Justice, in the right hands

A number of you probably keep up with the news to some degree.  I do, but mostly just by looking at headlines.  Only if the headline catches my eye will I click on the link and read the story.  In that way, I tend to "know" what the news is, but don't always know the intricate details.

In recent days, though, I have followed on particular story.  Many of you are probably familiar with the George Zimmermann case in Florida.  Briefly, he shot and killed an unarmed 17 year old black teenager, and pleaded self defense as the reason for the shooting.  The case has been in the news lately, and over the weekend, the jury found Zimmermann not guilty.

There was an instant backlash by many who believed that justice wasn't served properly in this case.  Again, I don't pretend to know the details of the case, and even less do I know what evidence the jurors saw that led to their verdict.  I do know that there is still much to the case that isn't really all that clear-cut, and that's the reason for the outcry.

However, I have heard about some who are disappointed in the turnout as saying that Zimmermann will likely have some form of vigilante justice shown to him before long.  Whether or not Zimmermann is guilty or not guilty, the way our justice system is supposed to be set up is so that people don't take the law into their own hands.  While we love the idea of the wild west and that kind of thing, that's simply not how it's supposed to work.

In my mind, I think there is a great deal of guilt on both sides.  Maybe not the kind that our justice system demands, but I know there is definitely a lack of love for neighbor being demonstrated throughout this case.  And as John would remind us in one of his letters, if we can't love our brother, whom we have seen, we have a really tough time loving God, whom we haven't seen.

In the end, in terms of this world, this case probably has relatively little long-term repercussions.  But when it comes to the perfect justice of our God, we all simply stand before Him and say, "Thank you for Jesus and what He has done for us."  May that be our justice cry as Christians.

A "Prophetic" View

One thing we must acknowledge right at the beginning of this post: the Bible is a really large book.  I really feel for the person who doesn't have any experience with the Bible who decides to read it one day, and then starts to do so in typical book fashion.  That is, start at the beginning and work your way through to the end.  Sure, the first part is pretty exciting, as Genesis and even Exodus have some exciting stories.  But then, once you get part way through Exodus, things can really start to bog down on you.  Lists of "do's" and "don'ts" fill the pages, and even the most devoted reader may start to find excuses not to read.

One thing that the size of the Bible has led to is an overlooked view of the books toward the end of the Old Testament, those books known as the prophets.  The things that people find most familiar about them are the little quotations that we come across in the New Testament.  We hear of their foreviews of Jesus, but really don't know much more about them than that they spoke those words.  As for the time in which they lived, or the reason for the words they spoke, or even the general theme of their messages, these are mostly unknown.

I've asked around a bit over the past few weeks about what people know about the prophets, and have found that most people seem to have what I am calling a "romanticized" view of the prophets.  That is, they think that the prophets were wise, well-respected men who spoke as though they had most of their attention on the future in Jesus.  In general, people seem to think that they were liked, almost to the point that the people of their day would be waiting breathlessly for their next words.

That is hardly the case for most of the Old Testament prophets.  To put it bluntly, the life of a prophet, while blessed in the eyes of God, was not an easy one to live.  Most prophets were not liked, and even had attempts on their lives.  Tradition has several of them dying in rather harsh ways, such as Isaiah being sawn in half.  People like Jeremiah were despised, imprisoned, called traitors to the country, and even seen as blasphemous to the people.  They lived on the edge of society, proclaiming God's justice and wrath, as well as God's grace and favor.

For anyone who wants to get an idea of what some of the prophets went through, I would always suggest reading through Jeremiah.  If his story doesn't give you a clearer picture about what it means to speak God's Word to people, then I don't know what will.

One more thought on Justice and Mercy

On Monday, I presented a scenario in which your kid has been stopped by the police for shoplifting.  I want to change that scenario a bit for today as we continue to think about justice and mercy.

Your kid was once again stopped at the door for shoplifting, and the police are involved.  Let's say that it was for a game that your kid has really wanted for his/her gaming system, but cost too much, and you as the parent thought it was too violent for them to have.  So you are once again on your way over to see what needs to be done.

When you approach your kid, he/she tells you that they really wanted the game, and that they knew there was no other way that they were ever going to get it.  There's a hint of remorse there (maybe only from getting caught, but you aren't sure), but there's also a bit of defiance involved.  He/she knew you didn't approve of this game, and not only did they seek to get the game, but to do it in an illegal way.

What is the appropriate balance of justice and mercy here?  Obviously, there needs to be some form of consequence.  This child did something knowingly that was wrong and against your wishes.  At the same time, there is also a degree of recognition that he/she was wrong, and a bit of remorse.  In this situation, what is the balance of justice and mercy?

This is where things get tricky for us as humans.  I would dare say that there is not a blanket, one-size-fits-all balance.  Balancing justice and mercy in this situation depends on how you know your kid.  This may be the first time your kid has ever tried something like this, so you may think that it's appropriate to nip this in the bud, so you choose to be heavy on the justice aspect.  Or, you may know that your kid will be very humiliated to have been caught breaking the law, and that the damage to his/her reputation may be fairly significant in his/her life, so you show more mercy.  On the other hand, this may be something that isn't unique in the kid's life, and so it's time to show that justice has a great price for breaking the law.  Or your kid may be defiant about it, in which case a greater dose of justice may be called for.

The thing I most want to point out in this situation is that it requires knowing your child to know what will be appropriate and effective.  That's the thing with justice and mercy.  In many cases, the balance of these two depends on how you know the other person.  While it may be the case that there are some common points in which justice needs to be administered (he/she did, after all, break the law by stealing), the balance of mercy and justice depends greatly on how well you know your child, and what affects them the most.

This places a great deal of responsibility on all of us.  It means that we probably are not the best ones to determine the balance of justice and mercy on those that we don't know.  But it also means that, if we want to have the right balance toward the people we know in our lives, we need to take the time to get to know them, so we know what will be best in our connection with them.

The differences between justice and mercy

Justice and mercy are two words that really intrigue me a lot.  We seem to want these, though we tend to want them on somewhat of a situational basis.  When someone wrongs us, we want justice, and we want it now!  But when we are the one who did the wrong, we really hope that the other person responds to us in mercy, and may actually get upset if they call for justice.

The balance of these two is difficult, both in the lives we live as we encounter other people, but also when it comes to our faith in God, and in what God has done for us in Jesus and the cross.  In our own lives, we may wonder if we should demand justice in a certain situation, or if we should show mercy.  And maybe a small illustration will help us as we consider this.

Let's say you are a parent.  Your child calls you up one afternoon because he/she has been caught stealing a movie from a local electronic store.  For the moment, this is all you know.  What are your initial reactions?  We might be angry at the child.  After all, we taught him/her that stealing is wrong.  Even as we get into our car to go over and pick this child up, we may be thinking about the appropriate punishment and consequences to their actions.

Now, here is where I could ask this question.  How many of us would first of all think about showing mercy to the child?  Would we think that, even if things are as bad as we are thinking, we should show him/her mercy for this trouble?  Probably not.  We think that they should know better, and so it seems that some justice is called for.

So we get to the store.  There's your kid, talking to an office who was called in by the store.  What is going to be your first reaction to your child?  Anger, because he/she should know better?  Anger because they got the police involved?  Anger because it reflects badly on you?  Anger because you had to take time from other things to come get this situation taken care of? 

So you go over to get to the bottom of the story.  That's when the officer says that they've gotten to the bottom of the problem.  It seems that a couple of your child's friends tried to play a joke on your kid, and put the movie into his backpack while they were in the store.  He/she didn't know it was there, and then, when leaving the store, the alarms went off.  The other kids had already left, which left your kid there to take the full brunt of the situation.  They've looked at the video and seen that your child didn't do anything wrong. 

I think most of us would agree that punishment and consequences would not be called for in this situation (at least, not for your kid, but maybe for the others).  We would probably want justice to be served now on behalf of our kid.  And tomorrow, I'll dive a little deeper into this whole situation.  But as I close today, just a couple of quick thoughts.

First, why do we typically assume guilt before innocence? 
Next, why is anger typically a first response when something doesn't go the way we want or hope for?
Another one: what would justice look like in this situation for your kid?
Final one: would you apologize to your kid for assuming that he/she was guilty, even though you may not have said anything to them about it?

God: The Source of All Justice

The human sense of justice can be changed as we learn more information about the situation, and every individual has a slightly different sense of what constitutes justice, with the extremes actually being fairly far apart.  Over the week, I have colored the pages of the book of justice, and today, want to bring it to a conclusion as we look at the origin of justice.

When God created the man and then the woman, they were created with a perfect connection with Him.  No sin or evil thought interfered.  It seems as though the man knew perfectly what God's will was.  But then, when the man and woman disobeyed God and ate from the forbidden tree, that perfect knowledge of God's will was broken, kind of like a computer losing its internet access (shocking!).  No longer would the man or woman or any of their descendants know perfectly what God's will is, and that includes God's sense of what is just.

Yet, it didn't change the fact that they were created with a sense of justice within them.  The only problem was that they would listen to their internal voice of reason or conscience rather than the voice of God to learn what perfect justice is.  And that reason or conscience had just been irreparably broken by sin.  Instead of doing the just thing, and bearing their own fault, they each pointed the finger at another.  Justice became trying to avoid consequences rather than recognizing and acknowledging guilt.  Justice was when the other person got what they deserved.

Ever since then, no one except Jesus has perfectly known God's justice.  Sure, we may get it right sometimes, and we may fail miserably sometimes.  But this points out why we go to God's revealed Word in the Bible to help us understand what He means by justice.  And that is where we find that God is a God of perfect justice and of perfect compassion.  Disconnected from Him, we cannot know how that combination works together perfectly, but we can glean some ideas and thoughts, and then work to apply them in our lives.  That's part of the importance of knowing God's Word.  It helps us better understand His sense of justice and compassion.

When Jesus makes His re-appearance, we will see God's full justice and compassion fully at work.  Sadly, Jesus Himself said that many who expect compassion will receive justice.  God's justice, worked through Jesus and the cross, will then demonstrate compassion on many who cling to the name and work of Jesus.  That's when we will once again realize perfect justice and perfect compassion.  Until then, we recognize that we will most often get it wrong, but cling all the more firmly to Jesus' forgiveness and study God's Word to be a little better at it.

Digging Deeper into the source of Justice

As more and more details continue to come out about bin Laden's death, I have seen questions of justice continue to be asked.  I've even noticed that a lot of people are struggling to figure out if and how justice was done in this situation.

Yesterday, I looked a bit at how our individual senses of justice are influenced by details of the situation, even though we seem to have some basic things in common.  I want to look at those basic things today, and tomorrow, look at why I believe that our imperfect sense of justice finds its true origin and understanding in the God who created this world.

Most people agree that you shouldn't just walk down the street and kill some random person for no reason whatsoever.  Likewise, most people agree that simply taking something that belongs to another is wrong.  While we may try to split hairs by examining motives and the details of the situation, typically we do that in order to prove why such an occasion should be an acceptable exemption to our sense of justice.  We acknowledge that a wrong was done, but soften the blow by making it appear a bit more acceptable.

Yet, the one thing we tend to miss in this is that the person still did wrong.  The man who steals food from the grocery store to feed his disabled children because he lost his job still did wrong.  It's only because we feel sympathetic to his situation that we soften the blow.  But no one can deny that a wrong was done.  He stole.  There is an element of the black and white underneath the shades of gray that we introduce. 

I would suggest that, even though God paints the picture of a sinful, fallen humanity, we still retain elements of that perfect being which God created Adam and Eve to be.  We are completely marred, and can never be repaired without passing through death, but that original created sense of justice still resides in us.  Because we are disconnected from God's will, we simply do not want to accept what justice may call for in particular situations (especially ones where we don't see what the big deal is), or consider that our sinfulness means that we are imperfect judges, at best.  Only God can perfectly judge right and wrong, since He alone is without sin.

Tomorrow we'll look at God's justice, and how His justice tends to play out in our world.

More Thoughts on Justice

Yesterday, I talked about how our view of justice in a particular situation can change as we learn more details about the situation.  A man who simply steals food from a grocery store is wrong.  But when he has hungry, disabled children at home and has recently lost his job, compassion begins to seep in and take what was black and white, and suddenly introduce shades of gray.  On the other hand, if it's some man who does it just to prove that he can, it suddenly seems as though he needs to be taught a lesson, and maybe even receive a more strict judgment against him.

On top of that, we all have different ideas about what we think is 'just'.  If I were to be pulled over for going 68 in a 65 MPH speed zone, I might not think that was very just.  However, if you are a strict interpreter of the law, then the ticket is just.  But if you are someone who thinks that speed limits are in place merely for safety reasons, fudging a few MPH may not seem like all that big of a deal.

This shows us the problem of trying to deal with justice from a merely human perspective.  If we all have different senses of what is actually just, and if our thoughts change as we learn more about the situation, how can we ever truly say that justice has been realized?  What is just in one person's eyes may not be so in another's.  I have seen this as I follow the legal issues of the NFL and its dispute with its players.  One judge sees harm to players, while the appeals judge sees the harm to the owners, and each side tries to get a favorable judge to oversee the case.  This shows that, from a human perspective, justice truly is variable and in the eyes of the beholder.

Does this mean we give up on justice?  No.  While we may disagree on levels of what is just or not, overall, most humans seem to have an understanding that certain things are right and wrong.  It's not perfect, but most will see murder as wrong, or stealing as wrong.  While we may seek out reasons to defend certain situations as an exception, overall, God seems to have created us with a sense of justice within us.  Tomorrow, we'll look a little bit more at this inherent sense of justice.

Exploring Justice

Given recent world events, and then throwing in the fact that just over a week ago, we celebrated the great Christian holy day of Easter, it seems like diving into the topic of justice may be very appropriate.  We've heard the word a lot over the past couple of days, and it seems to me that this situation just cries out for a good understanding of what justice really is and means.

We all get a sense that justice has been done when a person pays the consequences of their crime.  Yet, my experience has been that justice is not always that black and white, at least from our eyes.  True, from one person's perspective, it may seem relatively clear.  We see the guy steal a basket of groceries from the store, and justice would be that he is caught and has to pay whatever the appropriate penalty is.  However, if we look at this man's family and see that he has two children who suffer from severe disabilities that cost a lot, and we find out that he recently lost his job, suddenly our sense of justice turns a bit gray.  Yes, stealing was wrong, but we find that we temper that justice with compassion when we realize how bad his situation is.

This is the problem when we look at justice merely from our human point of view.  Extenuating circumstances almost always seem to change how we view "justice" being done in a particular situation.  What we see as strikingly wrong in one situation changes as we apply it to a different situation.  And so, from a human perspective, it becomes very difficult to truly define when justice has been served.

Over the rest of this week, I'll think out loud about how we tend to arrive at what seems to be "just" in our minds, and how we arrive at this kind of thinking.  Then, since I am a Christian, I will also take a look at some thing that God says about justice and how that also frames our thinking.  In the meantime, I would really like to find out how you derive your sense of what is just and what is not.  Feel free to comment and discuss, but please, keep any comments or discussion respectful.  Or else, I'll have to administer my own sense of justice as I oversee this blog!

Of Grace and Justice

Grace and justice are two things that really don't seem like they go together.  After all, if justice is served, consequences are administered.  But grace, at least the modern day thinking on grace, seems to be the opposite.  Grace is letting the person off with no consequences.  So it may seem that grace and justice simply cannot coexist.

However, this has to be false.  After all, God is a God of both justice and grace.  In fact, both justice and grace find their perfect being in God.  The problem for us is that we cannot seem to ever get the right "mix".  We've all pushed for justice and consequences when grace was really what was needed, and vice versa.

It seems that part of this reason is because we're talking about two things that have different sources of their being.  Justice tends to be a more "real", or perhaps, physical, thing.  We see consequences.  We see when someone is punished for their wrong.  In other words, justice seems to have to do with life in this world.

Grace, on the other hand, seems to be a more spiritual thing.  Grace can be shown even while justice is administered.  A person can love the person, completely forgive them, and yet, see through to justice and consequences.  And perhaps that is the key for us as we think about these two and see how they can coexist together.

What do you think?  Are grace and justice compatible or not?  Why?