James Merritt - It's Murder
So let me begin by asking you a question. Did you know that the first crime ever recorded in human history is actually in the Bible? It's true. And it was not a minor misdemeanor. It is the most serious of all crimes. As a matter of fact, there are 41 federal crimes that you can commit. And of those 41 federal crimes, they result in the death penalty and all but two of those involve this one crime, murder. Of the 41 federal crimes, 39 of them relate some way to murder.
Now I think I'll speak for all of us when I would say that we certainly believe that's probably no more serious crime than that. And I think that we would all agree that someone commits that crime at the very least, should go to jail. Some should go to jail probably without the possibility of parole. And then there would be some of us that would say, yeah, they probably even deserve the death penalty. But here's the kicker, even though none of us are perfect, we've all done things wrong, I guarantee you everybody in this room and everyone of you listening to me right now, either online or on television, you went to bed exactly the same way I went to bed last night and you slept pretty much the same way that I slept last night.
And here's what I mean. I didn't go to bed last night worried that I had murdered anybody. I didn't go to bed worried that there'd be a knock on my door and a sheriff or a marshal or a police officer would be there. I didn't worry that there was a warrant out for my arrest for murdering someone. I didn't worry that I was on the top 10 most wanted list of the FBI because I went to bed last night believing, as most of you believe, that I've done a lot of things that I'm glad you don't know that I've done. And I hope you never find out. But one thing I've never done, you've never done, you've never murdered anybody.
Well, as Lee Corso loves to say, not so fast my friend, because if what we're about to hear this morning that Jesus said is true, I'm looking at a bunch of murderers and you're listening to one, if what Jesus said is true. So we're in a series on the Sermon on the Mount that we're calling Get Used to Different. And certainly what Jesus is going to say about murder is radically different from what you and I think about when it comes to murder. And for those of you who bring your little booklet that we gave you several months ago, we're on page 26. If you wanna go there and you wanna take some notes, lemme tell you what we're about to do over the next several months.
This is gonna really get good. Up until now in the sermon that we've been studying, Jesus has been very general. He's not really getting into real many specifics. So like the Beatitudes, you know, blessed of the poor in spirit, blessed of the merciful, blessed of the pure in heart, kind of a real general overlook at what the Christian life is all about. But now beginning in in chapter five of Matthew verse 21, Jesus is now going to get down and dirty. He's gonna get into the weeds. He's gonna get very specific with what we deal with Monday through Friday. He's gonna talk about murder, he's gonna talk about adultery, he's gonna talk about divorce, he's gonna talk about bitterness. He's gonna talk about revenge. He's gonna talk about loving your enemies.
And what you're about to learn and you're going to learn over the next several weeks is Jesus is going to change our whole thinking about what it is to be right and what it is to be righteous. And lemme tell you what I mean by that. Jesus is going to teach us that when God looks at us and determines whether or not we're really righteous, he doesn't look at the way we are on the outside. He looks at what we are on the inside. Because see, we've got a difference with God. We judge other people by the cover. God judges people by the book. We judge people by what they do on the outside. God judges us by what we are on the inside.
So you're gonna hear a phrase about six times over the next several weeks and Jesus is going to introduce his thinking on a subject. And here's what you're gonna hear. You're gonna hear two phrases. One phrase you're gonna hear is this. You have heard that it was said. Six times, Jesus is going to introduce the subject and he's gonna say, now you've heard it was said. I know what your mom and dad taught you. I know what you learned in school. I know what you've always thought is correct. I know what's always been in your mind. You have heard that it was said. But then he follows up every time with these three words. But I say, but I say.
And Jesus is letting us know up front, what I'm gonna tell you is so different than the message that you're used to, is so different from what you've been taught. It is so unlike what you've always heard and what Jesus is about to do 2,000 years ago to these Pharisees and these Sadducees and these churchgoing people, he's about to turn their apple cart upside down. He's about to share with them things that they never thought they would hear. So lemme give you a modern day illustration of what I'm talking about. I don't know much about computer science, but I know a little bit. Some of you will realize this.
When you get a computer or even a cell phone, that comes with what's called default settings. In other words, when they built that phone, they built that computer, they put some default settings that's automatically assigned to whatever software you've got. And those settings are called presets. You didn't ask for those to be put in there. They just put them in there and there are operating instructions that we return to. If everything else fails, they'll say, have you tried a hard reset? Meaning go back to the default. Go back to what was in there to begin with.
Now what you may not realize is from the time you were born and I was born, we've all downloaded default settings and didn't even know it. These settings are written into us by the homes we were raised in, by the things we were taught, by the movies and the television shows that we watched, by the social media videos that we experience, by the books that we've read, by the people that we've met. And these default settings tend to dictate the way we interact with everybody else.
Lemme give you an example of a default setting you and I were all born with. Every one of us. Take two 5-year-old kids and they're in a room and they're playing. For whatever the reason, one 5-year-old hits the other 5-year-old. Alright? What does the other 5-year-old just naturally do? Somebody tell me, hit 'em back. Well, who taught them that? Nobody. You were born with that default setting, right? We were all born, you hit me, I hit you back. And then Jesus comes along and says, no, if somebody hits you on the cheek, you turn the other. Changes the default setting. I know that's the default setting you had, but I want to change the setting. I want to change you and how you think about what's right. I want you to change what you think as being right. I want you to think about what really is doing right now.
Lemme just say before I move any further, Jesus is not contradicting the Old Testament law when he says, you've heard it said, he's always going back to something in the Old Testament. He's not contradicting that. He's not even criticizing that. What he is doing is, I wanna correct the way it's been mishandled. I wanna correct the way it's been mistaught. I wanna correct the way it's been misunderstood. So he said, let's just deal with a, let's just deal with one thing right up front. Let's deal with murder. Let's just talk about murder.
Now let me just be frank. Be up front. Murder is not the first sin committed in the Bible. The first sin committed was disobeying God's law. But the first fruit of that sin resulted in the first crime, which was when Cain killed his brother Abel. So he disobeyed God because he should have loved his brother like he should have loved him, but instead he didn't. And guess what? We're still reaping the bitter fruit of that thinking today. You may not know this, you may be interested to know there are 26,000 murders in America every year. Every single day in God blessed America, 70 people are murdered. They're not accidentally shot. They're not killed in an automobile accident. They don't have heart attacks. They don't die of cancer.
Every single day somewhere in this country today, 70 people will be murdered. We are the murder capital of the world. But if we walked into this building today and we had our ushers outside the door, if everybody, if anybody had said to you when you walked in, if they just said to you one question, you ever murdered anybody? First of all, you've been shocked. And secondly, you've been insulted. Do I look like a murderer? Well, yes, some of you do sometimes to be honest with you. But, you say, I've never murdered anybody. What do you, what do you even ask me that question for?
You said, absolutely not, until you listen to what Jesus said about murder. Because Jesus said, you ready for this? Buckle your seatbelt. He said, murder's not just an act, murder is an attitude. As a matter of fact, this is what Jesus is going to teach us today. Murder with the hands always comes from murder in the heart. So I want you to listen to what Jesus says about murder 'cause you're gonna see it in a totally different light. And you're gonna understand why I can look at you and say, I'm looking at a bunch of murderers and you're listening to one. So he says three things. First of all, Jesus says, we must internally see the cause of the problem. That's the first thing we gotta understand. You've got to internally see the cause of the problem.
Now Jesus begins by making a statement. Everybody in that crowd would agree with, you're gonna agree with what he said. Here's what Jesus said. You've heard that it was said to the people long ago, you shall not murder. We know where that came from. That came one of the 10 commandments. You shall not murder. And anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. Now, what Jesus said we would all agree with, okay, murder's terrible, murder is wrong. Murder is something nobody should ever do. It's a terrible crime. Nobody should ever unlawfully take an innocent human life. And Jesus was not denying that. He says, look, I agree with you. But then he is about to shock everybody in the crowd and especially these self-righteous pharisees by telling them, but wait a minute, you can be a murderer in your heart with ever, without ever becoming a murderer in your hands.
So listen to what he says, but I tell you, boy, everybody's ears perking up. But I tell you, anyone who's angry with a brother or a sister, now you don't need to answer this question. I know the answer. You ever been angry with anybody, ever? Yeah. He said, okay. Anyone who's angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. And again, anyone who says to a brother or sister Raca, we'll talk about that in a minute, is answerable to the court. And anyone says, you fool will be in danger of the fire of hell.
Now you talk about different, Jesus says, wait a minute, there's more to murder than just taking someone's life. Jesus said, for example, lemme give you an example. Don't answer this question either. I know the answer. Have you ever been so angry that just maybe in a split second you wanted to kill somebody? I'll tell you this, if you drive to downtown Atlanta to work every week, give a driver enough time, you're gonna wanna kill somebody. Promise you. Have you ever been so angry? Say, man, it is a good thing I don't have a gun in my hand. Or think about this, maybe you plan a murder. Maybe you think about somebody you wanna murder and maybe you even get a sheet of paper and you write out exactly how you wanna murder that person and you even devise a way that you think you can get away with it. But let's say at the last moment, you change your mind and you're not gonna murder that person. All right?
Now watch this. At that moment, you are not guilty of the crime of murder legally. Nobody can arrest you. Nobody can take you to court. You've not broken any law, legally. But Jesus said you're guilty of the sin of murder spiritually. Just because you didn't pull the trigger does not mitigate the fact you had the attitude of a murderer. Now lemme just clarify something. At that moment, you have not committed a crime, but you have committed a sin. And oh, by the way, not every sin is a crime. If you're angry enough to kill somebody but you don't do it, it's a sin, not a crime. On the other hand, not every crime is a sin.
If you were living in Nazi Germany back in the '40's and you were a German and you were hiding a Jewish family 'cause you did not want them killed on the Holocaust, you would be breaking German law. You would be guilty of a crime. You would not be guilty of a sin. So not every sin is a crime, and not every crime is a sin. So, but Jesus is going to show us, you may never be convicted of the crime of murder, but all of us can be convicted at some time or another of the sin of murder. So lemme just give you the kind of anger that can make a murder out of you. For example, Jesus said, intense anger makes you a murderer. He says, but I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or a sister will be subject to judgment.
Now, the word for anger there, he's not talking about just a flash of anger that you just, you know, momentary and you get over it. He's talking about that explosion. I mean, when the teeth are gritting and the jaw is clenching and the eyes are flashing, I mean, you're angry enough, it's just a good thing you don't have a gun in your hand. You, we've been there. And the thing is, Jesus said, well, you may not have the gun in your hand, but you've got the gun in your heart and you have a murderous spirit.
I love the story, I think I've told you before, but it's worth hearing again. There was a woman who, she was the very first woman ever elected to the House of Commons in Great Britain. Her name was Lady Astor. And it was when Winston Churchill was the prime minister at that time. So they had a lot of political in entanglements, a lot of political engagements, and they didn't see eye-to-eye on most everything political. And not only that, they just, they just rubbed each other the wrong way. It was literally oil and water. He didn't like her. She didn't like him. Well, they're in the House of Commons and they're debating women's rights and it was very emotional for her.
And Winston was very emotional and I mean they really got into it. Well, Churchill was a better debater than she was. And Churchill could always beat her in a debate. So whenever he would beat her, then she would really get angry. She'd just get personal. And so they got into a screaming match. She got so angry. This is in front of the whole House of Commons. They got so angry. She said, sir Winston, if I were your wife, I'd poison your coffee. He never missed a beat. He said, if you were my wife, I'd gladly drink it.
Now, she had murder in her heart, he had suicide in his, but she had murder in her heart. She murdered him. No, not literally, but yes she did. Intense anger, Jesus said, that's murder. I'll tell you something else. Jesus said, now watch this, insulting anger. He said, that's murder. He said again, anyone who says to a brother or sister Raca is answerable to the court. Now that word Raca doesn't really have an English, a translation or equivalent, but it comes from a word that means empty.
So let me give you an illustration. Have you ever gotten so angry that you called somebody an airhead or an idiot or a numb skull or a dummy? I think they're the one, you've never called me Theresa is a numb skull if I remember. But you say, well what's the big deal? Why? Why is that murder? I'll tell you why. Because we're all made in the image of God. And God thinks we're all valuable. And whatever God makes is not an idiot or an airhead or a blockhead. And God, and Jesus said, when you are so angry that you call somebody by those names, he said, you're a murderer. Intense anger, insulting anger. I'll tell you something else. He said, insensitive anger. He said, that's murder. He goes on to say they this. And anyone who says you fool will be in danger of the fire of hell.
Do you know what the Greek word is for fool? It's the word morons. Where do you think we get the word? What? What word do you think we get? Moron. Hey, be honest. You ever said to somebody, what a moron. Jesus said, you just called somebody I love, somebody I created a useless, wasteless, wasted person. We call it character assassination. Jesus said, when you get so angry, you've gotta refer to revert, to name calling. You've got to degrade people. You've gotta cut them down. You say they have no value. You're guilty of murder.
Now again, legally you're in the clear, legally. But spiritually and morally in God's eyes he says it's murder. It's not attempted murder, it is actual murder. 'Cause when you're at the point you want to kill somebody, you may say, well now wait a minute. I don't want to kill anybody. Now I wouldn't mind if somebody else killed them. I don't wanna kill anybody, but I wish they'd choke on a varsity hotdog. I don't wanna kill anybody. But they have a heart attack, I can't help it. Jesus said, you're guilty of murder. So when people talk about the 10 commandments, they'll always go to this one. Well, I'll tell you one I've never broken, murder. Yes we have. Jesus said, we must internally seek the cause of the problem.
Now, if that was not enough to shake everybody up, if that was not enough to get everybody's attention, Jesus tightens the screws. He said, not only must we internally seek the cause of the problem, Jesus said, we must intentionally seek the cure for the problem. Now, Jesus does what every great preacher does. He was the greatest preacher that ever lived. He says, you know what, I'm gonna apply this message in a practical way. Let me bring this home to where you live every day.
Lemme give you a practical example. So listen to what he says. You talk about mind-boggling. He said, therefore, if you're offering your gift at the altar, in other words, you're in church, you come to church. If you're offering your gift at the altar and there, remember that your brother or sister has something against you, he said, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them. Then come and offer your gift. Now if you are a Jewish person, you sat straight up, you got white eyed because to a Jewish person there was no more important place than the temple. And in the temple there was no more important thing than the altar. And at the altar there was no more action important, more important than giving your offering at the altar. And what Jesus is saying is this, you ready for this?
Jesus said, I don't care if you did come to church to worship, there's something more important than your worship. As a matter of fact, until this happens, you can't worship. Until you do this, your worship is impossible. He says, you cannot get to God vertically until you get right with your brother horizontally. It's one of the very few times in the Bible we're told there's something more important than worship. So lemme just kinda get, let me meddle just a minute where some of you are, some of you watching right now, I'm touching a nerve. I know I am.
So let's just get it out. You wonder why you come to church most every Sunday, but you just don't get much out of it. You don't get much out of the sermon. You try to sing the songs, but nothing moves you. You walk out the same way that you walked in. For some of you just coming to church is just a chore. It's just something you check off and you wonder, why why don't I get more out of it? What, what? What is the problem? I don't know why it's true for some of you, I'll tell you why. It is true though for some of you. The reason why some of you come to worship but you never worship, even though you never miss a worship service, is for this reason. You cannot be right with the God you can't see if you're not right with the brother or the sister that you can see.
So lemme just be very, very frank and very, very honest. You say, but you don't know. You've never had your husband walk out on you and leave you with two kids. No, I haven't. Or a wife either, obviously. Yeah, you don't know what it's like to be fired from a job after 25 years of service because the church, the company downsized and didn't even give you a cup as you left. No, I don't know that. You don't know what it's like to be raised by a dad or a mom that always loved the other brother or the other sister more than me. Yeah. I didn't have that. I don't know. And I'm not making light of it.
What I am telling you is this, if you don't get that right and you don't make that right, you'll never be right with God. And if you don't make that right, you'll never be able to worship God. I wanna tell you something, one of the things I love about reading the Bible, we're gonna encourage you to read the Bible through this year, at least the New Testament. One of the things I love I'll tell you is I see things I've never seen before. I'm working on this sermon and I saw something, I've read this verse. I'll be conservative. I know I've read this verse conservatively 300 times in my life. I never saw this until I worked on this message.
Paul was talking about worship and talking about lifting hands in worship, which we all believe is a good thing. But I want you to listen to what Paul said. I've never seen this before. Paul said in I Timothy 2:8, therefore I want the men everywhere to pray. Well, we all ought to pray. He says, lift up holy hands. Yeah, I got that. But then he said, I've never seen this before, without, what's that word? Anger. Same word Jesus used by the way, I've never seen that before. You know what Paul was saying? You can't pray with an angry heart. You can't worship God with a bitter spirit. You can't come to God with one hand saying, I love you. But with a closed fist to your brother saying, I hate you. You can't do that. It is an impossibility. You can't be right vertically if you're not right horizontally.
Paul said, Jesus said, if you're not right with someone on earth, you can't be right with God in heaven. That's why he says, you know what you ought to do? And you know what, I'm not gonna ask you to do it today necessarily, but I guarantee you there's somebody in this room that probably ought to get up right now, walk out that door and make it right with somebody. That's why you come in here and it's like your prayers hit the ceiling and your worship hit the ceilings and it never goes anywhere at all. In fact, lemme give you a scenario. Let me, lemme give you this scenario. You get up on Sunday morning, you take a shower, you put on your clothes, you come to church, you park your car, you walk inside, you sit down, then we start singing.
You stand up. Some of you maybe lift your hand. You get ready to listen to the truth of the word of God. You get out your notepad. But in your heart there's this unresolved anger. In your heart, there's this person that comes to your mind. In your heart, it's that husband that walked out. It's the boss that fired you. It's the dad that never did love you, in your heart. It's either somebody you offended or somebody who's offended you. It's on the screensaver of your soul and you just can't forget it. You just can't get beyond it. You just can't get over it.
You know what happens? You walked in the door but your worship walked out. 'Cause you can come into a building and still not worship. You can bring a Bible and still not worship. You can raise your hands. It's still not worship if there's unresolved anger in your heart. But Teresa and I have been married, this March will be 48 years. I'm more in love with this woman today than the today, I sent her a text today, told her how, how grateful, I'm so thankful for my wife. I really, I don't know if I were her and she were me, I wouldn't live with her. Okay? But she does and I'm grateful for it. But I'm telling you the truth. We kind of had an agreement. We got married and, and there were several things we had to, you know, make sure that we all agreed on. We worked out. And 'cause I told her, I said, look, I'm gonna be a pastor.
You know, and just some things that we just gotta have to understand. And I said now, so we have a rule. We don't fight on Saturday night. Now Sunday night it's game on, but we don't fight on Saturday night. You'll take a guess why we don't fight on Saturday night? I gotta preach Sunday morning. I can't get up here and preach if she, if she's mad at me or I'm mad at her. I can't get up and preach if there's unresolved anger with us. 'Cause if I'm gonna be right with the God of the word, I can't be right with God if I'm wrong with my wife, I can't do it. And incidentally, Jesus is specifically speaking to someone, listen to what he says. He says, I'm not talking about a situation where you've got something against somebody.
I'm talking about a situation where you might throw or think that somebody's got something against you. You come to church and you know this brother is offended, this sister is offended. They are hurt with me. Now watch this. You may not have done anything wrong. You may not done anything deserving of them being upset with you. Jesus said, doesn't matter. If you've got something against someone or they got something against you, you stop, put your Bible down, put your offering up, go walk out of the church and you go make things right and then you come back. 'Cause either way, whether you're offended or the offender, what you gotta do.
Now, lemme just say one thing. This is important. I'm gonna move on. Suppose somebody's done you wrong, but they either don't think they've done you wrong or even if they think they've done you wrong, they are not gonna ask you for forgiveness. You forgive them anyway. Can I tell you why? Because it frees you. Because as long as you don't forgive them, they got you in your own prison. Let's turn it around. You've done something wrong against someone else and you go to them and you ask them to forgive you. But they're so angry, they're so mad, they hate you so much, they refuse to forgive you. You do it anyway. Why? Because it frees you. There are going to be times, there are absolutely gonna be times you're gonna express forgiveness without receiving repentance.
There are gonna be times you're gonna express repentance without even receiving forgiveness. But either way, you can go to bed at night and know, I did my best to seek the cure for the problem. I did all that I could to be reconciled. Because remember, you cannot be right with a father that's above you if you're not right with a brother that's beside you. So Jesus said, first of all, we've got to internally seek the cause of the problem. It's the heart. Secondly, we've got to intentionally seek the cure for the problem. We've gotta go and make things right. Whether we're the offender or the offended, doesn't matter. We've got to take the initiative. We gotta make it right. There's some of you that need to leave this church today.
Today. You need to make that phone call. You need to make that visit. You need to write that letter, you to make that email. And you need to say, hey, I wanna work things out. Let's make things right. And then there's one last thing. Then bring me to stop. Can I just ask a question? Is that different or what? Is that different? Well, Jesus says one last thing. We must immediately settle the conflict of the problem. Now Jesus again, he's going to tighten the screws one more time. 'Cause here's what some of you're gonna say.
Here's what some of you're saying. I know what you're saying. Yeah Pastor, I know you're right. I'll get around to it one day. No you won't. Yeah, I've been meaning to do it. I know you're right. I just gotta, you know, I just gonna have to work on myself. No. Jesus said, not only should you get right with somebody intentionally, he said you do it immediately. 'Cause here's what he said. Settle matters quickly with your adversary who's taking you to court. Do it while you're still together on the way. Or your adversary may hand you over to the judge. The judge may hand you over to the officer and you may be thrown into prison until you have paid the last penny. He says, truly I tell you, you'll not get out until you have paid the last penny.
Here's what Jesus told about. This is so simple. He says, look, you make things right with everyone you can before it's too late. And here's what he's talking about. Back in Bible days, if you were, owed a debt, you couldn't pay it, they just threw you in jail. In fact, we used to have, back in the, back when we first started this country, we had what was called debtor's prison. And if you owed a debt and you couldn't pay it, you went to prison. The problem is, it became a catch 22. Because there was no time limit on your punishment. The only way you could get out would be to pay off your debt. But if you're in jail, you can't work. If you can't work, you can't pay off your debt.
So in effect, you were given a life sentence. That's what Jesus is talking about. And that's why Jesus says, look, settle things quickly, quietly before it gets to court, before you stand before God. Because Roman law said that a plaintiff could bring an accused person before a judge. But Roman law also said this. And anytime before you walk before that judge, you can make things right. And anytime before you stand before that judge, the two of you can come to an agreement. You can settle your case. But the moment you step across the threshold of that courtroom, the moment you stand before the judge, your fate is too late.
So I just wanna see where you are spiritually. I went to bed last night as all of us did. I went to bed the same way I've gone to bed since I was nine years-old. I went to bed knowing that if I woke up in heaven and not on earth, I knew I'd wake up in heaven. How do you know that? Because when I was nine years-old, I settled my case with God out of court. I confessed my sin to Jesus. I accepted his death on the cross, his resurrection as pavement for my sin. And I surrendered my life to him. And Jesus canceled my sin debt. Totally free, done and clear.
So that's what Jesus is saying to us. Number one, you better make sure you settle things with God before it's too late. But you better make sure you settle things with others before it's too late. You know, people ask me from time to time, and I guess more 'cause I'm, you know, getting older. They'll say, how do you think you're going to die? And I guess we all think that when you go, you know how you gonna die? How's it gonna be? And I know what they mean by, they, when they ask me that question. But I don't answer it the way they think I'm gonna answer it. They'll say, how do you think you're going to die? And I'll always say to them, oh, I know exactly how I want to die.
Why do you wanna die? You know what I always tell them? I wanna die right. What do you mean? I wanna die right with God. I wanna right die right with others. I wanna die knowing there's nothing between you and me. And I wanna die knowing there's nothing between you and me. I wanna know that I've done everything I can to be right with God and everything I can to be right with others. And I've already settled that with Jesus. I told you about that. But I can stand before you right now and tell you, as far as I know, I have nothing against anyone and nobody has anything against me. As far as I know. If I knew of something, I'd make it right.
If I knew of something I'd take, I'd take I, I'd be intentional. I would take the first time, say, okay, I gotta make this right. Because you know what I have found? It is incredible that when you either forgive someone or you seek forgiveness from someone, it's incredible how you unload the gun in their hand. It's amazing how you take the bullets outta their chamber. So I'm gonna tell you this story and we'll be done. You'll love it. It's a great story. Some say it's a legend. I kind of have to believe it could be true. We've all seen that beautiful portrait of the Lord's Supper. We've all seen that sup, that portrait. I think we have one in our home. It was painted by Leonardo da Vinci.
But you don't know the story behind that painting. Di Vinci had got into this intense, bitter argument with a fellow painter. Don't know what it was about, but I mean, it was a royal battle. And they wound up just absolutely hating each other. Well, da Vinci began to think, how can I get back at this guy? How can I trump him? How can I really let him know just how much I hate him? And he came up with this devious plan. Everybody knew around town that da Vinci was working on the Lord's Supper. So here's what he decided. When he came to Judas Iscariot, he said, I'm gonna paint the face of that guy on Judas.
I'm gonna paint, put his face there. And he did. He painted the guy's face on Judas Iscariot. He did it and everybody around town know, hey, come see my painting. And so when they came, he would always say, by the way, Judas, he told, here's where he'll be. he'll be the third guy on the left. When they would look, they would just gasp. They'd say, oh, that's, they knew who it was. Everybody, he was the talk of the town. Everybody was talking about how he was Judas Iscariot. Boy, it made Leonardo feel so good. He'd go to bed at night and he'd think, man, I nailed this guy. He'd go to bed at night thinking that guy won't ever mess with Leonardo da Vinci anymore.
But then the day came and he had saved one face for last. And that was the face of Jesus. His mind went totally blank. He could not get any vision at all of what Jesus ought to look like. Lips, ears, eyes, nose, forehead, hair, face, nothing came to him. He had a complete writer's block. Couldn't figure it out. He goes to bed one night, he's laying there and he's thinking about, why can't I paint the face of Jesus? And the spirit of God spoke to his heart and said, Leonardo, you'll never be able to face, you'll never be able to paint the face of the one who's forgiven you until you forgive the one who's offended you.
And God broke Leonardo da Vinci. And the next morning he said to the Lord, he said, Lord, if you'll let me live, I'm telling you I forgive this man and I will ask forgiveness. He went to that painting and the first thing he did was he washed the face of that man off the face of Judas. He then went to that man's home and knocked on his door. And the man came to that door. Leonardo simply said, I've come to ask you for forgiveness. I've come to reconcile with you. Would you forgive me? That's all that was said. They embraced. They reconciled. Guess what happened immediately? He came back and perfectly saw the face of Jesus and finished one of the world's greatest portraits.
So the next time you see that Lord's supper painting, remember the story behind the painting. Remember what Jesus said about anger? 'Cause the truth of the matter is, we've all been guilty of the murder in first degree because you and I literally were guilty of murdering Jesus Christ. The way I got saved, the way I became a Christian, the way God changed my life was I finally understood I'm the one that nailed Jesus. I'm the one that crucified Jesus. I'm the one that killed Jesus. I'm the one that murdered Jesus.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you're looking at a murderer. You are listening to a murderer in the first degree. But I've settled my case outta court. Went to the very one that I murdered who graciously, gladly, lovingly, eternally forgave me. So yes, we've all been guilty of murdering the Lord Jesus Christ who's in heaven, but we've also been guilty of murdering our brothers and sisters on earth. So whether it's the crime of murder or the sin of murder, or both, it is because of the murder of the one on the cross we can be forgiven. And we can be set free.