The Kingdom Movement

A Literary & Pastoral Study Guide to the Gospel of Matthew

The Inspiration of Matthew,

by Caravaggio

On the King's Errand

Devotional Reflections on Matthew's Gospel

Heart Transformation for Integrity, Part 1:  Mt.5:33 – 37

^5:33 Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord. ³⁴ But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, ³⁵ or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. ³⁶ Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. ³⁷ But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil.

          Right after talking about marriage, Jesus talks about vows.  It is, without a doubt, the most significant human vow we make.  Sadly, many married couples disregard the vow they take at the altar.  The romantic movie The Vow tells a story of a young married couple who struggle with the aftermath of a car accident.  The wife suffers amnesia and doesn’t remember her husband at all.  They wrestle with the meaning of their marriage vow, ‘until death do us part.’  The movie was based on the true story of Kim and Krickitt Carpenter, a Christian couple who decided to honor their vows despite the hardship.  Their church denomination interviewed them:1

“Their saga began 10 weeks after their wedding on Sept. 18, 1993. They were in a serious automobile accident that left Krickitt with no memories of her husband or their new marriage. She suffered a severe brain trauma that wiped out 18 months of her life — the entire time she and Kim met, dated and married.

While he was still madly in love with her, he was a stranger she wanted nothing to do with.

The glue that kept them together was their faith in Christ and the promise they had made before God.

The Carpenters attend First United Methodist Church in Farmington, N.M. “Both of us know unconditionally we would not have made it through this ordeal without the Lord being in the center of it all,” Kim Carpenter told United Methodist News Service.

Krickitt spent months in a coma and then months more in physical therapy, but she has never regained those 18 months of memory. Her recovery was slow, her personality changed and at times she told Kim she hated him.

“At a low point in my life, I didn’t think this marriage was going to work. I didn’t have the faith that we were going to make it,” Kim said. “At the same time, I wasn’t going to leave her in the state she was in; I was vowing to stay with her.”

The media first learned of their story when a reporter came to interview Kim about his work as a baseball coach. In the course of the conversation, the story came out.

When the Carpenters renewed their vows and had a second wedding in 1996, it was a media circus. People were amazed and encouraged by their story, so Krickitt asked God to use their story to show others his amazing love and power.

They wrote a book about their story in 2000 and updated the book to coincide with the opening of the movie on Feb. 10.

“We enjoyed the movie but we were a little frustrated by the artistic license they took,” Kim said. “The dramatization in the movie was much greater, but it is hard to put 20 years of challenges into 103 minutes.”

Krickitt’s faith never faltered, and she never considered divorce.

“A Scripture I really hold onto is Philippians 4:13: ‘I can do all things through him who strengthens me.’ I believed I was called according to God’s purpose, and I followed with my whole heart,” she said.

Kim said he has taken offense to some of the media reporting him as “heroic, courageous, manly.”

They insist they are an ordinary couple with two children, Danny and LeeAnn.

“It is amazing we live in a world that there is such a big deal made about a man and woman who simply did what we said we were going to do,” Kim said.

The book and the movie are providing a platform for them to talk about their faith.”

          That story reminds me of the utter seriousness of the vows we make.  Vows bind us to other people and to God.  Vows prevent our lives from collapsing inwards so that we are only committed, when all is said and done, to ourselves.  They are a public declaration that we can be held to something outside ourselves and larger than ourselves.  They are commitments that we make to grow beyond ourselves into godliness.