Truth, Justice, and the "Way"

James 2:1-17 Mark 7:24-37


“All virtue is summed up in dealing justly.”
Aristotle

“It is in justice that the ordering of society is centered.”
Aristotle

“Man perfected by society is the best of all animals; he is the most terrible of all when he lives without law, and without justice.”
Aristotle


“The moral virtues, then, are produced in us neither by nature nor against nature. Nature, indeed, prepares in us the ground for their reception, but their complete formation is the product of habit.”
Aristotle


Before the time of Christ, there was already a sense of order and a system of justice which demanded that man treat man with the respect and dignity granted by his Creator, the One to whom our own Declaration of Independence refers to as “nature’s God”. This the God who conferred on humanity those certain “unalienable” rights, rights whose ownership cannot be transferred from one to another. Even during a time when slaves, fellow human beings, were OWNED, these rights conferred by “nature’s God” were still inherent to humanity even if humanity did not recognize these “unalienable” rights in blacks or women.

Justice, like love, is a word we use almost daily without giving much thought to its true meaning but is as misused and as misunderstand if not more so. Oh, we are pretty sure we know the difference between right and wrong, good and bad, but there is more to this sense of right and wrong than a simple matter of determining how we are personally affected and when we think or speak of justice, it is usually within this context.

When we speak of justice, what do we really mean? How do we determine what is just? How do we decide what is “proportional” such as in the case of Israel’s recent battle with Hezbollah in Lebanon? Many cried “foul” that Israel’s response to Hezbollah’s cross-border raid in which Israeli soldiers were killed and kidnapped was “disproportionate” and unjust. Many felt Israel’s hand was too heavy in its response and that they went too far. True? I suppose it is a matter of perspective, or it depends entirely on where one lives.

Here in the United States, many feel that true justice is a little hard to come by considering the disproportionate number of minority and “poor” inmates in US prisons. And indeed, we can read the newspapers and see that there are some of our more affluent citizens who seem to walk away from certain convictions with nothing more than a slap on the wrist while others are doing time for committing the same crimes.

Can we say we know what justice really means when we throw food in the trash or to the dogs knowing that there are many who will go to bed hungry the very day we dispose of this edible “trash”? That at the moment when we open the top of the garbage can, somewhere a child is praying to the Lord God for something to eat?

“…and I will hear them when they cry out to Me…”

Is it just that we lavish ourselves and our children with the very best of what money can buy (or what we think we can afford) with no thought of the reality that many do without through no fault of their own? We consider that there are things we have to provide for our children. We have to feed them, clothe them, and educate them, of course. Yes to all these things, but where is the justice when we give ourselves and our children more than we could possibly need knowing that others are doing without?

What does justice really mean? The Bible speaks of a concept of justice known to us as “an eye for an eye, tooth for tooth, life for life”. In other words, if we cause harm to someone in some way, it is just that we surrender that portion of our lives at least equal to the loss suffered by our victims. Yet Jesus teaches us that if someone slaps us on one cheek, we should offer to them our other cheek. If the Lord calls us to a sense of justice, what is just about that? Would not a slap on the face deserve a slap back? Not according to the One we call “Savior”, “Teacher”, “Friend”, “Christ”, “Lord”.

The death penalty is another form of justice that requires our very serious consideration. I cannot say that I completely oppose the death penalty, yet I also cannot fully endorse it. It has little to do with statistics that show a disproportionate number of males, minorities, poor, etc sitting on death row, though this should also raise reasonable eye brows. My main concern – if not downright objection – is our perverted sense of JOY when the “switch” is thrown. It is my great concern that justice is not as “blind” as we would wish and that an innocent person could be sitting in that chair or stretched out on that gurney. It is our state of being which demands blood for blood not for the sake of justice but for the sake of vengeance or, as some might say, “closure”.

The problem with we mortals trying to define justice is our own humanity. In our compassion we may be inclined to forgive without realizing that bringing consequences to bear against adverse actions might just save a soul. By the same token, in our humanity and our weariness of rampant crime, we may be much harsher than the crime may require due in no small measure to our human emotions. See our dilemma?

So it is that as we explore justice and what it really means, our judgment must be considered in the context of the mercy that has been extended to us, as it is written in James. This is not to say that crime does not deserve punishment, but the punishment must fit the crime – without passion or prejudice. We must never allow our human emotions to so overwhelm us that we are blinded by fear, rage, hatred, or a hunger for vengeance.

It is good for us that we live in a nation of laws. An ordering of society and what man can or cannot do was established long before the US ever came into being. Within this order was a sense of justice by which man was taught how to act toward others, even (if not especially) “foreigners”. It was the model blue print that has been used for centuries all around the world.

But there are certain elements within this just law by which we work hard to figure out how the law best benefits us as individuals rather than as a nation. And if we feel threatened or fearful, we take it upon ourselves to decide that these laws have been rendered useless and only tie our hands to prevent us from deciding what is just and what is not.

The admonishment that comes to us from James is entirely about justice, equal treatment, and faith. It is JUST that we treat everyone the same regardless of how they dress or what side of the tracks they come from. It is JUST that if we are aware of hunger that we move to address that need. It is JUST that our faith be made manifest in our actions.

But consider this. We serve a God whose sense of justice is tilted in our favor. Why? It is written that the wages of sin is death. It is also written that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…

How just is it that we do not get what we truly deserve? How just can it be that the sentence our sin justly deserves has been taken upon Another?

And yet by the very grace of a Holy God, we are spared that sentence. When we consider justice, this must be our rationale even if it does not make sense to the world. We cannot degrade our humanity and our sense of Christ if we demand the blood of others without considering that it is our blood that should have been shed were it not for the Son of God.

There is a New Covenant which calls each of us to account. Our trial will truly be a trial of justice by which we will be asked how much mercy we should be granted. What we are granted will be the same measure by which we offered it ourselves in this life. This is JUST; this is CHRIST.

AMEN.