Musings: Justice

A desire for justice--where does it come from? Is it one of those universal traits that is more alive in some people and more dead in others? People who know Yahweh (God) intimately often have a heightened awareness of justice and injustice; but even they question God's justice at times:

"You are always righteous, O LORD, when I bring a case before You. Yet I would speak with You about Your justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?" (Jeremiah 12:1)

Those who know Yahweh aren't the only ones who are concerned with the issue(s) of (in)justice. Many who don't know Him speak very loudly about justice and do something about it.

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A few thoughts:

If the only rule of our planet is the 'survival of the fittest' then justice should not matter. Indeed, justice is outside of science because it makes value judgments about what is right and wrong--that wrongs should be righted and rights should be rewarded. So if the appeal to 'pure science' wins the day (as it often does), justice has no voice.

But many of our fellow humans both in the U.S. and in other parts of the world who do not have the luxury of sitting around and thinking things to death would rise up against such a suggestion. Refugees cry out for relief from disaster and oppression. Victims of abuse have personally experienced brutal injustices and raise their voices in protest. How do they know that they have not received justice?

My own thought, which I believe can be seen throughout the Bible and in everyday life, is that all people have at least some idea that the way we live is not quite right, that our lives here are somehow are supposed to be better. When that idea becomes strong enough, we begin to make noise and to demand for circumstances that are aligned with the way things are supposed to be.

As the followers of Him who created the "supposed to be," we have unique and unprecedented opportunities to be a part of the process of justice. The first step in that process is receiving the justice that cost Jesus everything so that we can live as we were supposed to--intimately with Him.

"All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation." (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)

In Christ, we are as we were supposed to be: reconciled. And we have the privilege of acting out that very justice so that others may become so, too.