The Sixth Word - Reconcile
- Brian Ballinger
- Aug 8, 2010
- Series: The Ten Words
Sixth Word: Reconcile (The Ten Words)
Reconnect – August 8, 2010
Text: Exodus 20:1-2, 13; Hebrews 12:14-15
Key Thought: A life matters so much to God that He demands we treat it with the same respect He does.
“You must not murder.” Exodus 20:1-2, 13, NLT
Intro: “Murder, Murder, Everywhere”
- It’s hard to imagine on a sunny Sunday morning – but we live in a culture that is fascinated by, of all things, murder
- Murder is big in the media right now – the details of the Robert Pickton trial have come to light – the most horrific serial killer in Canadian history, and how he committed such horrible acts seemingly right under the noses of the authorities
- And then the Robert Semrau case – when is killing the enemy in a war justified, and when is it murder?
- Don’t forget movies – where routinely the most popular thing at the box office are the slasher films, not to mention the vampires
- And then there’s TV – where a US Senate judiciary committee heard in late 1999 that before the age of 18, a person would watch 16000 murders on TV before age 18
- Think about CSI - all three brands of it, for that matter – every episode features a body – murder is built right into the product
- What IS it about murder that fascinates us? Is it about confronting our deepest fears about violence and death? Is it about our fascination with the end of life? Is it our need in a spectator culture to try to touch something of our numbed souls? Or is it something about our inmost natures that draws us to the crime with the most final consequence?
- Whatever it is, we are surrounded by murder – and it’s killing us – so it’s probably good to take a few moments this morning for a closer look at God’s sixth word to His people
“Thou shalt not kill”
- But first off, we have to make sure we’re all on the same page
- When you ask people about this commandment, so often they say this: “Thou shalt not kill”
- That’s a quote from a 400 year old Bible translation – one that didn’t get it right then, and it’s still not right now – because the Hebrew ratsach doesn’t mean all killing – it doesn’t necessarily mean war or capital punishment – ratsach is the unauthorized, unlawful taking of a person’s life
- In our 21st century systems, we have even categorized murder, after roughly 750 years of British case law – 1st degree, 2nd degree,
- premeditated and intentional – first degree
- unpremeditated and intentional – second degree
- Unpremeditated and unintentional – manslaughter
- culpable homicide – someone dies as a result of something you do or don’t do
- But God doesn’t make those distinctions – He just says you must NOT do it
“Let’s talk murder”
- So, since we’re all experts on murder, having watched so many of them on TV, let’s talk about it a bit:
Q: What are motives for murder? Why do people murder?
- B.J. Rahn, an English lit professor at Hunter College in New York, summarizes motives for murder in four different broad categories, based on some earlier studies:
Practical motives: (“You are in MY way”)
(Greed, self-protection, ambition)
Emotional satisfaction: (“I HATE you”)
(Revenge, envy, jealousy, desire to possess or protect)
Conviction: (“I’m right and you’re NOT”)
(Intellectual, ideological, spiritual goals - political, social, religious, aesthetic ideals)
Criminally insane (“It doesn’t matter, YOU don’t matter”)
“D-uh! I would NEVER murder anyone”
- You might be asking at this point, “So why am I here? Like I’m ever going to MURDER anyone!?!”
- Can’t I just check this commandment off and move on to try to keep the rest of them? Like, this is the free square in the middle of the bingo card?
- Here’s what Jesus had to say to a group of highly respectable people trying to live good lives for God and other people, who were thinking the same thing:
“You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell.” Matthew 5:21-22, NLT
- And he says more about it, a few chapters of his biography later:
“...the words you speak come from the heart—that’s what defiles you. For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander. These are what defile you.” Matthew 15:18-20, NLT
- Jesus is uncomfortably adamant: murder begins in the heart, with anger, bitterness and hate, and it doesn’t matter if it gets to the end of the line or not – being on the same track is bad enough in God’s sight
Q: Why do YOU think He says that?
- They all point in the same direction – it’s a writing off of someone – cutting them off from you, their life from your life, for whatever reason – it’s an intentional ending of that person to you
- Not to mention, frankly, that if we could kill people with our minds, there would be a sharp spike in the homicide rate, and a lot less spouses...!
- Our minds don’t the same limits as the rest of us
Are you a hater?
- So let’s break down what Jesus said and see what sticks to us and our lives this morning
Q: Who do we hate, and why? (general or specific)
Q: Talk to me about someone you have hated in your life. Why did you hate them then – how do you feel about them now? (Parents – boss – rivals – peers – authority figures – who else?)
- Is it a coincidence that the motives for hate and bitterness line up so well with the motives for murder that we talked about earlier?
Practical motives: (“You are in MY way”)
(Greed, self-protection, ambition)
Emotional satisfaction: (“I HATE you”)
(Revenge, envy, jealousy, desire to possess or protect)
Conviction: (“I’m right and you’re NOT”)
(Intellectual, ideological, spiritual goals - political, social, religious, aesthetic ideals)
Criminally insane (“It doesn’t matter, YOU don’t matter”)
- Hate is such a difficult thing – it’s like chips and French onion dip – it feels so right and so good at the time (SO satisfying!) but the morning after, you realize that you have done a bad, bad thing
Why does God care so much?
- Why is God so hard on hate? Hate is heart cancer – it just eats away at us – call it bitterness, whatever you want – but the people that we hate continue to hurt us – continue to wound us – without even knowing what they do – because we have taken over from them, as we continue to choose to hate them and hold that bitterness in our hearts
- It also tends to spread – we want to limit our hate to just one person, or a special class of people in our lives – but when we indulge our hate, it wants to work its way down our list – our list keeps expanding
- Most importantly, life belongs to God - think about the very first murder – the brothers Cain and Abel – at the crime scene, God says to Cain that “your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground”
- God’s people polluted The Promised Land with all the blood that they shed unjustly, and the land cried out for relief from it
- If we are created in God’s image – any killing is an assault on that image
- All killing all death is serious, extremely serious, no matter your views on issues like capital punishment, mercy killing, euthanasia, and abortion – and murder is what there is no justification for – God draws lines in the Bible, and murder is people going outside those lines
- Listen to what Jesus’ best friend said near the end of his life:
If we love our Christian brothers and sisters, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead. Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them.
I John 3:14-15, NLT
How to hate hate?
- How do we deal with hate? Anger? Bitterness? How do we get rid of it? How do we detox from it – get pure from it?
- Quick answer? “It depends” – how to work it through?
- Talk about it – if you haven’t – OR – STOP talking about it, if you HAVE already (paradox alert!)
- Get some distance from it – some perspective
- Try to see the object of your hate as a person, instead of an object – what are their shoes like? What is their motivation? What compels them to be who they are? And, do they even realize their impact on you?
- Stop caring about those who don’t care about you – set yourself free (forgiveness – the process – so up and down, two steps forward, three steps back)
- Take a radical step of obedience to God
- Listen to yourself – are you scaring yourself yet?
- Talk to Jesus about it – put your life in His hands – think about the sacrifice of Jesus – forgiveness – Jesus gives his blood for us – blood = life – and then goes from death to life – Jesus is a victim of murder so that we, murderers at heart, can go free from murder’s clutches.
So if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the Temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar. Go and be reconciled to that person. Then come and offer your sacrifice to God. Matthew 5:23-24, NLT
- My history with hate...
- Stories about me? I’m a pretty good hater for awhile... you know when the wounds turn to scars, and when they still bleed, bleed, bleed
Key Thought:
A life matters so much to God that He demands we treat it with the same respect He does.
Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life,
for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.
Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God.
Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many. (Hebrews 12:14-15, NLT)
Conclusion: just like BP
- Why was the word today “reconciliation”?
- It means to make something right – to connect what was broken – to make something that was disrupted or confused to fit again
- It’s the Jesus advice – He says to make it right, as far as you can – and not just so that we can sleep at night, but so that those with something against US can sleep at night too – that’s His marker, His indicator
- It doesn’t mean best friends – but it means fixing what is broken
- It’s like the BP oil disaster – they’ve been working for months to fix the broken oil rig, that every day was spewing more oil, more filth into the water, ruining the environment more and more, causing more and more devastation and collateral damage every day
- That’s what hate is like in us – do you know a hater? It’s like the pipe from deep in your heart that keeps spewing black filth onto the rest of your life – it’s capping it, sealing it with concrete, and leaving it behind – channelling your strength the way it was meant to be
- God can make the wells of our hearts run sweet instead of bitter – trade an oil spill for a fresh water spring (Nana in Newfoundland)
Response: prayer
