WHAT SHOULD WE THINK ABOUT CAPITAL PUNISHMENT?
OPENING ILLUSTRATION… Texas Executes Rapist-Killer; Third of the Year
HUNTSVILLE, Texas (Reuters) - Texas carried out its third execution of the year on Monday, putting to death a delivery truck driver who raped and killed a 19-year-old waitress nearly two decades ago.
Caruthers Alexander, 39, died from a lethal injection, becoming the 242nd person put to death in Texas since the state resumed capital punishment in 1982. He requested no final meal and made no last statement before he was executed in the death chamber at the state prison in Huntsville, located about 75 miles (120 km) north of Houston. Alexander was condemned for the rape and strangulation of Lori Bruch, a married mother of a two-year-old child who worked as a waitress at a San Antonio club.
Bruch’s nude and beaten body was found on the morning of April 23, 1981, by a pair of elementary school children on their way to class. Her wrists and ankles were bound, a gag was stuffed in her mouth and a cord encircled her neck tightly. She was raped and beaten before she was strangled.
She had last been seen about two hours earlier, leaving a restaurant where she ate along with several co-workers from the San Antonio club where she worked. Witnesses spotted a van near where Bruch’s body was found, which matched the description of the one Alexander drove while making deliveries for a medical company. Police found bloodstains matching Bruch’s blood inside his van and also an earring that matched one found on her body.
Texas, by far the most active death penalty state in the U.S., last year set a U.S. record for the most executions in a year when it executed 40 people, including one woman.
I of course have only read you a portion of the article. I have left out the very gruesome details of the crime and I don’t think we need to go into all of that. The fact does remain, however, that capital punishment- the removal of someone’s life because of a crime- is something we practice in our nation. It is debated about in the news. Programs are dedicated to it. Christians argue back and forth whether it is right or not. As Christians, what should we think about the death penalty?
ILLUSTRATION / HOOK… adapted from Moral Choices by Scott B. Rae, pg. 184 1995
Imagine that you were a jury member at this trial, hearing this murder case. The jury has already convicted the person of the crime and now you are in the sentencing part of the trial. You must decide if the crime warrants the death penalty. The prosecution and the defense, at the beginning of the trial, questioned you about your views on the death penalty. You answered honestly and no one complained at the time. But now, you are face with a decision that will affect someone’s life… a death of another person. Imagine that as you are thinking this, the prosecuting attorney in his argument, makes the statement that the Bible supports the death penalty and you should vote accordingly. What will you do? How will you vote? How will you vote as a jury member with this individual’s life in your hands?
When we have any questions about anything in this life, I hope that you always reach for your Bible. This is God’s Word and is designed to be our guide in this life. It answers our questions and gives us direction when thinking about such issues as the death penalty. What does Scripture say about capital punishment?
This is a topic that is hard to figure out. Should we, as Christians, support capital punishment? I mean, Jesus does say to love and forgive and turn the other cheek… how is killing someone for a crime loving or forgiving? Are there only certain circumstances? God did say “vengeance is mine” and He is the true judge… should we leave all of this up to Him? On the other hand, God does institute government and give it the power to make laws and protect the peace. What are we to think? Christians like you and me are divided over this issue. We may have some division even in this church about the rightness or wrongness of the death penalty. What are we to think? What are we to believe?
I. IN THE BEGINNING, GOD SET THE LAW THAT LIFE IS SACRED
READ GENESIS 9:1-9
We begin looking at this moral issue with one of the most basic fundamental laws in the entire Bible. This passage in Genesis comes at a very important place. This passage comes prior to the Ten Commandments, the Law of Moses, the teachings of Jesus... we have in Genesis 9, God laying down one of the most basic foundational laws of life here on Earth.
God has given this Earth to us. We are to live and multiply and have dominion over the whole earth. All the animals and plants and moving thing are “given into our hands.” Then in verse 4 there is a “but.” But, you are not to eat meat with the blood in it… blood is the very life of the animal. Blood = life. Life is sacred. We have dominion over the whole earth, but we may not take life into our own hands. We may not kill another. We may not take the life out of him or her at our discretion. If someone does take a life, his life will be required of him. God says very specifically, in verse 5, that your life is valuable. A reckoning will be made if a beast kills you; if another person kills you. Verse 6 tells us what that reckoning is. What is it? It is the person’s blood who killed. Blood = life. He who kills will forfeit his own life.
II. THE GOVERNMENT IS GOD’S MINISTER FOR JUSTICE
READ ROMANS 13: 1-7
This particular passage is very helpful in guiding us on this issue of the death penalty. This passage establishes that God is supreme and He appoints the governing authorities. I think we would all agree with that. God is in charge. His will is done, even in the modern United States of America. God appoints the government. Verses 2-4 tell us plainly God’s intent for government. They are to keep the peace. Who has problems with the law? Those who rebel. Those who do evil deeds. The government is God’s minister to us for the good. One of the good things that government does is punish the criminals. He bears the sword and does not do so in vain, he uses the sword to execute God’s wrath on those who deserve it. Am I reading anything into this passage? I think not.
Scripture is plain. The government is here to support the good and punish the bad. It is here to dispense justice as needed. God has given the sword to the authorities to distribute justice… the sword… the death penalty… where needed.
III. JUSTICE VS. VENGEANCE
ILLUSTRATION… Webster’s II New Riverside Dictionary pg. 383 & 762
1) justice- the principle of ideal or moral rightness, fairness, and administrating law
2) vengeance- The act of causing harm to another in retribution for a wrong or injury
At first, you may think to yourself, “why pastor there does not seem to be too much
difference between justice and vengeance. They seem to be about the same.” I thought that at first as I looked at them. I had to sit and think for a few minutes and go over and over what I had already studied and then the difference hit me.
I go back to my first example… the article I read to you. I imagined myself as the husband of the woman who had been killed by this man and left me with my two-year old child. I become more and more angry during the trial as I watch him just sit there. Lawyers going back and forth about this and that and all the while my wife is dead! I realize that I have two choices facing me. One, I could calmly get up from my seat and approach this killer slowly and before anyone realizes, I’ve got a hold of him and I’ve killed him. That is vengeance. I have taken this job of justice on myself and distributed it myself. I have caused harm to him because of harm done to me. Two, I could just sit there and be angry for my loss and allow the government to do its job and administrate law. The government punishes him for the evil deed he has done… the government has brought the sword. He receives the death penalty and later becomes the third man executed in 2001. That is justice.
As Christians, what are we to think about capital punishment? I think we have to keep in mind the sanctity and value God places on all life. Life is precious and priceless far beyond what we realize. I think we also have to keep in mind that God has established the government to support those who do good and punish those who do evil.
We cannot, however, forget the teachings of Jesus. We are to forgive. I tell you the truth, forgiveness must take place, but that does not mean that consequences do not remain. As people of God, it is our job to forgive, not the government’s.
CONCLUSION
