Alexander M. Sanders, Jr., is the Chief Judge of the South Carolina Court of Appeals. In 1992 he delivered the commencement address at the University of South Caroline for that year’s graduating class. Judge Sanders was asked to do this because his daughter, Zoe was a member of that class-and in his speech he shared the following story from her life.
When Zoe was three years old, Sanders came home from work to find a crisis in his household. Zoe’s pet turtle had died, and she was crying as if her heart would break and her mother, having coped with the problems of the home all day, gladly turned this one over to the father to solve. At the time, Sanders was practicing law and serving in the state legislature. And frankly, he felt the death of his daughter’s turtle was a problem a lawyer/politician was not up to solving. After all, the mysteries of life and death are difficult, if not impossible for the MATURE mind to fathom. The task of explaining them to a three-year-old would be next to impossible. But, at his wife’s insistence, he tried anyway.
FIRST, he made the obvious argument that they would get another turtle to replace the one that died. They would go down to the pet store and buy another one just like the one that was gone. But, this tactic got him nowhere-because, even at three years of age, Zoe was smart enough to know that there is a certain non-transferability about living things. She was old enough to understand that a turtle is not a toy and that there’s really no such thing as getting another one just like the one that died. So Zoe’s tears continued.
When that tactic didn’t work, in desperation, Sanders said, “I tell you what, Zoe, we’ll have a funeral for the turtle.” But, being three years old, she didn’t know what a funeral was. So, Sanders quickly proceeded to expand on the theme. I’m sure Bob Michael or C.C. Day would tell us that at this point he was employing a typical lawyer’s tactic, known as DIVERSION. According to the philosophy behind this kind of legal maneuver, if you can’t win on the issue at hand, the best thing to do is to talk about something completely beside the point. So Sanders explained to his little girl, “A funeral, is a great festival in HONOR of the turtle.” Well, she didn’t know what a festival was either so he quickly proceeded to explain further. And, as he did so, he began to depart from the lawyer’s tactic of DIVERSION and began to engage in the politician’s prerogative of outright LYING. He said, “Actually, Zoe-a funeral is-well, it’s like a BIRTHDAY PARTY! We’ll have ice cream and cake and lemonade and balloons, and all the children in the neighborhood will come over to our house to play.”
Well, this tactic DID work! Zoe’s tears began to dry, and she quickly returned to her happy, smiling self again. In fact, she became very excited about all that was going to happen-think of it-a party with all the trimmings, all because the turtle had died! This was great!
But at this point, an utterly unforeseen thing happened. Father and daughter looked down, and lo and behold, the turtle began to move. He wasn’t dead after all! In a matter of seconds, he was crawling away as lively as ever. And for once, this politician/father was stricken dumb. He didn’t know what to say. But Zoe did. She appraised the situation perfectly. With all the innocence of her tender years, she looked up at her father and said, “Daddy, let’s kill it.”
We chuckle-but you know, the sad truth is, our society has come to respond to it’s troubles much like little Zoe did that day. I mean, when a HUMAN LIFE interferes with our pleasures and plans, the most popular solution these days is to simply end that life.
For example, if a woman is pregnant and it is not convenient for her to give birth, our society says it is legal for her to deal with that problem by killing the unborn child.
In the nearly 33 years since ROW v. WADE legalized abortion in our country, over 46 million unborn children have lost their lives in this manner. Their names would fill the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial wall over 870 times and in case you’re wondering the motive behind the snuffing out of all these tiny, defenseless lives, here’s the stats:
- 1% of these abortions were performed in cases of rape or incest.
- 3% were done to protect the health of the mother.
- Another 3% were done because it was feared the baby had life-threatening health problems.
So that leaves 93% of these 46 million lives being ended shortly after they began, basically because they were an inconvenience. Understand, these children were perfectly healthy but it was decided they must be aborted simply because if this child had lived it would have interfered with the plans of other people.
I also see our culture’s selfish cheapening of human life in its push to use embryonic stem cells to treat illnesses.
More and more people seem to think there is nothing wrong with making human embryos in order to grow stem cells to treat various diseases and injuries…even though the truth is this involves starting human lives and then killing them in a stem cell harvest much like we would tomatoes or cucumbers.
Another example of the consequences of a culture that does not cherish human life is seen in the fact that more and more people who are frustrated with the way the world treats them, decide to get even by purchasing a hand gun or assault weapon legally and then they go on a shooting spree whether it be in a church or a post office or an office suite full of insider traders or even a school.
I’m sure you all heard about the most recent example of this brand of mass murder when a troubled teen in Montana killed his grandfather and then drove to his high school where he murdered seven students and then took his own life in the worse school massacre since Columbine. In fact, it sounds to me as if he were trying to copy what happened at Columbine by purposely targeting Christians And, as you know, this is not an isolated incident. It seems like every month there is a new report of someone, adults and children alike, using a gun to go on a killing spree.
Here’s one more. These days more and more people in our society say that, if life becomes too difficult to live they should be allowed to end it all through suicide, or to have others do it through euthanasia.
“HOW TO” manuals on suicide are readily available on cyberspace’s bookshelves. And, euthanasia laws have been in force in the state of Oregon for several years now, making it legal for someone to end their own life if they face a painful terminal illness.
I’m sure that like me you all stayed tuned to the Terry Schaivo situation in Florida over the past two weeks where a brain-damaged-NOT A BRAIN DEAD-young lady was starved to death. She was not even allowed to receive water. Her life was ended in this very cruel way because her husband believes she would not want to live in this state-in spite of her family’s efforts to preserve her life.
By the way, I read an article this week that was written by a young woman named Kate Adamson who suffered a double brain stem stroke when she was 33 that left her completely paralyzed unable even to blink. She was fully cognizant but couldn’t communicate in any way. During her 70 days of intensive care doctors were forced to remove her feeding tube to allow her digestive system to recover and heal. She says that during these weeks of forced starvation, “The hunger pains were unbearable. I thought I was going insane.” Reading Ms. Adamson’s story makes me wince as I try to imagine the discomfort Mrs. Schiavo went through-having both food AND water withheld in this cruel form of active euthanasia.
I know even Christians disagree about the Schiavo case, but wherever we stand on this situation we have to ask ourselves, where will we draw the line next? I mean, how brain-damaged will a person have to be before our culture says that life is not worth living and okays ending it? If we keep on this track will we add other factors that make ending a life acceptable? Well-all these stats about abortion and shooting and suicide and euthanasia show that many people in our society today are indeed like little Zoe-in that when a human life becomes inconvenient they feel that the best thing to do is to end that life. And, whatever your beliefs on the various and complex issues relating to the sanctity of human life, surely we would all agree that human life is not cherished in this country as it should be.
I mean, it has even come to the point that ending human life has become entertainment in our culture. Did you realize that by the time a child grows up in America, he or she will have viewed tens of thousands of murders and acts of violence on television and in the movies? Like the ancient Romans who enjoyed seeing gladiators kill each other or Christians torn to pieces by lions, our “modern” culture says the more realistic-the more gruesome deadly violence in TV and movies is-the better. If that wasn’t enough, children can now “act out” violent inclinations with video games that programers work hard to make look and feel more and more realistic.
Now-I bring all this up because today I want us to return to our study of seven of the deadliest sins and this morning’s “sin” is the sin of murder-the act of ending an innocent human life. We’ll be using three very familiar texts as a basis of our study this morning: Exodus 20:13, Proverbs 6:16-17 and Matthew 5:21-22. Follow along in your Bibles.
Exodus 20:13 – You shall not murder.
Proverbs 6:16,17 – There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,
Matthew 5:21,22 – “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgement.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgement. 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.”
As you can see, the Bible plainly says that this sin that is LITERALLY deadly-God’s Word says that MURDER is wrong. It is clearly against His will. But before we go any further in our study of this particular deadly sin, first let’s be sure we understand what the Bible does NOT say.
1. One thing it does not say is this. It does not say, “You shall not KILL.”
I mean, an accurate translation Exodus 20:13 would be, “You shall not MURDER.” The Hebrew word here is “tirtzach” and it is a word that refers to unauthorized and violent killing-or murder. I point this out because there is of course a vast difference between murder and killing. I mean, if this commandment were to be taken as a blanket prohibition of ALL killing, then it would be wrong to kill dangerous animals, poisonous snakes, or even pesky insects.
You may remember that one of the great missionaries to Africa was Dr. Albert Schweitzer who spent his life there spreading the gospel. He also built a mission hospital in Lambarene, Africa. Well, Schweitzer took this command to mean that killing anything was forbidden so he strictly forbade the killing of even so much as a fly or a mosquito. Yet ironically the good doctor and his associates were in Africa in part to save lives by destroying the lives of disease-bearing organisms and microbiological life forms. Well, Schweitzer was mistaken in his understanding of this Biblical prohibition because…
2. …another thing the Bible does not forbid is the taking of ANIMAL life.
Now, God’s Word DOES teach the humane treatment of animals. Proverbs 12:10 says, “A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal…” But the Bible gives us the right to kill animals for food. In Genesis 9:3 God says, “Every thing that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.” Scripture records that Jesus ate fish on numerous occasions and as a good Jewish man He would also have eaten meat at Passover. So the Bible does not forbid the killing of animals for food.
3. And then, neither does the Bible prohibit WAR.
You see, whereas war is always wrong, sadly enough in a sinful culture, war is often necessary to insure that people will be treated justly by others. As I told you a few months ago, in this fallen world of ours FREEDOM is something we will always have to FIGHT to EARN and DEFEND to KEEP. You may not realize this but since the days of Saint Augustine and Thomas Aquinas the church has worked to develop the concept of a “just war.” The lecture on just war theory in my ethics class in seminary is one that I have never forgotten and it may be familiar to you as well because it was referred to prior to both Gulf wars. But basically a just war is a war that is waged only as a last resort when all other efforts at diplomacy have failed. It is a war that defends that which is right or punishes that which is wrong-for a war to meet the “just war” criteria it must have a just cause, such as ending Hitler’s aggression or freeing people from the tyranny of cruel dictators like Saddam Hussein. I mean, the goal of a JUST war is to make things better for the nations involved. For this reason a nuclear war would fail to meet the standards of the just war theory.
In any case, the Bible’s commands not to murder are not to be interpreted as a restriction against war. Sometimes war, as bad as it is, is necessary for the greater good. This is one reason Jesus said, “…there will be wars and rumors of war…” (Matthew 24:6)
4. We should also note that the Bible does not prohibit the DEATH penalty.
In fact, capitol punishment for the murder of an innocent person is mandated in Scripture. By the way, this is the only mandate that is repeated in each of the first five books of the Bible. (Genesis 9:6, Exodus 21, Leviticus 24:17, Numbers 35:31, Deuteronomy 19:21) It is first mentioned when Noah exited the ark and God said, “Whoever sheds the blood of a man, by man shall his blood be shed.” (Genesis 9:6)
However, we should also note that the Bible contains very careful guidelines to protect people who were wrongfully accused of murder. In Bible times, cities of refuge were designated as safe places to which an individual could flee if he had accidentally ended the life of another. He would find protection there and be given a chance to explain what happened.
Deuteronomy 19:15 also says that at least two witnesses must see the crime before a person can be charged with murder. And circumstantial evidence was not valid in a Jewish court. So, as it says in Exodus 23:7 steps were always taken NOT to “…execute the innocent or the righteous.” But, in any case, the Bible does not prohibit capitol punishment. We need to realize that there is a great difference between the murder of an innocent person and society’s determination to end the life of the individual who has intentionally killed another human being.
I mean, if anything, a capitol punishment law underscores how precious human life is because, it is serves as a deterrent to protect life. The philosophy behind capitol punishment says that if an individual shows that he does not cherish human life he must forfeit his own, so that others will not lose their right to life at his hands.
OKAY-now that we’ve clarified things when it comes to what the Bible does NOT forbid, let’s deal with what it does-and as I said, God’s Word does indeed forbid MURDER.
Do you remember our text from Proverbs? It says, God hates,”Hands that shed innocent blood.”
Well let’s try to understand why would God feel this way. I mean, why would He include in the ten commandments and other scriptures this prohibition against murder?
1. First, we need to understand that in the Bible DEATH is described as God’s ENEMY.
1 Corinthians 15:26 says, “The last ENEMY to be destroyed is DEATH.” Now, think about that. Why would death be referred to as the enemy of God? Well, here’s why-death is the enemy of God because death destroys life, in contrast to God, the Creator and Author of life. The Bible tells us that neither sin nor pain, disease, nor DEATH were part of God’s original plan for man. I mean, death was not God’s idea. No, death entered the world because of sin, and since then death has been satan’s cause, not God’s. Remember? In John 8:44, satan, the adversary of God, is described as a murderer-a killer-a being who is opposed to God’s purposes. I for one believe Jesus was referring to satan in John 10 when He said, “The thief comes to steal and to DESTROY but I have come that you might have LIFE in all its fulness.”
So God values LIFE-not death. Scripture clearly teaches that God is pro-life. Death is the enemy from His perspective. So you see, when we murder, whether it be with a handgun or with a doctor’s hands in an abortion clinic or in a hospice by actively euthanzing a brain-damaged girl, we are opposing God Himself.
2. A second reason God has given us this law is to remind us that human life is not OURS to TAKE.
I mean, everything we have and are-including our lives-belong to GOD, not us, so when we end a life prematurely, whether it be ours or another’s, we have overstepped our bounds. Job 14:5 says,”Man’s days are determined; You Oh Lord have decreed the number of his months and have set limits he cannot exceed.” This and other texts tell us that God-the Author of life-determines the length of our lives, not the other way around. I mean, we are not the Lord of human life-God is! Our lives are a gift from God that we are to carefully steward from the womb to the tomb-not end when they become inconvenient.
There are many instances in Scripture where an individual wanted to end his life at a time of his own choosing and in each of these instances God said, “NO, that’s not for you to decide.” For example, MOSES-that Prince of Egypt-grieved about the burden the Lord had given him. He looked at his people grumbling about their food and their living conditions, complaining so much that old Moses finally reached his limit. He’d had it and, in Numbers 11:14, he said to God,”If this is how You are going to treat me, put me to death right now. I want to die!” But that wasn’t Moses’ call to make. The Lord was not finished with Moses yet! He went on to lead his people through the wilderness and to the boundaries of the promised land.
And then there was that amazing day when ELIJAH killed the prophets of Baal, yet when the evil Queen Jezebel swore she was going to get even, the fearless Elijah ran into the wilderness, sat down under a juniper tree, and cried out, “I have had enough, Lord take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” (1 Kings 19:4) But that wasn’t for Elijah to decide. His life wasn’t his to take. So the Lord sent an angel to supply him with food and water-essential ingredients to life. The Lord was not finished with Elijah yet.
And consider JOB. He had boils all over his body. His flesh was eaten by worms. His skin was oozing and decaying like rotten turnips. He was so shriveled and thin that his bones were sticking out…and he had gnawing pains and frightening dreams. Under such circumstances, most of us would cry out, as Job did, “Oh that God would be willing to crush me, to let loose His hand and cut me off!” (Job 6:9) But the Lord was not finished with Job yet, either. I wonder if we had been with Job in his pain-wracked, miserable situation, would we have taken away his food and water, and allowed him to starve, dehydrate, and die? Well, to do so would be opposed to God’s purposes for He restored Job’s health and gave him many more years of productive life-and God determines productive life-not us! The plain fact is, our lives aren’t ours to take-they are God’s. He determines when they begin and when they end-not us. Our moments and days and years-are His-not ours.
How would you feel if your neighbor decided your house was an inconvenience to him. It blocked his access to park land. So, one day while you were gone to work he hired those Extreme Make-over Home Edition guys to bring their heavy equipment in to level your house and haul all the debris away. How would you feel if you got home and found a vacant lot where your home once stood? I’m sure you’d be so angry you’d find multiple ways to tell your neighbor he had overstepped his bounds. That wasn’t his call to make! That was your house! Well-that’s what God is saying here. Our lives do not belong to us. We don’t say when to end them. As Creator and absolute Owner, that is His call.
3. Another reason God wants us to see MURDER as a sin is because each human life is UNIQUE-and we see this from the very beginning in the WAY humans were created.
Look at the first chapter of Genesis and you will see that humans were created in a way that differed from the way all other things were created. In each OTHER creative act God said, “Let there be,” and it was so. God spoke and creation occurred but the creation of human life begins differently. God says, “Let us MAKE man…” So God didn’t just speak us into existence as He did everything else. No-He MADE us! To create the first human, verse 7 of Genesis 2 says, “God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breathe of life, and man became a living being.” God did not “BREATHE the breathe of life” into any other creature, so human life IS unique, in that it was made differently. Only we have living SOULS. We are not just a body!
Another thing-Genesis also records the fact that after God made something, like the sun or the oceans, the Scripture said, “And God saw that it was good.” But when He created HUMAN LIFE He said that it was not just “good” but “VERY good.” So, in God’s eyes human life IS unique in that it is more highly esteemed than any other form of life. The Genesis account also says that human life was created on the last day of God’s creative work. In other words it was the climax-the apex-of all the rest of creation, as if everything else He created was made with us in mind.
Ecclesiastes 3:11 says that God “….has planted eternity in the hearts of men…” This means that, unlike other created beings, we can effect much more than just our short lives. We can actually “lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven.” Each human life is unique in that it can do things that have eternal significance.
Here’s another thing to note-the Bible says that ONLY man was made in God’s image. Now, since God is spirit, this doesn’t mean we are physically like God. So, the fact that we are made in the image of God means we have similar inner qualities, the ability to reason, to enter into relationships…especially to relate to God. No other created thing has the ability to relate to our Creator as we do-not even angels.
By the way, do you realize that human beings are the closest thing in all creation to God? Psalm 8:5 says that man is “a little lower than heavenly beings.” Some translations say “a little lower than angels” but the word translated “angels” or “heavenly beings” is “ELOHIM”…one of the words for God. So this verse actually says that we are created “a little lower than ELOHIM-God Himself.” I mean, the ranking order in creation is not GOD, angels, humans. It is God, humans, angels. In God’s sight angels aren’t of greater value than human beings; in fact the reverse is true. Angels are never said to be created in God’s image. Only man is given this distinction.
The fact is, it is wrong to murder a human being because each human life is unique. Think of it this way each human being is an original, one of a kind masterpiece-irreplaceable. That includes you! You are priceless in value! Did you know researchers have discovered that there are at least 18,000 different personality traits? The possible combinations of these various traits are limitless. So, hear this, you ARE unique! There is not another person in this world like you. There has never been and never will be. God did not create carbon copies. He only makes originals.
Look at the person sitting to your right. That is an original. Look at the person at your left. There’s another priceless masterpiece. I mean, each Sunday when we gather we turn this room into God’s art gallery of irreplaceable one-of-a-kind masterpieces. So you see, it would be a crime to end any life. Each human being is priceless because each human being is unique-with unique insights and wisdom and talents.
This reminds me of a story I came across this week that told of a conversation between two doctors. One doctor said to another, “About the termination of a certain pregnancy, I want your opinion. The father was syphilitic. The mother was tuberculous. Of the four children born, the first was blind, the second died, the third was deaf and dumb , the fourth was also tuberculous. What would you have done about this last pregnancy?” “I would have ended it.” said the second. “Then you would have murdered Beethoven.” said the first.
This illustrates the fact that each human life is precious-murder is a foolish waste.
4. But you know, the greatest proof of the extreme value of each and every human life is seen in the fact that God has said that each life is equal in value to that of His only SON.
You know, we judge the seriousness of the crime of theft by the value of the items stolen. Inexpensive theft would be a misdemeanor, but taking more valuable property would be a felony. The more valuable the theft the greater the crime and the greater the punishment. Well, as I said human life is unique and that makes it valuable but the thing that really shows it’s value is this fact that in God’s eyes each life is worth the life of His own SON. This is an estimation of human worth beyond our comprehension. I mean, God treasures you and me more than any other thing He created and this is indicated by the fact that He not only loved us enough to create us. He also loved us enough to pay the unbelievable cost of redeeming us! Romans 5:8 says, “God demonstrates His own love-He shows how much He valued human life in this-while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” So, as C.S. Lewis once wrote, there is no such thing as a “mere mortal.” The words to that song we sang as children are so true, “Red and yellow, black and white, they ARE precious in His sight.”
Now maybe you hear all this and think, I agree with you, Mark. Murder is wrong but I never murdered anyone and am not planning on it, so I’m in the clear here.
Well, the fact is you’re not in the clear-neither am I. We’re all guilty of committing this particular deadly sin. I say this because in the text we read earlier from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said even our anger directed at other people can make us guilty of cheapening a priceless human life. You see, our Savior taught that murder is more than an act. It is an attitude. Jesus says that “anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgement. And anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin or any one who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.”
Now, “Raca” was really more of a SOUND than a WORD. It was a clearing of the throat as though to say, “I spit on you.” And to call another person a “worthless fool” was the same as writing them off all together. Jesus said this was as bad as actually killing a person because when we get this angry with someone, then deep down inside we are thinking that this person doesn’t deserve to be alive. In this instant of anger we are saying, “I don’t want to have anything to do with this person. As far as I’m concerned my life would be better if his life would end.”
You know, we are lot like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day in that we would rather deal with EXTERNALS, but Jesus is not satisfied with that. He wants to deal with INTERNAL things. He wants to talk about what is happening in our hearts. He knows that long before you or I would murder someone, we would begin the process with my thoughts. Ron Mehl writes,”Jesus deals with the ROOT of this commandment, not just it’s fruit. He’s not content to trim off the nettles and poison oak in our lives close to the ground. No, He wants to uproot the whole poisonous weed.”
Jesus taught that the root of murder is anger-hateful, people-dishonoring anger. Well, let me ask you, have you ever been so angry with another person that you wished they were dead? As you listened to Michael Schiavo’s attorney defend the act of starving Terri did you ever get so angry you wished he would starve himself? Did you think, “If he likes ending life so much I wish he’d end his own!” Have you ever gotten so angry at a sibling that you wished you were an only child? Have you ever been so mad you lost it and wished your boss or a co-worker had never been born? Ever wished someone driving too slow as you hurried to work wasn’t there?
I think if we were honest, we’d all have to admit this sin and ask for God’s forgiveness because there are ties when each of us devalues human life if not with our actions, then with our thoughts. One more quick thought-the best way to honor God’s law against murder is to do the opposite-to cherish each life-to love people, even those who are hard to love.
As we come now to the time of decision, I would remind you that the One who understands how precious your life really is-is God. As your Creator-your Designer, He knows best how to live your life. So the best way to show that you truly understand the value of human life is to give your life to Him-to commit to making your will match His will. This morning as we sing I invite you to respond by doing just that. If you are not a Christian then we urge you to accept God’s gift of ETERNAL life. 2 Timothy 6:19 says that when we do that we, “…take hold of the life that really is life.” Jesus is the source of eternal, abundant life, a meaningful life that begins the moment you accept Him as Savior and Lord. In fact Billy Graham once put it this way. He said, “To die without Christ is to take your own life” and he said this because the Bible teaches that without Christ we are dead….dead in our trespasses and sins. But Ephesians 2:4 says,”God, Who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions.” If you’re here and are not a Christian, why not decide right now to accept Jesus as Savior and walk out of here in a moment more alive than you have ever been. You may be here and believe that God’s will is that you join this church and in so doing ask Him to use your life in helping us minister to this community. Whatever your decision I would urge you to leave your seat and come and share it with me or Steve as we stand now and sing.