One Monday in April, Carl Hailey took the M16 automatic rifle he had gotten hold of from an old Marine Corps buddy, sneaked into the Ford county courthouse, and hid in a closet. Two hours later, as Billy Cobb and Pete Williams were being escorted from the jail to the courthouse for their bond hearing, Carl burst out of the closet and shot them both in the head and chest. There were two eyewitnesses. He left the rifle, covered with fingerprints, at the scene. Ten weeks later, Carl walked out of the courtroom, a free man; and everyone agreed that justice had been done. You see, Billy Cobb and Pete Williams had abducted and brutally raped Carl’s ten-year old daughter during a drunken spree, and then dumped her broken body into a ravine. Because the child lived, although permanently injured both physically and mentally, the most severe sentence either Billy and Pete would have gotten was 13 years in the state pen. So pretty much everyone agreed that if it had been their daughter they, too, would have gotten out their guns and gone after the pair. Justice had, indeed, been done. The only really surprising thing about the verdict was that Carl was black, Billy and Pete were white, and this was a Mississippi courthouse.
This scene or scenes like it are played out oftener than most of us probably want to realize. There is a deep human need to get even - to restore the balance - when violence occurs. Until things are put right, not only the individual who has been injured, but the entire community will be tense, unstable, ready to erupt. The need to get even is part of our craving for justice. It is a serious thing to shed blood. Violent injury creates a debt, a debt which if not paid will simply pile up on the ledger until the unpaid violence spills over, and violence in this country is rising. The recent Los Angeles riots were simply the best publicized sign. But behind the riots was the Rodney King beating. Behind the Rodney King beating was the Los Angeles crime rate. Behind the crime rate is more abuse and more brutality, some more subtle and some simply unreported. And it goes on all over the country. Washington DC sees more than one murder a day. Joggers in New York are set upon and beaten nearly to death. In Chicago’s inner city school children are killed by random bullets. Derelicts are burned to death in doorways. Policemen are shot on duty and innocent people are beaten up just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Fear is everywhere. Anger is everywhere. Behind most acts of violence is another act of violence, and another and worse one is yet to come. And no one, white or black, believes that the court system is doing its job. No one believes that justice is being done. This is another kind of national debt, one we cannot pay, and it is mounting. Genesis 9:5-6 says, “...for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting... from each man I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man.”
What will stop the cycle of violence in this country?
Some people simply cry out for more law and order. Swifter punishment, more severe punishment, more certain punishment is the answer, they say. The way deterrence works is a simple mathematical equation: the severity of the punishment times the certainty of conviction must be greater than the reward of the crime. Make the severity and the certainty of the penalty great enough and the crime rate will drop.
This is true. It will work. Back in the Middle Ages, a charming fellow known as Vlad the Impaler ruled the duchy of Transylvania, near to where the Yugoslavian civil war is currently raging. His political philosophy was somewhat to the right of Attila the Hun, and his penal code was, to say the least, severe. However little we might approve of them, though, his methods were undoubtedly effective. They used to say that an 18-year-old virgin could walk start naked at midnight down the main street of any village in the duchy with a bag of gold clutched in her arms and no one would molest her. That’s domestic tranquility of a kind I think many of us here would envy.
But it comes at a cost. It comes at a cost most of us are unwilling to pay.
Americans want safety, yes; but we want justice, as well. We want to be able to hold our heads up. We want to live up to our own beliefs about ourselves. We look back in horror at English law of 200 years ago, when men, women, or children might be sentenced to death for picking pockets or stealing a loaf of bread, when starvation was no excuse, and when public hangings were public entertainment. We look in equal horror at the severity of the law in places like Saudi Arabia, where crimes may punished with flogging or even the loss of a hand. Comfortable middle class Americans don’t like the idea of “getting even,” and so much of the time we wring our hands in helpless confusion as the level of violence rises in this country. And the people who are being injured, the helpless, the disenfranchised, the victims, do not understand why they are not being protected. And so the fear and anger continue to rise.
Why should we be so horrified at the idea of retribution? Doesn’t failure to punish mean failure to recognize the severity of the crime? Doesn’t that passage in Genesis mean that the shedding of blood should be taken seriously? and doesn’t the Bible elsewhere specifically command that the punishment be equivalent to the offense? Exodus 21: 23-25 gives us the classic statement of lex talionis, “But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.” That’s still a common code in many parts of the world. If the state doesn’t do it, someone else will. You hurt me, I’ll hurt you. You kill my brother, I’ll kill yours. It’s a common practice. It’s a widespread practice. And it’s a Biblical practice. Numbers 35:19 says, “The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death; when he meets him, he shall put him to death.” The avenger of blood was the nearest kinsman, the ga’al; it’s the same word used in the book of Ruth to describe Boaz, her “kinsman-redeemer,” commanded to look out for the interests of those in the tribe who were powerless or afflicted. The “kinsman-avenger” not only had the right to vengeance, he had a responsibility.
So what’s wrong with it?
How do you keep the avenger from overdoing it?
How do you keep retribution within limits? How did Israel handle their criminal justice system? In Exodus 21, and then again in Numbers 35, God told Moses how to handle capital crimes; now in Joshua 20 they have arrived in Canaan, and it is time for Joshua to put the system into effect:
Tell the Israelites to designate the cities of refuge, as I instructed you through Moses, so that anyone who kills a person accidentally and unintentionally may flee there and find protection from the avenger of blood. When he flees to one of these cities, he is to stand in the entrance of the city gate and state his case before the elders of that city. Then they are to admit him into their city and give him a place to live with them. If the avenger of blood pursues him, they must not surrender the one accused, because he killed his neighbor unintentionally and without malice aforethought. He is to stay in that city until he has stood trial before the assembly . . .
The way it worked was something like this. First of all, when you think of the city gate, don’t think of the fugitive - call him Abner - standing before a locked door pounding to get in, with Simeon Legree not five minutes behind. The city gate was more like a town square, a broad open space where public business was transacted. So ...Abner shows up the gate of Kedesh in Galilee one afternoon, disheveled and sweaty, approaches a group of older men sitting cross-legged on the ground, intent in conversation, and asks them for asylum. He says, “My neighbor Phineas is dead. When we were chopping wood together the head flew off my axe and hit him over the eye. When his brother Simeon finds out I fear that he will kill me, for he is a violent man.” The elders confer for a while, agree that this falls under the conditions established for admitting refugees, and find him a house to stay in for a time. The following morning a wild-eyed fellow comes roaring into the city brandishing a knife and shouting, “Where is that murdering blackguard Abner? Let me at him!” The elders recognize him immediately as the hot-tempered Simeon, and tell him to return to his own city of Migdal, because Abner has been granted sanctuary. Within a week or two, emissaries from Kedesh and Migdal agree on a time when Midgal’s elders will meet to hear Abner’s case. When the time comes, a couple of sturdy young Levites are assigned to escort Abner back to his home town.
During the course of the hearing at Migdal, one of two things will happen. Simeon might produce witnesses who saw Abner hit Phineas over the head with his axe and then take the axehead off and place it near the fallen man to make it look like an accident. In this case Simeon is given the blessing of the community. In fact, Simeon becomes the agent of the community for restoring the equilibrium. He was not free to let Abner go. Remember Numbers 35:19: “The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death..." and “‘Do not accept a ransom for the life of a murderer, who deserves to die. He must surely be put to death." [v. 31]
However, if Simeon cannot produce witnesses, the assembly would conclude that Abner’s story must be in essence correct, and Simeon will be forbidden from pursuing the matter. But it doesn’t end there. Blood has still been shed, a life has been taken, and the accounts are out of balance. What will make it possible for Simeon and the others to receive Abner back into community? Bloodshed is a serious matter. In Numbers 35:33 YHWH says “‘Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it.’” If God does not hold Abner accountable for the death of Phineas, how will the land be cleansed? How can the debt be cleared?
Well, first of all the Migdal assembly has to keep Simeon away from Abner until Abner goes back to Kedesh, to keep the situation from getting totally out of hand. Numbers 35:25 says that “The assembly must protect the one accused of murder from the avenger of blood and send him back to the city of refuge to which he fled.” That’s still pretty severe, though, if Abner is innocent. It’s banishment, exile. And it still doesn’t solve the problem of the debt created by the shedding of blood. How does it all end? Look at Joshua 20:6:
"He is to stay in that city until he has stood trial before the assembly and until the death of the high priest who is serving at that time. Then he may go back to his own home in the town from which he fled.”
But what’s to keep Simeon from just biding his time until Abner returns and killing him then?
Well, first of all, there’s been a cooling-off period. Simeon has had time to think it over. and Abner has suffered a bit too, being sent away, and may have learned to be more careful with his tools. Secondly, the Migdal assembly repealed Simeon’s right to retribution by naming Phineas’ death an accident. And lastly, and most importantly, when the assembly called the death an accident, the debt became God’s, not Abner’s. Exodus 21:13 says, “if [the manslayer] did not lie in wait for him ... God let him fall into his hand.” The payment of the debt became God’s responsibility; vengeance passes, in a very real sense, from Simeon to God. And if God accepts the death of the high priest as sufficient to remove the pollution from the land, so must Simeon. That life pays for the accidental death. The balance is restored, and Abner is now free to return to Migdal and take up his life where he left it.
So what does this mean for us, now, in 20th century America?
First of all, we must not make the mistake of assuming that violent crime can simply be forgiven, even if the community agrees that considerations of motive argue for mercy. Even if the injury was an accident or if the motive is valid there is still an injury to be paid for. Remember that violence destroys the balance in the community. But more than that: violence belittles personhood. It is a violation of a human being made in God’s image. Violence devalues God. To forgive lightly is to take lightly the image of God which has been defaced or destroyed.
If you say to the person who has hurt you, “what you did to me doesn’t matter,” what you are really saying is, “I am worthless.” And I want to tell you that I am not worthless, and you are not worthless. You are worth more than you can imagine, and any injury done you is an injury done to God himself. It must not be taken lightly. It cannot be pretended away.
But it is not necessary to take “life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, [and] hand for hand” for justice to be done, for we, too, have a refuge. We, too, have a high priest. We have a high priest whose death has paid for everything. God has not withdrawn the refuge He established for Israel; on the contrary, He has strengthened it. The Western commitment to mercy which grew out of our Christian heritage, and which makes it so difficult for people who have not suffered from violence understand the very real human need to get even, has a real basis for forgiveness, not just a sentimental desire to be nice. That basis for forgiveness is the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on our behalf.
Our high priest is Jesus Christ, and his death is enough. There is no wrong that one human being can do to another which is greater than what was done to the son of God. There is nothing that has not already been atoned for. But in order for the death of Jesus to be applied effectively to stop the violence in our society, more must be done. We cannot just say, murder or maim whoever you like, everything has been paid for. But what is it that is missing? What were the steps that the Israelites went through?
One, Phineas applied for asylum.
Two, the community heard the case and validated the claim.
Three, Simeon accepted the verdict and gave up his right to revenge.
Following this pattern, the offender must first claim the refuge offered, the blood of Christ, and agree to live according to the conditions of the refuge. Secondly, he community must judge and accept the validity of the offender’s claim, and cooperate in seeing that he or she continues to abide by the conditions. And finally, the victim - or the avenger - must accept the payment, must accept the death of Christ as sufficient, and let go.
All of us have been hurt by someone. Some of you have been hurt in ways I can scarcely begin to imagine, and I do not want to pretend that forgiveness is easy. But what Jesus did for you was not easy, either. If you have been injured, remember that the death of Christ has paid for what has been done to you. His death frees you. Vengeance is a heavy burden. Let it go. Be free.
All of us have hurt others. Have you killed? If you have not, do not think you are blameless. If you have been angry with your brother you have killed in your heart. Have you hit your wife or husband or children? If you have not, have you struck them with your tongue? Words can kill the spirit. Can you atone for what you have done? I tell you, not one of us can make up for the injuries we have done to those who love us. But Jesus can. Jesus has. Come and claim your refuge.
And we who have done so become a part of the church of Christ and must take on the role of the Levites, the people of God, set apart to tend the holy things. We must take it upon ourselves to administer God’s provision for reconciliation by bringing the word of the Gospel into the middle of the violence. Offer it to those who have hurt you, for they are victims, too. Offer it to those whom you have hurt, that they too may become free.
