(Matthew 5:21-22)"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca, 'is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.
A medical student told me that he had spent most of his day in the cadaver lab, dissecting a human body. I asked him if that work, as important as it was to his studies and future service, was difficult. He replied that he had learned a trick that made his assignment easier. He said the first step in working with a cadaver is to cut off the face, making the body look less like an actual human being. Once that's done, he observed, cutting that body to pieces is much easier.
In times of conflict, we come up with demeaning names to describe our enemies. Fighting is much easier when we make our enemies seem a little less than human. We use our words to cut off their faces, to categorize them as something less than human.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus describes three dehumanizing steps we take in our hearts:
The first is anger, not a moment of frustration as we have with any person, but a ever-simmering anger that focuses on and broods over another person’s faults and failures.
The second step, says Jesus, is to say Raca! This is a name of contempt, a word that says that I see nothing to value, nothing to respect, nothing worth living in you.
Jesus says that the third step in dehumanizing others is to call someone a fool. This is a special kind of fool. This is the fool who says in his heart that there is no God. Calling someone this kind of fool means that you look at that person as being separated from God, even opposed to God. That kind of person is a little easier to destroy.
Resentment, contempt, condemnation—these are not just private thoughts and feelings. Jesus says that these are steps toward murder. Murder begins when I dehumanize another person, when I make him or her seem not quite like a real person to me. When I cut off his face, I find it much easier to cut him to pieces.
I must stop this violence in my heart if I am going to play a part in stopping it in my world. I must ask Christ to touch my eyes and allow me to see others as He sees them. My view of every person must be this:
This person is a miracle of God, created in His image, a person for whom Christ died.