“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. “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
“Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
I don’t know if you have ever played this game, but I love the group game “Murderer.” It’s a game where you deal out cards andwhoever gets the ace of spades is the murderer. As the game progresses, the murderer tries not to get caught by the rest of the group. His or her job is to eliminate all the other players by winking at them. The game got more and more exciting, frustrating and funny as one person after another would slump over or scream and flop on the floor in fake death. I guess you could say murder brought the group closer together.
We all know that in real life that is far from the truth. Murder is the deliberate taking of a life. This heinous act not only takes the life of the victim, but sucks the life out of all those who are intimately connected to both victim and murderer.
Things are never the same in either family, for example. Simple things like songs, smells and images remind the victim’s family of their loss. Someone is missing. Fathers will never walk their daughters down the aisle. Mother’s will never cheer at their sons’ sporting events.
For the family of the murderer there is the stigma of being related to that person. Everywhere you go you get to be known as the murder’s spouse or child or mother. People look at you differently. Then there are the questions and awkward pauses when one of you doesn’t know what to say and feels embarassed.
We certainly are glad we aren’t murderers, then, aren’t we? Or are we? When we started this journey I told you I wanted to look at this series of verses from Chapter 5 through Chapter 7, but backwards; so from 7 to 5. I wanted to look at these chapters in terms of the Great Commandments to love God and love each other.
Then we have to look at how we “murder” each other in terms of the Great Commandments. That is why Jesus takes the commandment “thou shall not kill” a step further. When we tell someone they have no value, we destroy their reason for life. That is what really gets so many to remain complacent when dictatorships begin programs of genocide. Think of why most of the Jews of World War II remained in Germany after Hitler’s rise to power; why bankers, lawyers and businessmen became docile to the early acts of the Nazis.
Now I know that some will argue the threats and reality of beatings, the threats of guns and all the rest, and I would agree with them. Where I grew up I had a number of friends whose relatives, whom I knew, were in the camps of the Holocaust. I am not saying that these were bad or stupid people. What I am saying is that the Nazis had already taken the fight out of them with the constant ridicule and coercion.
How do we do it fatso? Loser? Dork? Jerk? Idiot? Ho? Tramp? Putz? I could go on and get much more vulgar. I could because I have used them. How dare I? What makes me think I’m God’s gift to anything, much less God? As I am writing this, I am watching Simon on American Idol Rewind. I don’t normally watch Idol, but I can’t get anything else off my bunny ears. But this is probably the top show in America for two reasons: the talent and Simon’s destruction of people. Tell me I’m wrong.
Why do we tear down? While we’re at it how is it we fawn over stars that have affairs? Brad and Anjolina? Tom Cruise and pick a female until Katie came along. We watch it on the OC, Desperate Housewives, Las Vegas and countless other shows. Why are we not up in arms? Probably because we aren’t directly affected.
But know the pain of adultery having been the victim through my first marriage. I experienced it again with another girl I thought I was going to marry. Let me give you a sample of what it is like: take a four-inch diameter pole. Fasten it so that it is about three feet off the ground and horizontal. Now run as fast as you can and contact your abdomen at full speed. Then take the pole and have someone beat you about the head with it.
Adultery is murder of what God has joined as one. The aftermath is no different, only the victim has to remain alive and live with the pain the rest of their lives. How can we then face God who says to love each other as we love ourselves? Can we see how Jesus equates the destruction of a person’s psyche with murder?
This week, count the number of times you do this to someone either out loud or in your mind. Then look in the mirror and tell yourself the same thing. What would you want to say to God after that? One of us is a murderer; no, I think it’s both of us.
