The Problem with Justice
April 24th, 2006
Scott
Luke 6:35-36 “But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
If I am a ‘decent’, law-abiding citizen, it’s natural for me to want justice to be done to those who live outside the rules. In fact, the more I follow the rules myself, the stronger my sense of justice becomes. Like James & John, I want to have the power to call down fire from heaven to do destroy the wicked. However, God has made it clear that he has not given me that power (for good reason). He tells me in His Word that HE is the one who will judge and mete out punishment. Not only that, but He says He is merciful to the wicked.
It’s this trait of God that can make my blood boil. I think of the prophet Jonah’s response when God had compassion on Nineveh and did not destroy them as he had threatened to. Jonah said, “I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love…Now O Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.” Jonah was so intent on seeing the wicked city destroyed that he couldn’t handle it when God gave them a second chance.
Now the problem with this manner of justice - that which Jonah wanted, and I sometimes find myself wanting as well - is that I have forgotten that I am also a recipient of God’s mercy. If I want justice to be done to others, than I should be willing to accept the full penalty for my sins. Of course, the penalty for one sin in God’s eyes is death. How many times I would have died already! God calls me to have mercy in my heart toward those who are wicked, even against me. He also commands me to SHOW mercy to all people, just as He has shown mercy to me.
Lord, thank you for sending Jesus to the cross to pay the full penalty for my sins. I admit that my version of justice is short-sighted and that I need to trust that you will make a right judgment and show mercy where you will. Amen!
April 24th, 2006 at 8:59 am
I wonder about the difference between “doing the work of Justice” and revenge . . .
Where does Micah 6:8 fit in. “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.”?
When I have been personally wronged, I am to forgive, in the same manner as I have been forgiven.
But what about when we see another who is being wronged, who is powerless to do anything?
Is not the call on our lives to advocate and defend those who can not do so themselves, as Jesus did with the prostitutes and the sinners against the pharisees?
Maybe the problem with Justice is when we use it as revenge, or when we feel we have been treated unfairly? “I am obeying the laws, why are you?”
Maybe rather than abandoning justice we just need to merge it with kindness and humility, and in living the three out in harmony we will have found the heart of Jesus.
April 24th, 2006 at 10:12 am
I was reading in Luke this morning: Luke 6:35 “But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.”
As I read this verse, I was suddenly struck by the thought at once… before I was saved… I was one of “the ungrateful and wicked”. Now, hopefully, I am less “ungrateful and wicked”. But I have to always remember that our God loves all people… even if they don’t love Him. Shouldn’t I do the same? It just might be that through me showing love for someone “unloveable”, that God is drawing them to Himself. What greater calling is there in life?
April 25th, 2006 at 5:30 pm
“Do what is fair and just to your neighbor”
that may be a nice clarification on what “to do justice” was intending in Micah. remember, this was a correction to Israel… “God, having showed how necessary it was that they should do justly, here shows how plain it was that they had done unjustly.” That snippet of commentary is helpful, I think.
I am VERY justice oriented, like you, Scott. But, I gather from your post, also like you I have been shown and reminded many times about why it is good for me to not worry about enacting justice in the world in the way of vengance, which i believe is what you are talking about. the sharp end of the justice stick
but there is the loving part to LIVING justly, treating people justly.