The Sixth Commandment

Exodus 20:13

You shall not murder.

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No matter how you parse the Sixth Commandment, it is pretty loud and clear with its message. People don't get to kill each other; that responsibility lies in the hands of God. Yet, we have court systems, which occasionally deliver death sentences, shootings over a wide array of inexcusable reasons, and corporate philosophies that regularly trade human lives for profit. There are days when control over life and death feels anything but in the hands of God. The good news? We can fix that. And it starts with cultivating a better understanding of the Sixth Commandment and the core issue that drives this prohibition to take the life of another. 

For this morning, I think it's best if we can set aside issues and topics surrounding war; because that's a conversation that would take more time than what we have on Sunday morning. Instead, we should focus on what lies at the core of this command, which includes an unfolding commentary on our ability to hate and seek vengeance. Both of these feelings or emotions might expose themselves if we feel that we suffered an injustice, but it's our response to these perceived injustices where the Sixth Commandment comes into play. The image of God that resides in us is not something that should fall prey to our inability to find ways to express our frustrations healthily. 

Hate and vengeance, two things that we as human beings were never able to control. "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." (Romans 12:19) Anger, hate, and vengeance, these driving forces, which often lead to the loss of life, are not meant for us. Who are we to dispense justice by the shedding of blood when we are just as flawed, as sinful, and in need of mercy that goes beyond all human understanding? Who are we to dispense with the life of another? It's a plague that continues to torment us and dates back to the first death when Cain killed Abel and denied such loss of blood to the Lord. 

You may have noticed that I've been painting the Sixth Commandment with broad brush strokes. That's because even though we can translate the Sixth Commandment as meaning, "You shall not murder," murder does not capture the entirety of the command. The Hebrew word, rasah, certainly means murder, but it includes other words we would use in English to describe a person, or group, or an organization, taking the life of another. To think that we could try to parse away or rationalize away, the act of taking a life is absurd and a grave injustice. We who profess to believe in a living God must uphold life and stand against the loss of life by whatever means we are able. 

The people of God, us here and now, were tasked to be life-givers and not life-takers. How we should think about the Sixth Commandment should not be based on ideology or what we believe is right and just. We're flawed, flawed individuals, and the rabbinic traditions affirm this for us. It was almost impossible for governments or religious leaders to put someone to death. It was because they valued life and, at the foundation of their decision-making process, was the Sixth Commandment. The ancient houses of judgment went as far as to have twenty-three judges, no simple majority for convictions, and if there was a unanimous guilty verdict the accused was released, because there was a chance something was wrong with the court.

I don't want to overwhelm you, but this isn't even the most challenging part of the commandment. In the New Testament, Jesus enters and throws us a curve-ball. In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus tells us that it's no longer murder, which will incur God's wrath, but the act of hating one another will result in the same punishment. We should be careful and avoid distilling Jesus' words to mean simply, "Don't be mad at one another." Jesus is telling us that reconciliation is required. Jesus knows the power of hate and that if left to itself will lead to harm of self or a different individual. It's unsettling when you see such hate in someone's eyes and hear it in their voice. That is what Jesus is telling us is on part with breaking the Sixth Commandment. 

Paul picks up on these words of Jesus, and in his letter to the Ephesians, he writes this:

Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. (Ephesians 4:31-5:2)

Perhaps the sun has set on our anger for too long, and our frustrations and bitter feelings have created the darkness we now face today. When we allow violence to breed violence, we contribute to the forces of evil, that as Dr. King said, adds “darkness to a night already devoid of stars.” (Martin Luther King Jr. Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community, 67) Ultimately there are two choices at hand. We can either choose the night devoid of stars or a night filled with stars of hope, hung in the sky by Christ. Haven't we, and countless innocent, paid the cost of our unbridled anger? 

In one of my favorite episodes from The West Wing, President Josiah Bartlett wrestles with whether he should commute a death sentence for a drug dealer. Throughout the day, President Bartlett hears from a Quaker, a rabbi, and a priest. In the end, he seeks guidance from his home parish, who tells him that only God can deal in life or death. President Bartlett told the priest that he tried everything to make the decision palatable to the American public. However, he was not able to commute the sentence. The priest then looks at President Bartlett in the eyes and says that all he had to do was say that, "God is the only who gets to kill people."

"Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." (Martin Luther King Jr.) It's easy to say, "Now, when you leave you here today, don't go and kill anyone." It's harder to say, "Now when you leave here today, don't hate anyone without seeking reconciliation." I believe that our task for this week is to see how well we can be faithful to the words of the Sixth Commandment. Can we honor life this week? Can we speak out against the senseless shedding of blood? Can we go one day without expressing hate or anger without reconciliation or asking ourselves why we were angry? 

I'm not going to ask for a progress report next week, but you be the keeper of your spiritual growth. And whether we made it a week or day (just hopefully more than an hour), we can take what we learned and continue applying it to our daily lives. Doing so will help us shed the weight of any bitterness, malice, or anger and will keep us from breaking these words of God that strive to help us see the freedom of living for one another. Because as we said before, to kill or murder does not have to be literal, we are responsible for our words and actions as well. So let us go, hear these words of God, and inscribe them on our hearts. Amen.