“Thou shalt not kill.” It’s written right there in the Ten Commandments as given to Moses in the Old Testament. Some say we need that on a placard in our classrooms or courthouses to remind us, but we don’t. It’s already written on our hearts; it’s woven into our DNA. How do I know? Because killing shocks and repulses us. We know viscerally that it’s wrong.
So why do some people not understand that? Why do some people kill? Some say it’s the result of pure evil. Others say it’s mental illness. Maybe it’s something else. I don’t know; I’m not a theologian, sociologist, psychologist or doctor. I just know it’s wrong.
Lord, have mercy on us . . .
We also know it’s wrong to steal. That too is one of the Ten Commandments, just two spots below the commandment on killing, and that’s a good place for it, because to kill is to steal. When one kills, one steals a life. What’s more, killing steals hopes, dreams, ambitions and aspirations. Killing steals a beloved member from a family, a best friend, a good neighbor. Killing steals from our collective future, because killing steals the potential in that person for a world-changing invention, a medical cure, a life-changing relationship, a helping hand, an encouraging word.
And yet we keep killing. It fills up our newscasts and our social media; it’s relentless. This week it was Charlie Kirk; two weeks ago it was Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska; in June it was a Minnesota legislator and her husband. For much too long it’s been a daily reality in Gaza, Ukraine and in many of our American cities and neighborhoods – and our schools and churches. And 24 years ago this week our national psyche was shattered with the deadly attacks in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania, and in the wars and conflicts that followed in response.
The headlines about killings are nothing new; they go back through time to our creation as recorded in the sacred texts – the same texts that tell how it isn’t meant to be this way. This is not what God wants for us. This is not what God created us to be. We have failed God, and we have failed each other.
Lord, have mercy on us . . . show us the way out of this.
But God has shown us the way. It’s there in the Ten Commandments at the top of the list: “I am the Lord your God . . . you shall have no other gods before me.” Those other gods including all those things that lead people to kill: envy, greed, arrogance.
Likewise, when asked what the greatest commandments were, Jesus was clear in his answer: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
It’s as clear as day, and yet we persist in killing one another.
Lord, have mercy on us . . .