Today we hear some important pieces of scripture, not the least of which are the commandments given to God’s people. They are the law which God has spoken to the people God loves.
One of the commandments in particular captured my attention this week; that commandment is “You shall not murder”.
Certainly whenever we listen to or read the news, it is unfortunately filled with horror stories of the death of people at the hands of others; stories of war, stories of crime, stories of terrorism; they are all there; and the daily death toll is one that is quite overwhelming to think about. I do not know why humans think it’s no big deal, or that somehow it is just fine to take the life of another, but we all know it is something that we have done since the beginning of time. The mark of Cain is as visible now as it ever was.
But there have been other stories of death in the news lately, and this week one comes from our beloved state Texas… and those stories concern a man who had been convicted of murder and received the death penalty as his sentence. The state executed him in the name of justice.
I want us to think about this form of justice together. I know that some of us will disagree with one another; I will also say that I have thought different things about this throughout my life, and I also know, that if someone harmed someone I loved, my desire for revenge would be strong… and that is what I think capital punishment is; I have come to see it as a form of revenge, rather than a form justice…
In last week’s gospel, Jesus rebukes Peter for setting his mind on human things, rather than on divine. Peter allows himself to get wrapped up in what he believes is right, rather than what Jesus has asked of him… cross bearing, is not a pretty or a desirable thing; but Jesus sees the bigger picture, he sees that cross bearing is not something he does for himself, but rather, something he does for the sake of others… This week’s reading from First Corinthians continues to ask us to rethink what we believe about the cross: “The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” The cross, a symbol of the empire, a device used by the empire to carry out sentences of the empire’s form of justice; and then in a reversal of symbol the God of all that is, makes the cross a symbol of the kingdom’s justice; a symbol where all are made free, where all are equal, where mercy takes the place of revenge and where God’s grace becomes the definition of justice…
Murder, whether it is committed by our hands or by our participation in the system is dangerous; it not only affects the victim who is killed, it affects our souls as well; it is not good for anyone to take the life of another no matter how much we think they deserve to die; no matter how much we think justice is served; the question remains, is it really served? Doesn’t one more death just mean someone else has died at the hands of another?
Taking a life dishonors the God who created it; and taking a second life to somehow repay a life taken makes no sense… it cannot repay the debt of a life taken… because there is nothing that can… I think there is a better way….
As followers of Jesus we are called to respect the dignity of every human being; we are called to render mercy and forgiveness rather than revenge and justice; life is not ours to take; it is ours to protect… God’s justice, God’s mercy has already spoken… it has spoken in the life of a beloved son, himself the victim of human justice… and we know that mercy and forgiveness is given freely without cost to us; and they are gifts that are life affirming, life giving… we are kingdom people live by kingdom values; and it’s not easy; sometimes it goes against everything we think we know… it sometimes goes against all that we think of as fair, as deserving, as right…
I am reminded of a very powerful scene from the show “The West Wing” several years ago. The President had the power to commute the death penalty for someone on death row and I don’t remember why, but he decided not to. The man was scheduled to be executed at midnight. At a few minutes after midnight, the President walks from his desk, and he kneels in his office, near the presidential seal on his carpet. As the camera moves to show the larger scene, a priest is sitting in a chair next to him… then the President says, “Forgive me Father, for I have sinned…” It is an incredible image that for me speaks of the difference between empire and kingdom; the difference between what we believe is “fair” versus what is merciful…
“The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” We are called beyond the understandable human need for revenge; we are called to the foolishness of God’s love and mercy where everything we thought we knew about what is fair and just is changed in the shadow of the cross of Christ… we are Jesus’ hands in the world; the effects of mercy and forgiveness on another cannot be measured… Paul himself was well aware of the gift of that mercy; he speaks of the foolishness of the cross from his own life as a once murderer of followers of Jesus, who was shown love, mercy and forgiveness by Jesus and which changed his life forever…
That’s the business we are in… changing lives… extending mercy… honoring life and honoring God… there are some high profile capital punishment cases in the news right now, as well as a bill in some states to look at alternatives to lethal injection as a means for administering the death penalty… This lent, as we look within ourselves, perhaps we can look at this issue and see if we are being challenged to believe something foolish, something different than the empire would have us believe… may we always seek to honor life and the God who has created it… and may God’s mercy be upon us all.