Be a warrior of justice
Our church preacher recently opened his Sunday message on justice with a question. His question made me reflect on the subject for the next week. He asked, “How would you define justice?” They gave us a few seconds to give our answer to a neighbor. Neither my wife nor I had a satisfactory response in the allotted time. Reflecting on the concept during the week has not helped me to solve this easily. The closest I can get to simplicity is this: justice is an appropriate or appropriate outcome for a given situation. Justice is not a concept that only exists in the face of injustice; In reality, injustice only exists because there is justice.
That simplicity in my definition is lost when we try to apply it to our practical life experiences. Injustice simply means that what was “fair” did not happen. Justice is not always missed to the same degree. Sometimes we get a little lost and sometimes what happened and what should have happened are polar opposites. Our journeys into injustice take us to all points between these extremes. Restoring justice has to do with measuring that difference between what happened and what should have happened, and then trying to apply or impose compensatory actions. Humans have notable problems with that measurement and subsequent determination of what is appropriate to restore justice.
Our country’s own “justice system” reveals how complex justice really is. The goal of our courts and penal systems is to do justice when it comes to a gross injustice. One does not have to look far and wide to see that human ideas about justice are quite varied. It does not matter if the matter is criminal or civil. When the matter ends in our courts, it is a complex process with notable differences of opinion.
The evidence is presented in court by notable voices of divergent opinions. The prosecutor presents evidence to show that the accused is responsible for an injustice and must be held accountable. However, before any evidence is presented, the prosecutor must assess the level of responsibility that he intends to demonstrate. Will the charge be a felony or a misdemeanor? Will we sue by thousands or millions? These various rankings are a reflection of what people think will bring justice.
Two distinct and incompatible views of justice are clearly present in our typical courtroom scenes. Defense attorneys are tasked with presenting evidence in support of their client’s innocence and refuting the evidence presented by prosecutors against their client. If the prosecutor wins the court’s decision, justice will look in one direction; if the defender wins, justice will look completely different.
When a court of law determines that one is responsible, the next phase begins: the punishment phase. Here a judge or jury must decide what the defendant should pay. These views are not universally accepted. Whatever the judgment, some may still feel that the punishment was too much; others might say that it was not enough. So, assume that the humanly determined punishment was, in God’s eyes, actually too little or too much. Would the true justice have been done?
Let’s consider one more element of justice in our justice system. Once the guilty verdict is announced, once the sanction has been ordered. Differences of opinion about justice do not always end. Have you heard of appeals? You sure have! Therefore, when a court has ruled, the defense, unhappy with the ruling, can appeal the decision. These appeals are sometimes taken to the Supreme Court. And when they are, we can often see another disparity in the views of justice. Most of the Supreme Court rulings are not unanimous. Unanimity is not required in their decisions; the majority rule. The fact that many of their decisions are not unanimous is further proof that our human view of justice is not always the same, even among legal experts.
I want to draw your attention to another kind of injustice that we wholeheartedly accept. Built into our national justice system there is a kind of injustice with regard to criminal cases. Please consider this. The rules of our courts require unanimous verdicts in criminal proceedings. The bias is based on the belief that our society would rather see a guilty person go free than an innocent person be convicted. We must all understand that “when a guilty person goes free” justice was not served. Someone got away with an injustice.
As a Christian and a believer in the Bible, I believe that God is the supreme Judge who determines what acts are offenses and how they should be handled. He knows who is guilty and who is innocent. He knows what punishment is appropriate and finally hands it out. The Bible declares that He is not only a just judge, but a merciful judge. It is true that all this is a point of faith; that is, no one can prove the existence of God or His mercy and justice. However, it is an important point of our faith.
No justice system among humans is without error. Guilty people are sometimes not even caught and tried; they got away with it. Sometimes when the guilty are tried, they run away. Sometimes innocent people are convicted and punished. Even when innocent people are accused of wrongdoing and ultimately have their innocence validated in court, that validation can be very costly for them in a number of ways (time, money, reputation). There is another form of injustice that operates in our justice system.
I believe, coming from my biblical worldview, that we should be concerned with justice in our world. Since we have the means to influence, we must try to do justice where injustice lies. However, this is not done well when we disconnect from the God of justice, his laws and his merciful character. When this happens, we become quite capable of rendering injustice for injustice, returning evil for evil. This trend is nothing new; Humans have been very good at this throughout human history. Examples abound in this 21st century. As we watch the protesters turn into destructive looters and rioters, we are witnessing people disconnected from the God who made them and from anything close to His sense of right and wrong. They perceive themselves as warriors of justice, on a noble mission, but they are terribly deceived. And, as a culture, we are also delusional if we don’t see it and say that.
The solution should be obvious. People need to reconnect with the God who created them. The good news of the Christian gospel is that it wants to reconnect with us. If we turn to Him in humble repentance, we will find Him standing with open arms to welcome us, cleanse us, teach us justice and mercy and much more. We must be careful not to serve an idol called “justice.” As we serve the interests of justice, we must ensure that we are fully serving our Creator. Only then can we know when to join other warriors of justice and when to distance ourselves from them. I hope that my reader sees the absolute necessity of the Wisdom of God in this noble task. Perhaps this will help us see why the Proverb says, “Wisdom is supreme; get it at any cost” (Proverbs 4: 7).