word study I just did does not set­tle some big questions. Christian pacifists, like Stanley Hauerwas, are quick to point out that the Hebrew term ratsach used in the commandment is certainly broader than our con­cept of murder. It is also used to refer to unintentional killing in Deuteronomy 4:42 and to capital punishment in Numbers 35:30.[1] Pacifists conclude that God intended the Sixth Com­mandment to be the foundation for the eventual elimination of all deadly violence from the lives of God’s people.

         So we cannot retreat to the old ploy that it is all “a matter of semantics” and thus fig­ure out what it means to keep this commandment by studying the meaning of words. Christians who believe that just war and capital punishment are permitted will simply dis­agree with pacifist Christians about what the words mean.

         One strategy for contemporary Christians, therefore, has been to focus heavily on op­posing killing that all of us, pacifist or not, can agree is wrong. We rightly condemn acts of terrorism. Moreover, abortion, the killing of unborn, innocent children, is wrong and ought to be illegal. In our own state, Christians have been unsuccessful in opposing assisted sui­cide. The commandment’s prohibition against murder includes murdering oneself. Most of us can agree that these acts of violence are forbidden and condemned by the Sixth Com­mandment.

         Which means you and I here this morning are nicely off the hook. We are free to re­gard the violation of God’s command not to murder as something other people do. Most of us are scarcely even tempted to engage in violence against another human being or even against our own selves. We can keep this commandment without even thinking about it. Or can we?

         Jesus recognized the violence that permeates our lives and hearts. He would not have been surprised at all that two little boys raised in a peaceful home would choose to play at being terrorists. When He taught about the Sixth Commandment in Matthew 5, Jesus said,

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

The Lord wants us to recognize the Sixth Commandment as a call for self-examination and repentance even when we are not guilty of any outward acts of violence.

         Early in the same year we were “hijacked” by our Christian Education leader’s sons, I experienced two wonderful blessings. In January our first daughter Susan was born and our church voted to move me from the position of associate pastor to that of senior pastor. I was on top of the world. After long years of preparation and waiting, life was finally un­folding beautifully. I had a dear family and a wonderful congregation. Things just couldn’t get any better. But I discovered they could easily get worse.

         I was driving our relatively new Toyota Tercel back from visiting a member in the hos­pital when another car suddenly came at me from the right. It crashed into the right front fender, spinning both vehicles around so that we hit again, rear end to rear end this time. Shaken, but not seriously injured I forced my door open and crawled out to behold the scene. Both cars stood bleeding antifreeze in the middle of the street. The other one was a big Buick, so the damage to mine was by far the worst.

         I stood there mulling over what had happened. A young man, a high school student, had gone through a stop sign at full-speed, not even seeing it. I thanked God I was alive and could walk, but then thought about all the might-have-beens. What if he had come from my side of the car? What if our new baby girl had been in the car with me? Anger boiled up inside.

         The other driver was sitting on the curb with his head in his hands. I walked over and blasted the boy. “What’s the matter with you?” “What were you thinking?” “You could have killed us both, you idiot.” Then the police arrived, I called my wife, and calmed down a little as we got the car towed away and all the reports filled out. I went off to the emer­gency room to get x-rays.

         But my anger stayed with me. The boy’s insurance company was slow to respond. So I called his home, demanding to know why we hadn’t heard from their agent. His father was defensive and said to me, “Did you know my son is in the hospital? He wasn’t wearing his seatbelt and hit his head on the windshield. He has a bad concussion. We haven’t gotten our report in because we’ve been there with him.”

         What I discovered then was something frightening about myself. I didn’t care. It didn’t matter to me that the boy was hurt. I was only concerned with my own damages. The other driver’s injuries were his problem, a little intrinsic justice in fact. The truth is, as I reflect on it now, if the man had told me his son was not just seriously injured but had died, I am not sure even that would have softened my heart. I hated that kid for the way in which he had messed up my perfect life. I deliberately wished him ill, wouldn’t have minded if he were dead. And the teaching of our Lord Jesus Christ is that in those feelings I was a murderer.

         The violent aspects of our society, the movies we watch and video games we play, are only the outward signs of what Jesus knew so well. Murder lives in our hearts. We are quick to hate and slow to forgive. We would rather kill than be killed. Jesus will not let us off the hook for our expressions of internal violence even though we cause no physical harm. When the Commandment says “Do not murder,” we are all implicated.

         Therefore it is right to condemn the Palestinians and perhaps the Israelis as well. We have some justification in preventing terrorists from amassing destructive power. And we are properly outraged by what many Christians now call the “culture of death” in a western society which kills babies, old people, and criminals in order to solve social problems. Yet we must never let our condemnation of other people’s killing erase our own guilt for the spiritual bloodshed we cause by hating men and women created in the image of God.

         But, you say, those feelings are natural. Of course I was angry with the young man who smashed my car. You can’t help such feelings when someone harms you. To live out what Jesus thinks the Sixth Commandment means we would have to learn how to avoid doing and feeling what comes naturally. Exactly.

         To obey God’s command not to murder, you and I require a whole new way of life. What is “natural” for us has to change. Those emotional reactions that flow so easily to­ward anger and animosity when we feel attacked need to be transformed into mercy, grace and love.

         Moreover, a way of life without murder requires something else. It is impossible to live without murderous hatred in a society filled to the brim with murdering hatred. We are simply not capable of restraining our impulses to hate and retaliate when we and those we love are under attack. When the choice is to “kill or be killed” the culture we live in does not offer us any other alternatives. Based on the rules of survival in this world, when we are attacked we cannot help but become killers or die.

         That is why the key to this commandment is that murder is the opposite of Easter. In the end, God’s intent for us has nothing to do with killing or death. His plan for us is the same as it was for His own Son, that we should rise up into new and eternal life. As Reve­lation 21:4 teaches us, God is bringing in a new order of things where “There will be no more death…” When you and I believe that Jesus rose from the dead on Easter, we are brought into that new order. In Christ we are part of a new society and culture which runs on different rules. “Kill or be killed” has no ultimate application to us.

         It’s only if the things we said at the beginning of the service –  “Christ is risen!” “Life is eternal.” “Love is invincible.” – are really true, that the Sixth Commandment makes any sense. It is only as Easter people that you and I can keep it, can learn to quit murdering in our hearts and find another way to live.

         I definitely do not know how to resolve all this in terms of the world’s present situa­tion. As Martin Luther saw it we Christians live in the uneasy tension of being citizens in two kingdoms, Christ’s and whatever country we are part of. Perhaps that second allegiance to one’s country occasionally requires us to kill, either as war or as punishment, in a way that is not murder. I honestly do not know for sure.

         What I do know is that our first allegiance is to the Lord’s kingdom. It is a kingdom where “Do not kill” is not just a rule to live by, but is a pattern written on hearts by the eternal life and love of Jesus Christ. It is a kingdom whose government was established on Easter morning as the rule of a living Savior who calls us to life, not death.

         So I do not know what to say about Israel and the Palestinians. It’s clear the suicide bombers are murderers. Even more so are the deranged leaders who seduce teenage boys and girls into killing themselves and others. But as much as Christian sympathy might in­cline me toward Israel, I am forced to say that neither Judaism nor Islam has the spiritual resources to quit murdering. They both have received and acknowledge the commandment we are studying today, but neither faith recognizes that hope in Christ’s resurrection is the only possible reason to keep the commandment in regard to each other. It is only when you have solid assurance that you will live again that you can stop killing in order to survive. It is only in Christian faith that there is any resource for a peaceful resolution.

         Here is a story which comes out of a different but just as horrible ethnic struggle and war. During the long struggle between the Turks and the Armenians:

A Turkish officer raided and looted an Armenian home. He killed the aged parents and gave the daughters to the soldiers, keeping the eldest daughter for himself. Some time later she escaped and trained as a nurse. As time passed, she found herself nursing in a ward of Turkish officers. One night, by the light of a lantern, she saw the face of [the officer who had captured and abused her]. He was so gravely ill that without exceptional nursing he would die. [She gave him that exceptional care.] The days passed and he recovered. One day, the doctor stood by the bed with her and said to him, “But for her devotion to you, you would be dead.” He looked at her and said, “We have met before, haven’t we?” “Yes,” she said, “we have met before.” “Why didn’t you kill me?” he asked. She replied, “I am a follower of him who said, ‘Love your enemies.’”[2]

Living like that Armenian nurse is only possible when we follow the One who said “Love your enemies” and then let His own enemies murder Him. It is only living in His life that we may change from murderers into martyrs, offering our world a vision of a different way to live.

         For right now, in our place and time, most of us have the luxury of not confronting the commandment against murder in its graphic, physical reality. We only struggle with it in terms of feelings and attitudes. Yet that internal struggle must not forgotten or minimized because of the visible murders being perpetrated around the world. We must confess our own hatred, which Jesus taught us is the same as murder, and learn a new way.

         It is a good thing, therefore, to worry about the violence both we and our children view in games and film. It is right to learn how to talk to and care for people of other races and for homosexual people without condoning their behavior. It is Christian to practice forgiveness for small things like a smashed car, letting go of anger which is really murder in the heart. Those are acts of Easter, acts of faith in a Savior who has defeated death. Each one of those acts make you more a citizen of His kingdom, and thus that much more ready for the time when all the kingdoms of this world will acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord, the Lord of life. And then death and murder will be no more.

         Amen.

Valley Covenant Church
Eugene/Springfield, Oregon
Copyright © 2002 by Stephen S. Bilynskyj