Today’s focus is the Fifth Commandment: “You shall not murder.” … Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, the psalmist wrote, “I
rejoiced when they said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord.’ Now
that our feet are standing within your gates, we rejoice to hear your Word. As
we listen, may your Spirit enlighten our minds and move our hearts to love
deeply as Jesus loved. This we pray to you, Most Holy Trinity. Amen.
I doubt any of us has broken this
commandment, but we may know someone who has. My first exposure to prison
ministry while in the seminary was at Collins Correctional Facility, a prison
in southwestern New York State. The chaplain assigned me to talk with prisoners
in solitary confinement. The prison confined these men to special cells to
protect them or the general prison population from them. One young man was a 3rd
generation prisoner. His grandfather spent so much time in prison that he
earned a college degree. The young man had a file as long as your arm. The
state sentenced him to prison for killing two teenagers. He wanted to watch them
die.
I found him to be a delightful, charming
individual. I thought it inconceivable that he was a cold-blooded murderer. I
found him no more capable of murder than any of you. Yet, he committed murder.
Unless we are directly involved in
fighting crime or defending our country, we are shielded from such individuals.
The state protects us from individuals who commit murder and mayhem. Were it
not for their protection, our world would swiftly deteriorate, and instead of
spending our time living peaceful lives and building careers and families, we
would spend it defending our loved ones and ourselves.
Luther, in his Large Catechism, reminds
us that neither God nor government is included in the Fifth Commandment, nor is
their right to take human life abrogated.[1]
The Fifth Commandment allows us to “leave our own house and go out among
neighbors in order to learn how we should live among them, [and] how people
should conduct themselves among their neighbors.”[2] While
the first four commandments dealt with our relationships with God and family,
the last six deal with our relationships within society.
Because we are now dealing with our
relationships within society, we find a clearer explanation of what the
commandment means. While the King James Bible translates the verse to “Thou
shalt not kill,” many other translations, including texts used in synagogues,
translate the verse to “Thou shalt not murder.” An important distinction for Jewish
society permitted killing; and, as noted in The Large Catechism, “God has
delegated his authority to punish evildoers to the civil authorities.”[3]
Luther bases this on Deuteronomy 21:18-20, which reads, “18If
someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and
mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, 19his
father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the
gate of his town. 20They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours
is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a
drunkard.” 21Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death.
You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be
afraid.” Therefore, to protect us, the state executes or incarcerates murderers,
like that nice young man I visited decades ago.
However, does the commandment license
the state to allow abortion on demand, active euthanasia or suicide? Luther
does not answer these questions directly, but Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation briefly addresses them.
The answer is no, although I am sure some would debate the questions long into
the night.
In The Large Catechism, Luther expounds
upon how our sinful nature and Satan prompt us to curse others and wish
frightful things on those who begrudge us of every blessing. This is an
important aspect of Luther’s teaching. “God wishes to remove the root and
source that embitters our heart toward our neighbor. He wants to train us to
hold this commandment always before our eyes as a mirror in which to see
ourselves, so that we may be attentive to his will and, with heartfelt
confidence and prayer in his name, commit whatever wrong we suffer to God.”[4]
Though we suffer wrongs at the hands of
others, we may not harm anyone through hand or tongue, in thought or spirit.
Rather, as Luther explains, we are to “help and support [our neighbors] in all
of life’s needs.”[5]
When faced with the opportunity do we
assist our neighbors? When we read Matthew’s Great Judgment, which Luther
references, do we offer something to eat to the hungry or something to drink to
the thirsty? Do we offer hospitality to the stranger or visit the imprisoned?
Have I given clothes to the needy and looked after the sick?
Luther warns us that although we have
not actually committed crimes, when we allowed our neighbors to languish, it is
as if I saw someone struggling in deep water or in a fire and I could stretch
out my hand to pull him out and save him, and yet I did not do so.[6] The
challenge is to save our enemies from the fire pit or drowning pool.
The challenge to respond in loving
kindness to those who wish us dead seems insurmountable. To this, Luther offers
these succinct, beautiful words of advice which link the Fifth and First Commandments.
“We have God’s Word by which he wants to encourage and urge us to true, noble,
exalted deeds, such as gentleness, patience, and, in short, love and kindness
toward our enemies. He always wants to remind us to recall the First
Commandment, that he is our God; that is, that he wishes to help, comfort, and
protect us, so that he may restrain our desire for revenge.”[7]
My friends, we may not have committed
murder, but we may have deeply desired revenge on our enemies. May God’s Word
restrain our desires and retrain our hearts that we may reach out to our
enemies with acts of compassionate love as the Lord has reached out to us. And when you do, may
the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds
in Christ Jesus (Phil 4:7). Amen.
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