Jesus Expounds upon “Doe v. Bolton” and “Roe v. Wade”

Cathy Ramey January, 2019

This anniversary of ourpresent American Holocaust is addressed in Scripture by none other than theLORD of lords, Jesus Christ Himself – for those who think: “Abortion was neveraddressed by Jesus!”

Jesus’ own words as they applyto this vast shedding of innocent blood can be found in Matthew’s gospel in thecontext of what follows the “blessedness” or “beatitudes” of chapter five.  Having defined those who will find themselves“blessed” in the kingdom of God, Jesus moves on in verses 21-22 to correct thecommon understanding of the Law which had been corrupted by thetraditions  of “the ancients” –  rabbinical and social leaders whose reasoningserved to weaken the power of God’s Law by substituting their own convenient interpretations– even beginning with “hard cases” (Lev 24:10-14) – and justifying their ownopinions, accepting  bribes and so forth, so that justice had becomea matter of deep confusion for God’s people.

Jesus put it this way:

You have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not commit murder’ and ‘Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.’

But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever shall say to his brother, ‘Raca,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever shall say, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.   (Mt. 5:21-22)

Jewish law taughtthat if a person lifted his hand to murder another, he was subject to the fullforce of the Law. The Sanhedrin (of seventy-one leaders) could impose a deathsentence as required in Scripture (Gen 9:6).

But if murder wasdone by proxy – that is you hired somebody to do your killing foryou – the one who acted to kill was subject to the death penalty, while the onewho hired him was left to God’s judgment in heaven.^[i]  And the one whodiminished the dignity of his brethren by arguing they were of no value,worthless as a “fool” set for hell, well, his spin on law didn’t offend one wayor another.

So Jesus goes outof His way to correct such twisted applications of the Law. He asserts that theone who killed, as well as the one who may have hired him, was subject to the“Council,” the full body of the Sanhedrin. There were no “Get out of Jail Free”cards or a pass on the Death Penalty for those who held murder in their heartsand had the necessary power and money to do murder, even at a distance. Boththe actual murderer and the one holding murder in his heart and a fat purse topay for it to be done are guilty of the crime of murder.  Both are to be put to death.

And so, byextension, the brother who merely wishes his brother to be dead is also guilty,and may “be liable to the council” if thoughts turn toward actions. Andfurther, the one who hated in his heart, even failing to act out his murderousinclinations, would also be held to account, not before the full Council, butmore fearsome than that, they are guilty before God who sees all and weighs theheart (Prov. 24:12). This was intended to bring about a quick reconciliationsince humble-pie repentance is easier to swallow than the burning, exactingjudgment of God.  This addressed thosewho thought their secret hatreds were safe from scrutiny and accountability.

And then there isthe final offender, the one whose hatred of his brother is such that he seeshim, not in light of God’s great creation; not as one made in the imageand likeness of God, but as one having no value at all except the value ofan object subject to cheap disposal.  Scripture uses the word “fool”to speak of God’s estimation of those who utterly reject Him – a judgment onlyHe can make.  So for the average Jew tocall another a “Fool” would be to make a judgment reserved for God alone.

In other words,this would be like comparing a man to the refuse carried out to the valley justoutside of the city of Jerusalem, to the trash heap that was kept burning dayand night so all of the city’s “garbage” would be destroyed by fire – the samevalley where Molech worship had been advanced at the cost of infant lives givenin sacrifice to false gods.  (Indeed, thelocation was  so defiled by thisinjustice that this portion of the land could never be cleaned enough for Jewish habitation.

And so it is thatJesus declares that those who hold their brothers, referring to any of mankind,in such a state of hatred that they declare against the very humanity  they hold in common, consigning others humansto the trash-heap of history – the garbage dump known as Gehenna – those willsimply reap as they have sown; they too will be thrown into the fires of hellwhere all things that are contrary to God are set for destruction.

God is consistentin His righteous judgments. And so the text applies just as truly to thepowerful over-thinkers of today who twist or reject God’s Law in favor of theirown judgments.

Yes, this textapplies just as much to the “saved” of today as it applied to those Jews towhom Jesus preached – those who were confident of their salvation.  

Consider that, youwho would twist the word of God to suggest that the persons dwelling in thewomb are just so much “tissue” and “waste.”

Consider it also,you who would tolerate such twisting of God’s Law and negate His love for theweak and helpless. If you end up in hell, it will be precisely because youdiminished an entire class of people created in God’s image and likeness,consigning them to murder-by-others, certain of your own superiority over thosewho are created to be your very brothers and sisters!

Hell will be full ofsuch self-righteous traitors.  There willbe those who in life who hate Jews; some will hate Blacks; some will hateIndians or Mexicans or Whites; some will hate Republicans, and others will hateDemocrats; some will despise the French, while others will despise Americans,Russians, Arabs, Chinese, and any other people groups that have been denigratedin history.  All will be set aflame in good company, whether theylike each other, or not. 

O what a unionthat will be!  All the wicked, all theGod-haters, the Law-despisers together at last. And that time together will last forever.

^[i]  Maimon. Hilch. Rotseach, c. 2. sect. 2.“if a man hires a murderer to kill his neighbour, or sends his servants, andthey kill him, or binds him, and leaves him before a lion, or the like, and thebeast kills him, everyone of these is a shedder of blood; and the sin ofslaughter is in his hand; and he is guilty of death by the hand of heaven, i.e.God; but he is not to be put to death by the house of judgment, or theSanhedrin.”