Blood
"Deep down, coursing through my soul, are the same currents of jealousy and resentment and bitterness and rebellion that surfaced in the life of Cain. The currents flow all throughout our human family, deadly and deep - currents as old as Eden and as thick as blood."
This pretty much says it all for me too. I once blogged (from Cain's point of view) about all the possible events leading up to the death of Abel. It was an exercise in extenuating circumstances and possible excuses for why he killed his brother. "Crimes of passion" are often treated differently in our judicial system, as opposed to premeditated murder. James implies that this first murder was premeditated, but we don't know that.
I dreamed once that I killed someone. In the dream, I had no remorse for the killing, only a great necessity to cover it up. The whole dream was about trying to get rid of the body and the stains on the carpet. When I woke up I was appalled. How could I not have felt guilty about something so terrible? It haunted me for weeks and I spent many hours in conversation with God asking "What's THIS about?" I think it's about the human condition... the DNA of violence we've inherited down through the ages. Jesus taught a different way, lived a different way, died a different way.
Yet even his resurrection doesn't seem to have made the dent needed in our psyches where this violence is concerned.
This pretty much says it all for me too. I once blogged (from Cain's point of view) about all the possible events leading up to the death of Abel. It was an exercise in extenuating circumstances and possible excuses for why he killed his brother. "Crimes of passion" are often treated differently in our judicial system, as opposed to premeditated murder. James implies that this first murder was premeditated, but we don't know that.
I dreamed once that I killed someone. In the dream, I had no remorse for the killing, only a great necessity to cover it up. The whole dream was about trying to get rid of the body and the stains on the carpet. When I woke up I was appalled. How could I not have felt guilty about something so terrible? It haunted me for weeks and I spent many hours in conversation with God asking "What's THIS about?" I think it's about the human condition... the DNA of violence we've inherited down through the ages. Jesus taught a different way, lived a different way, died a different way.
Yet even his resurrection doesn't seem to have made the dent needed in our psyches where this violence is concerned.
posted by Claire Joy at
11:55 AM
2 Comments:
I agree with you about our crazy system. A crime of passion is just as evil as one that is pre-meditated. The only one that is different to me is when someone causes an accidental death.
By
Andrea, at 2:33 PM
Gosh CJ, that dream would have scared the stuffing out of me, too. Yikes!
And I think you're right about Cain's murder of Abel - we assume it was pre-meditated because that makes him more despicable in his crime. What I do find fascinating is the slippery slope that he starts down and how the farther and farther he goes, the deeper the manure is on the shoes he is wearing. He simply can't stop and say, "God, I'm sorry."
That, to me, is where our lesson is. Pride and greed and anger will always separate us from God because they are so UNLIKE God. It is in these moments that sin grabs hold and carries us down the current, further and further away from where we need to be.
Whether intentional or not, pre-meditated or not, He set the course of his life when He turned to run with sin instead of God.
By
HeyJules, at 3:55 PM
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