William Shakespeare Woke Me Up Today

Photo by Jessica Pamp on Unsplash

“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”

“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.” It is a line from William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, Part 2. Dick, the Butcher utters those words in Act IV, Scene 2. I bought the t-shirt at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival when Hubby took me there before we were married. (Well, more likely is that he bought the shirt for me. And, as I recall, we thought it was so funny that each of us got one.)

Dick, the Butcher is the “right hand man” to Cade who attempts to rally the working class folk to help him in a bid for the crown with claims that he was a royal who had been raised secretly “on the wrong side of the tracks.”

Shakespeare Companies across the world have made a lot of money using it as a funny slogan on t-shirts and coffee cups.

“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”

Cade’s response is fascinating.

“Nay, that I mean to do. Is not this a lamentable
thing, that of the skin of an innocent lamb should
be made parchment? that parchment, being scribbled
o’er, should undo a man? Some say the bee stings:
but I say, ’tis the bee’s wax; for I did but seal
once to a thing, and I was never mine own man
since.”

It has been a long time since I read the entirety of Henry VI, so I do not claim to have the big picture here. I am focused in on this one scene, in fact, that one line, “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.”

Maybe that is what I’m struggling with this morning. This false narrative that there is “Us” and “Them.” It seems inevitable that when we see the world divided so cleanly and clearly that someone will suggest that the “other” must die.

Sometimes that is done with real, physical violence. Sometimes it is done by taking away the ability to work and provide for a family. Sometimes it is done by such inequality in healthcare that lives are unnecessarily lost.

I wonder if it was such a ridiculous statement in order to jar the audience into thinking about this “us” vs. “them” mentality that we humans seem to have such a difficult time moving away from. I don’t know why this line was in my brain this morning. It has something to do with living in a society that tells us that there must be winners and losers. It has something to do with Jesus — as most of my thoughts, it comes back to Jesus.

Dick, the Butcher suggested killing all the lawyers because he thought of himself as “other.” Whether anyone else saw it or not, he thought of himself as less than and felt the only way to even the playing field was violence. That is what happens when we believe there have to be winners and losers. That is what happens when we believe if we are not on top, then we are nothing. Jesus, the living Christ, is giving us another option. There is no “other.” We have made it all up. There is no huge divide between this side and that side. It is a lie that we are being told.

I realize that sounds like I’m suggesting we all gather round the campfire and sing and everything will be okay. No, this is not a Pollyanna dream. This is the hard work of seeking to see each other the way that God sees us. And, not just each other, but all of creation (thank you Fr. Richard Rohr!). When we can begin to do that, we will see others like Jesus saw that criminal hanging on the cross next to him. When we can begin to do that, we will trade our weapons for separation to tools for inclusion.

Look around. The Christ is there. There is no “other.” There is only the living Jesus. Working our way to this kind of living, this kind of seeing, is literally the ushering in of the Kindom that Jesus teaches.

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In no particular order: Writer, pastor, Mama Bear, LGBTQ+ ally, wife, preacher, watcher of TV, seeker, mystic want-to-be

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T. H. McClung, she/her(s)

In no particular order: Writer, pastor, Mama Bear, LGBTQ+ ally, wife, preacher, watcher of TV, seeker, mystic want-to-be