Murderous Hearts

Scripture

 Matthew 5:21-22

²¹ “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’; and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ ²² But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you will be liable to the hell of fire.  (NRSV)

Devotion

 Recently, I had the pleasure of reading C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce.  In this novel, a narrator describes a bus trip from Hell to the borders of Heaven.  Once they get off the bus, each ghostly passenger is met by a  someone who has already entered Heaven.  The saints try to convince the passengers assigned to them to let go of something that is holding them back and follow them into realms of eternal glory.  One passenger, known as the Big Ghost, is outraged to be approached by a murderer named Len.

In their ensuing conversation, Len says that the physical murder he committed was the least of his sins, because it happened in a brief moment of rage.  What was worse, Len explains, is that he had spent years hating Big Ghost (who had been his employer) and fantasizing about destroying him.  Len had murdered the Big Ghost in his heart and mind every single day.  That festering hatred made itself known in the way his words and actions.   At the end of the day, that daily choice to keep wishing the worst upon his boss was a much greater sin than the brief moment of rage in which he took someone's life.

The conversation between the Len and the Big Ghost is Lewis's way of repeating Jesus's words in Matthew 5.  If we are to truly keep God's commandments, then it isn't enough to refrain from physically murdering people;we must let go of the anger that makes us want to hurt them in the first place and refrain from behavior that would harm them in any way.  In other words, we have to love and seek the best for the people we want to think of as our enemies.

This is a tall order...especially at a time when the world is at our fingertips and it is so each to hurt the people we disagree with by posting a nasty tweet or a hurtful video.  Thanks to the miracles of modern technology, we can spew anger and hatred at someone without having to come face-to-face with the consequences of our words and actions.  We can verbally, socially, and emotionally "murder" people we've never even met.

What is the consequence of all the anger we put out into the world?  It's more division.  More hatred?  More sin.  It convinces to stop seeing each other as human beings who deserve compassion, forgiveness, and the benefit of the doubt.  And it compels people on different sides of an issue to turn into bitter enemies.  And though we may feel immune from retribution or as if we just did what everyone else is already doing (and what we must doe to "survive" in this kind of climate), Jesus says that we will be held accountable for the murder we commit with our hearts.

In his Institutes, John Calvin writes that those who wish to follow the 6th Commandment must realize that "the salvation and preservation of all should be the concern" of each of us. Calvin goes on to say that we must learn to see God's image within all people and constantly use our abilities and opportunities to do them good. It is only when we have done our best to seek the good of others by caring for both their bodies and their souls that we can truly say that we have stopped committing murder.

So how do we go about following Calvin's advice when we get into a disagreement or feel our hearts and minds turning against
someone?  I think we can by asking the Holy Spirit to help us remember that they are crafted in God's image.  We can ask to see what is good about them or recognize where they hurting.  And when we have remembered that the person is a real human being with hopes, fears, joys, and sorrows of their own, then we can try a few different approaches:

• We can pray for them. 
• We can listen to them.
  
• We can talk to them about our concerns and let them know that we are willing to have tough conversations because we love them.
• If someone will not be budged on something that we think is wrong, then we can disengage while still praying that God will work through us and others to help them learn the error of their ways
  
• We can be careful with the words we say about them--both to their faces and to others.
  
• We can act in ways that show we care...not just about them but about the whole world. 
• Whenever we feel our hearts hardening and our minds turn towards wishing them harm, we can use Christ's words to remind ourselves that they are a child of God and repent from our murderous impulses. 

It's hard to give up the impulse to murder people in our hearts.  In The Great Divorce, the Big Ghost can't stand the thought that Lem won't spend all of eternity being punished for his sins. And so the Big Ghost turns his back on Heaven and gets back on the bus for its return trip to Hell.  He never realizes that he has just become the kind of person the Lem has repented of being--the person who coldly murders people in his heart every single day.  At the at the end of the day, the person hurt the most by his anger is the Big Ghost himself. 

This day, let us work together to identify and root out the murder in our hearts so that we may grow closer to one another in Christ's love.  As we learn to see the image of God in all people and seek the good of even those who make us angry, let us give thanks for the example of perfect love given to us in Jesus Christ.  With Jesus as our guide, we can learn to replace hate with love.  

Prayer 

Lord of Love, soften my heart and open my mind so that I may recognize your image reflected to me in all your children--especially those I see as enemies. May I repent of the murder in my heart and come to seek the good of everyone.  In Jesus's name I pray, Amen.

 

Works Cited

 Calvin, Jean. Institutes of the Christian Religion : 1541 French Edition. Trans. Elsie Anne McKee.  Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Pub, 2009.

 Lewis, C. S. The Great Divorce: A Dream. London: Harper Collins, 2001.