I remember when I heard about it. It was one of those news stories that caused me to turn the volume up on the car stereo and vainly search for the rewind button for the radio. “What?!” I said out loud, even though I was alone in the Camry. However, there was no mistaking the report: Seventeen-year-old Tyler Hadley brutally bludgeoned his parents to death with a hammer and then proceeded to have a huge party in his house that evening, the bodies of his parents still stashed in a locked bedroom.1 It’s unthinkable to kill your parents: the very ones that granted you life and brought you forth into this world. The ones that sacrificed much to provide basic needs and great blessings like Christmas presents and river rafting trips.2 The ones who served you daily by doing things for you that you were either unable to do, or unwilling; like changing your diapers, bathing you, picking up your toys, and washing your clothes. Even a bad parent would do these things, and friends of the Hadley family described this father as a “gentle giant”3 who was “proud of his two sons” and “always jolly,” and the mother as “a goodhearted person who loved her boys.”2
It is in moments like these that we are truly disgusted at the depths at which humanity can sink. We are driven to ask questions of “Why?” Then after our initial shock, we demand, or at least hope for justice. Thus, we feel cheated when murderers like Hadley avoid the death penalty because he is “underage.”2 However, even if he were to have received the electric chair, I’m pretty sure that wouldn’t be enough. It’s one of the few incidents when we gain enough clarity to realize that even death itself sometimes short changes justice.
There are some that would quickly agree with me, rightly identifying with the victims and siding with justice. But when we are too eager for the gavel to drop, we have forgotten that we too are guilty criminals. For we “have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” (Romans 3:23).
Still others would quickly and vehemently disagree with me, rightly identifying with the villain and perhaps citing the above verse. However, when we are so quick to come to the defense of the sinner, we might be doing it, not out of mercy, but pride. We desire to reduce the severity of sin in order to think better of ourselves, perhaps because we realize deep down an ever-important truth (more on this later). Regardless, true justice demands that the penalty equal the crime, and the Bible is the original source for Capital punishment (Genesis 9:6), specifically in regards to this crime (Exodus 21:15).
If we are to examine this even further, we might realize that murder isn’t even the true crime. Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount that “anyone who is angry with a brother will be subject to judgment.” And “whoever says ‘Fool’ will be sent to fiery hell,” (Matthew 5:22). At first we may think that Jesus is creating even stricter rules to live by, but on closer examination we find that He is revealing that our true offense takes place in the heart, not in the external actions. Its how we can distinguish killing in battle and murdering in cold-blood.
This doesn’t sit well with our pride and we are quick to examine our weapon of choice, whether it be gossip, slander, or dishonor. We think we can allege that our punishment should be less because, “at least we did not use a hammer.” Or perhaps we start counting the offenses, thinking so few could be easily overlooked. But our sin has less to do with the instrument or number of offenses and more to do with the relationship. In other words, it is less about what we do, and more about whom we do it against.
Because with Hadley, it was not just the murder of another individual, these were his parents. The relationship between victim and villain is an important factor that the Bible emphasizes over and over. Murdering mom and dad may be an obvious capital offense, but so is cursing a parent or perpetual disobedience (Exodus 21:17, Deuteronomy 21:18-21, Romans 1). I’ve been perplexed by verses like these in the past. But God has a reason for putting “Honor thy Father and Mother” at the top of the commandment list (it’s the first commandment in our relating to one another)? Relationally, we owe them our very lives, our very existence.
And yet how much more does this apply to our crimes against our Creator. If it is such a serious offense to buck the authority of flawed human parents, imagine the severity of rebelling against a great and perfect God. Our parents certainly took part in our creation, but it was the God in Heaven that “formed us in the womb,” (Psalm 139:13). Our parents may have sacrificed to provide for us, but who actually is responsible for them to have anything to give. It is God that is the giver of every drop of water, every ounce of strength, every breath of life. And yet we tend to live fairly ungrateful lives in response to His many blessings. In fact, we tend to throw rebellious parties to celebrate our “freedom.”4
“When God created the heavens and the earth, He said to the stars "Move, and whirl around, and go in this or that formation and they obeyed, Mountains - be formed and raise up high and mighty and they obeyed, He commanded the sea and the waves to go this far and no farther, and they obeyed. But God says to a man ‘obey me,’ and he says ‘No!’" (Paul Washer).
I conclude that although Hadley’s crime was a horrific one, it should remind us that his is no worse than our own. Not that lying is the same as murder, but in regards to its underlying rebellion, it is the same thing (James 2:11). And if true justice does indeed demand the sentence equal the crime, then eternal punishment is the penalty for sin for good reason (Matthew 25:46). The severity of Hell is difficult to grasp because our pride does not want to admit that our sin is that bad. And we don’t think sin is that bad, because we don’t understand that God is that good. Hell is a testimony to our crime, but more importantly to the greatness of God.
Endnotes
1. http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-20080478-504083.html
2. http://abcnews.go.com/US/hammer-murder-teen-face-death-penalty/story?id=14107448
3. http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2011/jul/18/port-st-lucie-police-conducting-death-investigatio/
4. Psychologist suggestion that Hadley’s party was more “an act of freedom than a celebration.” http://www.tcoasttalk.com/2011/07/20/more-details-emerge-surrounding-hadleys-gruesome-killing/
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