Do Not Murder | Exodus 20

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I don’t know about you, but when I was growing up - I did not pay a lot of attention to Christian denominations. I grew up methodist, but that didn’t really mean anything to me - that was just the name on the side of the building we always went to. In my town, there were other types of churches - Lutheran and Baptist and whatnot, but I pretty much had no idea the details. It’s funny - the CRC church, Christian Reformed, they have a really heavy presence on the west side of the state - but they’re not very common anywhere else, so growing up in the suburbs of Detroit I never heard of them. What’s a CRC? I also had trouble with Baptists - because it turns out there’s different types of baptists and sometimes I would mix them up. For example - has anyone here ever heard of “Westboro Baptist Church”? If you’ve never heard of them, congratulations - your life is better because you don’t know about these guys. They’re a very tiny church known for protesting soldier’s funerals and screaming hateful things in the worst situations. They receive national attention even though it’s a VERY small group. But then there’s another group called the Southern Baptist Church - which is the largest protestant denomination in America - and there’s NO relationship between the two. In fact the Southern Baptist church condemns strongly the work of the Westboro Baptist Church. And I didn’t know that much about them, so in my mind I thought they were the same thing. 

Here’s why this matters - when I was in college I was talking with my friend Rachel. And I don’t remember how it came up - but we ended up talking about Baptists, specifically southern baptist.  And I reacted, thinking about Westboro baptist. I went, “augh, those guys are the worst. They give Christianity a bad name. They’re so full of hatred and anger.” And my friend Rachel - her face fell, if you know what I mean. And she said very quietly, “I’m southern baptist.” Now I had known this person for three years in college, she was one of my absolute closest friends and I loved her very dearly. I was MORTIFIED. Eventually we sorted it out that I was thinking of a different group - and that I was not actually attacking my friend. But for a moment, this picture I had in my head was shattered. Have you ever had anything like that? I didn’t know that much about a group of people - baptists, and so I sort of glued them all together in my mind. And I knew some of them were really nasty, and so I just assumed - they must all be like that. And there’s a word for that - that thing I did - it’s called prejudice. And if I can just have this raw moment of honesty - having someone to hate made me feel better about myself. Those Christians are worse than I am. I’m not a perfect Christian, but at least I’m not like those guys. From that moment forward God kept bringing me into contact with Baptists folks, and they are some of the loveliest people I’ve ever met - it’s like God was trying to show me, “See? Your anger, your hatred, your assumptions - they’re misplaced.”

But that’s what happens when we get to know a group - we learn a little more, we understand nuance, and differences, and it makes them harder to hate. And I can’t help but wonder - why are so many of us living lives where we have to have someone to hate? Whether it’s hating UofM or Michigan State, hating Belgium for knocking us out of the world cup, whether it’s hating the Demoncrats or the MAGAts - hating people is built in our social structure. I heard a comedian one time tell a story about meeting Aaron Rodgers. He was a die hard Vikings fan, and this is back when Aaron was with the Packers. And after one of his shows, his manager came up and said, “Hey, Aaron Rodgers is here, do you want to meet him?” And the comedian said NO - I don’t want to meet him. Because if I meet him, I know I’m going to like him, and if I like him, then it will be harder for me to hate the packers! And I have to hate the packers (And everybody said Amen). Why do so many of us live lives where we have to have someone to hate?

Today we are continuing our series called The TEN - where all summer we have been swimming through the Ten Commandments that God gave to Israel to help them live a new life after escaping slavery in Egypt. And today we are jumping in with commandment number 6 - and normally I invite y’all to get out your bibles and follow along, but I’m not going to do that today, and you’ll see why in just a second. Exodus chapter 20, verse 13 - let’s put that on the screen [read it]. Commandment number six is 4 words. As we’ve gone through this series, most of the commandments have a verse or two to explain and help us understand. Last week, it said “take a sabbath” and then it went on for a bit about how God made the whole world in six days and the seventh day is set aside for rest. But for this commandment, we get four words. That’s the whole thing. That’s it. You shall not murder. [Pause] I mean, we can probably pack it up early today. There’s not a lot of discussion on murder. People might argue about idols or sabbath or whatever - but nobody’s like “pro-murder.” And I figure the takeaway is really easy too - what these four words teach us about the character of God is really simple: God values human life. Your life MATTERS to God. I think one of the most beautiful passages that shows us God’s heart on this is Psalm 139. I won’t read the whole chapter, but I want to, but here’s a piece, [read Psalm 139]. God values life. He knit you together in your mother’s womb - from womb to tomb, God values life. He has given us a rule to protect life. And actually, not to add to the four words - but the hebrew word for “murder” actually encompasses a lot more than our strict definition of murder - it included things like accidental killing and several different buckets - because God VALUES human life.

Okay - so you can see why I didn’t want you to open to Exodus, but NOW if you want to grab your bibles, we’re going to move over to Matthew, chapter 5. Matthew is in the new testament, so it’s going to be towards the back of the bible, and if you are using a bible app - make sure you toggle it to the NIV translation, because that’s what I’m working with this morning, if you want to get the words to match exactly. While you’re looking that up - I want to give some context, this is from Jesus’ most famous sermon ever, some people call it the sermon on the mount, and we dive in with verse 21. Chapter 5, verse 21, [read v.21]. You know what Jesus, I do remember hearing that. But he’s not done. Verse 22, [read 22a]. Now, I don’t know about your bible, but mine has a little note next to the word “Raca” - and down at the bottom it says, “an aramaic term of contempt.” I’ve got another translation that just says “idiot” instead. Jesus says, “You have heard it said, “you shall not murder” - BUT I tell you that if you are angry, if you call someone an idiot, if you call them a fool - you are in danger of the fires of hell. [long pause] Uh-oh. Suddenly the easiest commandment to follow just became one of the hardest! I LOVE “do not murder” because it’s so easy to follow! Can I brag for a second? I haven’t been tempted to murder for like, weeks! Doesn’t even cross my mind. I’m kidding! I don’t think actual murder has ever crossed my mind, not once! But it seems like Jesus just moved the goal posts way down the field. And this shows us something really important - Anger is seed of death. Think about it like an iceberg (throw up a picture of an iceberg). Jesus is showing us that murder is the visible tip of something with a much larger mass underwater: contempt, dehumanizing someone in your heart, deciding they don’t matter. Jesus is revealing that the capacity for murder was already living in the heart wherever contempt was allowed to take root. 

So let me ask you the question you don’t want to think about. What are you angry about today? Here - I’ll go first. I get angry at our cat, because she jumps up on the counter and gets into our food. If we finish dinner but don’t put it away immediately - our cat Starla jumps right up there and starts snacking away. I get so mad about that. I get angry when my children don’t listen to me. I had a friend last week who had to deal with an ex-wife who cheated, and I got angry because it just ruined his day. I get angry at gas prices. I get angry people who drive too fast. I get angry at people who drive too slow. I get angry for people telling me that I’m driving too fast or too slow. I guess I kind of get angry - A LOT. And it seems to me like I have great reasons to be angry!

But Jesus links anger and murder, anger and death. So let me ask a different question - what is the anger inside you…killing? The anger inside me towards being single longer than I planned is killing me by making me miss the life I actually have while I wait for the one I want. The anger inside me towards the marriage that ended is killing me by convincing me it’s safer to never be fully known by anyone again. The anger inside me towards the church that hurt me is killing me by keeping my guard up in every room that looks like this one. The anger inside me towards my body for not bouncing back is killing me by stealing the joy I used to feel in parenting. The anger inside me toward my dad for never showing up is killing me by turning me into the parent I swore I’d never become. The anger inside me toward God for the prayer he didn’t answer is killing me by secretly resenting the prayers God answered for others. The anger inside of me…is killing me.

But you know, back in Matthew 5 - jump back with me for a second, verse 17 - just before the bit about anger, there’s something important. [read v.17]. It might feel like this anger stuff is Jesus adding to the old law - but he’s not. Jesus came to fulfill the law. Jesus is digging under the surface of the four words “You shall not murder.” It’s kind of like an X-ray [put up picture of an X Ray]. An X-ray doesn’t show you anything new about your body - the fracture was always there - it just reveals what was already true beneath the surface. Jesus’ teaching on anger is like that. When he does the “you have heard it said… but I say to you” - when he does that - it’s not inventing a stricter rule, it’s showing us what’s underneath the skin. A surgeon doesn’t just treat the tumor’s symptoms; they go after the root cause. Jesus is doing surgery on the heart, not just legislating behavior.

This really gets after the major teaching we get, not just from this commandment, but from this whole series - Jesus wants your entire heart. He is not satisfied with what it looks like on the outside. I think in our town, a lot of us, and a lot of the people we know - we are so good at making it look good on the outside, but never letting it get under the surface and actually transform our lives. But Jesus wants more than that. Jesus came for ALL of you. He doesn’t just want to get rid of killing on the outside, but he wants to wipe contempt out of your heart entirely. He doesn’t want to get rid of adultery, he wants to wipe out lust from your heart entirely. He doesn’t just want to get rid of stealing, he wants to wipe out our greed and selfishness entirely. This was never about controlling your behaviors, this was always about transforming your heart. Jesus wants your entire heart. That’s why a lot of us make such a big deal about the difference between relationship and religion. 

Religion is easier. Religion is a performance. You put on the monkey suit, you stay inside the lines, you show up when you’re supposed to show up and make it look good. And what a lot of people don’t realize is that Jesus spent a MAJORITY of his ministry attacking religion. There was this whole group of people - we call them the Pharisees. They were the greatest church people ever - they donated to the church without ever becoming generous, they gave to the needy without ever loving them, they took a meticulous sabbath every week without ever resting in the presence of God and they never murdered - but they were angry all the time. And then Jesus showed up and he told them - this performance is not what I want. I want you. All of you. Your actions, sure - but even more than that, I want your heart. There is a surrender that goes beyond outward obedience. To submit - not just the work of my hands - but the content of my character to the Holy Spirit. That’s what we mean when we step into the waters of baptism. When we accept the grace Jesus gives us - accept his forgiveness and promise to follow him as our Lord - it’s not just the outside we are surrendering, it’s all of us. Jesus’ plan was always more than a list of rules - Jesus came for ALL of who you are.

And similar to last week, when we were talking about sabbath, if you look at the world around us - you will see the results of focusing on the performance instead of the heart. Most of us in the room would never consider murder. But anger…anger is a core value in our society. Anger is a superpower in our culture. If you are well spoken and angry enough - you get your own talk show, you get your own podcast, you get your own segment on every major news channel. And it has run rampant through every aspect of our society - we’re angry in the schools, we’re angry in the churches, we’re angry at the political rallies, we’re angry at the neighborhood fireworks, we’re angry about construction on the roads, we’re angry at the gas pump, we’re angry in the grocery stores. We look at the ten commandments, forget the heart and say, “at least I’m not murdering” and then we have forgotten how to love. We don’t love ANYTHING in the modern world anymore. We just hate some stuff less than other stuff. We hate the other side more than they hate us. We don’t look to the news or our leaders to inform us so that we can make a decision on our own - we look to them so they can tell us who we should be angry at. 

Be honest, have you ever had this? Have you ever read a story and then you pause and think, “meh, that doesn’t really bother me - but I wonder if I’m supposed to be upset?” Like, you sort of look around - what’s everybody else think - is this the new thing we’re going to be mad about this week? I guess I AM upset about a gender neutral Mr. Potato Head. There’s this term that’s been thrown around a lot called “rage-baiting” - have you heard of this? It’s when an article or story or even just something that someone says is designed specifically to bait you into getting angry. In a world where everyone scrolls past everything they think is boring - most companies have figured out it’s better to say something outrageous because then at least you’re more likely to click on it. But think about that word bait for a second. Got your juicy little worm for the fish - it looks delicious, but it’s got a hook in it. Same thing with rage bait in our culture - when we focus on the surface level obedience, on the tip of the iceberg and we lose the depth - anger runs rampant in our hearts and in our culture. 

But thankfully, Jesus doesn’t stop there. Back in Matthew 5, verse 23 he keeps going and tells us, [read v.23-24]. In a world full of rage-baiting, Jesus pushes reconciliation. He says, “look, you’re fighting with someone, you’re angry with someone, you are carrying the seeds of death around in your heart - I don’t care about your religious performance, pause that - go find reconciliation, then come back and do this thing with the right heart.” So this is my challenge for you this week - what would reconciliation look like for you? What would it look like this week if you pulled the fuse out of the bomb that anger is building in your heart? Maybe there is someone who hurt you in your past - and they said sorry, but you didn’t want to hear it. You’re still not over it - maybe you need to reach out to them this week. Or maybe you did the hurting. And they told you about it, but instead of saying sorry you got defensive - maybe you need to reach out to apologize, to make amends. Or maybe you can’t reach them - maybe they’ve passed on or moved far away, maybe they never said sorry or it was an abusive situation - even if you can’t reach them to pursue reconciliation, maybe you just need to find a path towards forgiveness, to find a way to release the grip that anger and resentment has over your life. It’s not always about the other person, but rather just finding healing in your own life, finding a way to move forward without the anger. 

Or maybe before we even get to reconciliation, you need to do some digging to figure out why are you even mad? You’ve got the anger, but you’re not even sure where it’s coming from? Some of you know this about me - I have made a hobby out of apologetics. If you’re not familiar, basically - it’s defending the principles of Christianity through logic and debate - or the easy way to describe it is that I like to get into arguments with people on the internet. And for years I really thought I was doing something important - defending the faith! Get a couple thousand followers on twitter or threads and take on the toughest atheist arguments and argue back and forth - but if you get into those fights, you always have to win. Now those of you who know me pretty well - I’m a very positive person. I’m happy 99% of the time, but if I’m cranky - it’s probably twitters fault. And my wife can attest to this - there would be days where I would be in a funk and she’d ask what’s going on and I would respond, “Ah, just this argument with a guy on twitter - I’m not sure how to respond and it’s really bugging me.” And she would always respond the same way, “you know the answer to that, right? Delete your twitter account!” And do you know what I found out a couple weeks ago? God has been speaking to me words of wisdom, straight from my wife’s lips and I just wasn’t paying attention. I was in my prayer time a couple weeks ago, and right before I sat down to pray I read a fresh argument on the app threads, which is like the new twitter. And I got so mad about it, I could barely focus on my prayer time. And God gave me this little nudge, you know what you need to do - and so I didn’t delete my accounts yet, but I deleted them off my phone. And since that moment, the release on my heart has been staggering! These arguments that seemed so important, this anger I had been letting seep into my heart and ruin my day - it all just faded to the background. The peace I found from logging off from my favorite rage-bait generator - it’s been really wonderful. So maybe reconciliation involves you and someone who has been making you angry - but maybe it involves pausing for a minute, looking at your heart and figuring out what is feeding the fear, what is feeding the anger? Are there voices you need to replace with the reassurance from Jesus - that he wants all of you, even your heart.

In a moment the worship band is going to lead us in our last song - and it’s a song called “God of Revival.” And it’s a well known song, but whether you know it or not - I want ask during this last song that you would examine your heart. Where are the seeds of murder growing in your heart? How much are you letting anger control you? And once you have identified it - I want you to surrender it to Jesus. Replace rage with reconciliation. Replace hatred with holiness and trouble with tranquility. Our God is a God of reconciliation, a God of revival. And he can light up even the darkest night. Let’s pray.