In Justice

Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.  The LORD saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice. -- Isaiah 59:15

We often talk about justice versus mercy or love and the harshness of judgment.  Justice certainly must be tempered with mercy, but no one wants to live in a world where there is no justice.  Jesus decried the justice of “an eye for an eye”, yet even that Old Testament standard was more just than the brute nature of man.  Sean Connery’s tough cop character in The Untouchables reflects the more primitive approach:  Here’s how you get him.  He pulls a knife; you pull a gun.  He sends one of yours to the hospital; you send one of his to the morgue.  That’s the Chicago way ….  In contrast to the Chicago way, even a tooth for a tooth is merciful. 

Society depends on justice.  We believe in equality before the law.  The Bible forbids taking a perpetrator’s wealth or social standing into consideration when rendering justice.  In the book of Job, Elihu describes the supreme justice of God:  Shall one who hates justice govern?  Will you condemn him who is righteous and mighty, who says to a king, ‘Worthless one,’ and to nobles, ‘Wicked man,’  who shows no partiality to princes, nor regards the rich more than the poor, for they are all the work of his hands? (Job 34:17-19).

Justice holds us accountable for our actions.  Mercy may take into account our motivations and circumstances.  We generally think it is less offensive for a man to steal to feed a hungry child than to feed his own gambling addiction.  But the action is wrong in either case and justice is due. 

I read recently of some homeowner who shot and fatally wounded a man breaking into her house.  His relatives were on the news condemning the shooting.  They asked how the man was supposed to get new Nikes if he didn’t steal.  How heartless it is to kill a man who merely wanted to steal someone else’s property in order to upgrade his cell phone.  I’ll admit that I would hate to kill someone over money or some easily replaceable material object.  The problem is that he might be willing to kill me or someone under my protection in order to get it.  Sometimes that is hard to sort out during an interaction in the dark at 3:00AM.    

As a society we seem to have lost respect for justice.  I think it is the upholding of injustice and a topsy-turvy view of right and wrong that will destroy our nation and many others in the end.  To live righteously these days, as in Isaiah’s time, is to put oneself in danger of condemnation.  Clever rhetoric falsehoods are lauded while truth is ridiculed.  Truth now requires a “trigger warning” and is too dangerous to be spoken.  We must all agree that black is white and good is evil, or we risk being vilified if not physically attacked.  And if we are attacked, we brought it on ourselves by such blatant wickedness as pointing out that the sun rises in the east.

The Patience of Job

Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones, and the heavens are not pure in his sight; how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks injustice like water!-- Job 15:15-16

I don’t usually pull verses from Job because it has much in common with one of Plato’s dialogs or a philosophical novel and calls us to take it as a whole more than most Scriptural writings.  Like Job and his friends, we are always searching for the reason behind and the meaning of suffering, why there must be evil, even why there can be good. 

We long to find a way to avoid trials, to live free of grief.  We think perhaps if we can be good enough, sanctifying ourselves, being kind and generous, taking care of others, living morally and circumspectly, that God will have mercy upon us and spare the losses and the pain that afflict so many.  If we get a bad diagnosis from the doctor, if our marriage falls apart, if our children take the wrong path, we have to declare bankruptcy, etc., we want desperately to believe there is some reason behind it – even if that reason is that we have made mistakes and sinned or that God is capricious and unjust. 

Personally, I can’t help siding with Job’s friends.  If something bad happens to me I assume it is because I have done something wrong.  I know -- far better than anyone else does, how corrupt I am.  I know the evil and darkness that I sometimes embrace and so easily excuse.  I suspect that most of us live with a degree of guilt and shame.  It is probably one of the few things in which I am above average.  But that is just because I have a self that is one of Job’s friends – one of his accusers, a Pharisee of Pharisees. 

We are all Job, and Job’s friends, and Elihu, and something else.  The dialog and drama that is Job is what plays out in our souls.  We accuse; we self-justify; we blame God. 

But you are full of the judgment on the wicked; judgment and justice seize you (Job 36:17).  We are, rightly, quick to want evil to face justice.  I hear about a child molester or some creep who raped and murdered a little old lady, and my response is almost always to wish that I could have ten minutes alone with the perpetrator in a locked room.  Islamic terrorists are loose in Paris?  Let’s kill every Muslim on the planet! 

We are creatures, save for the apparently increasing number of psychopaths among us, who believe in fair play and “an eye for an eye”.  The laws of Moses make sense to us.  The love of Christ does not always.  When evil befalls us, some of us are naturally prone to think justice must be the cause.  I have learned but a few things in life.  For example, my encounters with the courts and police have taught me that we do not have a justice system but a legal system, that what is legal has little to do with what is moral, and what is moral, right, and just is, as often as not, illegal.   

Another thing I am learning is that God is not a formula.  He does not perform for me.  He cannot be manipulated.  In Chapter 75 of Christ the Eternal Tao, we read:

The world is like a hollow utensil

And cannot be manipulated.

That which is not the Way soon fades away.

Hence the sage assists the natural development of all things,

Even though he does not venture to interfere.

It comes down to trusting God.   Job, in the end, realizes that, while all that is false, including the illusions of self, are broken and ground to dust by truth, the yielding essence of our being, the spirit within us, the Way within us is always right and inevitably overcomes.  The accusers are shamed and silenced but so is the justifier, the rationalizer, the moralizer.  There is none good but God.    

Christian Economics

These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another; render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace; do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, declares the LORD.  – Zechariah 8:16-17

As we learned from Micah 6:8, the Lord really does not ask that much of us.  Tell the truth.  Don’t stir up trouble or go along with oppression.  Understand that everybody has a right to live, and that cheating, defrauding, taking unfair advantage, and being dishonest ends in conflict and ugliness.  It’s nice to know that God hates that sort of thing.  It takes the pressure off me. 

God is all for joy and peace and goodness.  He is all for us being happy and whole and prosperous.  Our efforts – as fallen souls, to achieve happiness will most often arise from selfishness and self-love.  I will ask myself what I want, what I need, and what will satisfy my cravings.  When you think about it, this is the foundation of all economic understanding and systems.  The free market person disagrees with the communist at the most fundamental level.  The Marxist answer to disparity, greed, envy, and jealousy is, ultimately, to reduce nearly everyone to the level of a gray-clad peasant. 

Jesus offers us a change of heart.  Christmas is often beautiful with its lights and gifts, but there is nothing like the elegance of a traditional Easter Sunday with the bright new clothes and colors and the celebration of new life.  By contrast, humanism, communism, socialism and fascism are studies in (what we now think of as) puritanical drudgery and misery.  There is no beauty like the beauty of holiness. 

I can’t change the world – for one, as they say, Jesus already changed it.  What I can do is live in His light, live His life here on earth.  A friend of mine used to say that if Jesus were present today, He would drive a Cadillac.  I think He’d drive a pickup because He’d be a hillbilly.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see Him riding a KTM or a Yamaha.  Whatever He rode or drove, He’d be happy with it.  He’d enjoy it, but He would not be attached to it.  When He bought it, He’d make sure that both He and the person He bought it from could live with the deal.  Everybody’s got to make a little.  That’s how life works.  We let the other guy have his cut.  Everybody does OK, and everybody has the opportunity to hustle a little and do better. 

The way of the world -- call it consumerism, corporatism, or Madison Avenue-style marketing, often plays on the weaknesses of the old nature seeking pleasure, status, recognition, acceptance and approval.  A Christian should be able to step back from that view.  I don’t condemn those who engage in that approach because it is “sensible” from a purely human perspective.  But we have the mind of Christ and are no longer held in thrall to the world and its mindset. 

On the other hand, I see nothing inherently un-Christian in a true free market system, which results, generally, in mutually beneficial exchange.  There is always going to be a certain amount of human error, slack, lag, and inefficiency in any system.  A free market has the advantage of tradition, experience, and wisdom to make corrections.  No single individual or group – whether government or private, is able to exert an excessive amount of control.

We can’t do too much about stupidity in Washington, D.C., or even up in our state capitol.  We can, though, refuse to act out of fear or greed.  We can take care of our families and friends.  We can contribute and be productive.  We can be truthful, merciful, charitable, and content.

I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.  I can do all things through him who strengthens me. … And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:12-13,19). 

King of the Wild Frontier

Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you. -- Psalm 89:14

I confess that I sometimes want to accuse God of being unfair, perhaps even fickle.  We who do what we are supposed to do – more or less, don’t always seem to get what we think we deserve.  It’s a recurring theme with me.  Sometimes, though, the light is on, and I understand that I would not know what fairness, justice, goodness, or even love is if He had not shown it to me.  John, writing in the letter we call his first, says, “We love because he first loved us.” 

We can love because He loves us.

I don’t know that I will stop complaining entirely about evil and stupidity and injustice that happens.  I won’t stop crying over tragedies.  Losses will still cause me some anguish, but it is because I know it doesn’t have to be so bad.  I know I don’t have to be so bad.  The Lord established Himself as the Creator, Sustainer and Ruler of all that exists by laying a foundation of righteousness and justice.  Everything is built on what is good and true. 

It gets pretty weird out here in the fringes where I have to operate.  Maybe that’s why I have the soul of a pilgrim.  Or a frontiersman.  That might be more like it.  We are pioneers, always pushing the frontier of the kingdom out just a little further. 

So there is the Light.  The power of the Light is infinite and all-pervasive, but there are always shadows and corners and cul-de-sacs where the Light needs to bend.  Instead, the Lord sends in receivers.  They get charged up full, and He throws them down some dark shaft, some long, dark corridor.  The Bible says that Moses did not know that his face shone with the glory of God’s presence.  All he knew was that everybody was freaking out, afraid to look at him, and he didn’t need a lantern in the outhouse. 

Our mission is to bear the Light, our little portion of it, into all the places where we might have to go.  I’ve been on a cave tour when they turn out all the lights.  Turn on single keychain light in that situation, and it seems like a flood light.  The darker and deeper the hole you are in, the brighter your light will appear to those around you. 

Hiding Out

Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall select cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person without intent may flee there. - Numbers 35:11-12

From time to time we all need a place to hide from the troubles and trials of life, and, yes, even from our own sins and failures.  We can't really blame the Accuser for accusing; it's his job.  Lewis illustrates this pointedly in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe when Edward's betrayal is recognized as legitimate grounds for the Witch to condemn him and demand his blood.  Revenge is the law.  The avenger of blood is a karmic agent.  Justice can be overridden only by a higher law, that of mercy, which is simply justice satisfied in a deeper, more powerful way.  Airplanes don't fly by negating gravity but by utilizing gravity in conjunction with the laws of aerodynamics.  They are always "falling with style". 

The one thing that someone accused could not do was stand around and debate the avenger of blood.  The avenger is not open to reason, argument or excuses.  It does not matter if was an accident or unintentional.  The only way shed blood can be atoned for is by shed blood.  Guilt, as we think of it, or innocence does not enter into the karmic equation.  Similarly, when I sin, there is no point in attempting to justify, excuse, or rationalize what I said or did.  The only remedy is to escape, and the only refuge is Christ — the very person I have offended and against whom I have sinned.  When we fail, instead of hiding it from the Lord, our only hope is to run to Him.  Waiting around for the avenger to extract his due because I really do deserve it is as wrong as the failure itself.

The cities of refuge were both safe haven and prison.  A person guilty of involuntary manslaughter had an indeterminate sentence.  The congregation heard the case and judged according to the witnesses and the evidence.  And the congregation shall rescue the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood, and the congregation shall restore him to his city of refuge to which he had fled, and he shall live in it until the death of the high priest who was anointed with the holy oil (Numbers 35:25).  The slayer could not go home and back to his old life until the current high priest had died. 

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.  For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.  Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need (Hebrews 4:14-16).

The Lord, of course, died then rose and lives forever more.  So must we stay in our prison/refuge forever?  Or are we free to go home?  The answer is, Yes. 

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3).

The Avenger

[Christ Jesus] whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.  This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.  It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.  — Romans 3:25-26

There are people who hear that God is good, that He is kind and loving and merciful, and they draw from that an erroneous conclusion.  On the surface it seems reasonable, and it is certainly pleasant.  The problem is that it ignores human reality.  The human race is depraved.  We can try to gloss over it.  We can point to the wonderful works of wonderful, kind, and generous people.  We can clean ourselves up and dress ourselves up and do good deeds.  Meanwhile we struggle to be honest.  We hurt the people closest to us in a myriad of ways — sometimes intentionally, sometimes inadvertently.  We think dark thoughts.  We crave what we cannot have.  We harbor envy and jealousy.  Or we simply fail to appreciate what we have been given.       

In light of fallen human nature, a genuinely good God cannot simply pat us on the back and say that He understands.  God is not like that.  He is terrifyingly honest.  He does not ignore or gloss over the truth.  He has given us all that we have, and He quite rightfully expects us to keep that in mind so that we are able to maintain a proper perspective on life and possessions.  Again, we can argue, as I often have, that we are relatively good people.  Graded on a curve with Pol Pot, Hitler, and Stalin — heck, with Congress, I don't do too badly.  And I can point to lots of people who are better than I am and not necessarily even Christians.  But one of the things Paul does in the first three chapters of Romans is take apart brick by brick the argument that humans have any ability to justify themselves against the absolute standard of a holy God. 

The perfection of God calls for justice, and justice demands perfection, and we ain't got it.  God, in response, offers satisfaction for His own justice.  This is the aspect of Christianity that bothers a lot of people — the sacrifice of the perfect, sinless Innocent for the unrighteous.  Why could God not simply forgive us?  Why could He not just continue forbearing, "passing over former sins"? 

The cosmos runs on laws, physical laws, yes, but also moral laws — like the law of the harvest:  Whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap.  Justice is more relentless than gravity.  You can overcome gravity for a time by expending enough energy, beating out the acceleration of gravity with a counter acceleration.  You can do the same thing with justice by expending moral energy in deception, self or otherwise.  But the cosmos demands things balance out.  The price for escaping justice must be paid.  Against God's plumb line, every human soul would deserve punishment. 

 When the tribes of Israel were about to enter Canaan, certain cities were set aside as “cities of refuge”.  If one man killed another, even by accident, the shed blood of the victim demanded the killer’s blood be poured into the scales of justice.  Someone, usually a member of the family of the deceased, was chosen to carry out the feud against the offender.  A feud is an expression, however distorted, of the balance demanded.  By fleeing to one of the cities of refuge, the killer could escape the inexorable pursuit of the avenger.  Once in the refuge, the person was put on trial.  If the evidence indicated an accidental killing, the refugee was not given up for execution.  He was allowed to stay in the city of refuge until the death of the high priest, at which time he was free to return to his home without fear of vengeance.  

 The condition for termination of the refugee’s exile is often overlooked.  The death of the high priest – Christ is, of course, our great High Priest of the new covenant.  In order for justice to be satisfied, even to settle the responsibility for an act without malice or intent, there had to be a death – an atoning death.  Because the Aaronic priesthood stood in and served God on behalf of their brethren, the Lord could accept the death of the high priest as atoning for the blood that was spilled in the land.   

 But even this was a temporary solution.  How does a loving God who is also a just God resolve the situation for His children made in His image and likeness?  Taking on our flesh, God descends and identifies with us in Christ that He might atone for all our sins.  He offers Himself to appease the demands of justice -- that is, to justify us and restore the equilibrium of righteousness.  

 Finally, I feel compelled to say, God takes the defilement of His world by the shed blood of the innocent very seriously.  The laws of the cosmos are perhaps stranger than I feel comfortable contemplating.  The sacrifice of Christ will cover my failure and preserve me but only as I am in Him.