What is Justice?

What is Justice?

But justice for the Christian is not about freedom, or liberty, rights, individualism, or the pursuit of personal happiness. When that is what justice means to the Christian, that Christian has adopted Western values as the standard by which justice is defined. Christians can’t let the U.S. Constitution (or John Stuart Mill or Karl Marx) define what “justice” means. We have to define justice in a way consistent with what Jesus meant by “kingdom”. –Scot McKnight “A Community Called Atonement”

Matthew 25:37–40 (NRSV)

³⁷ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? ³⁸ And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? ³⁹ And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?’ ⁴⁰ And the king will answer them, ‘Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.’

Meditation

Our country wanders around in moral circles for lack of a moral compass. Men and women sit around in easy chairs longing for the good old days. People sit around hoping that the rapture of the church comes soon because the already dark days are turning into a deep blackness in which no one can see. The church must quit hiding its light under a bushel basket and let the world see its future salvation already provided by the life, death, resurrection, ascension, and glorification of Jesus Christ.

The passage from Matthew above is from an event in the future called the judgment of the nations. The nations that will be blessed at this judgment will be the ones that do the things that God has required in this scripture. Of course the nations will not act in this way on their own. The nations require a supernatural power to achieve this level of justice and compassion for their citizens. The church is to be the source of that power. We are as Jesus said “to be the light of the world.”

Suns may rise and set on nations and ideas but the sun never sets on the church. As long as the church is there to minister to the nations and provide the moral compass that cannot be found by human effort. The nations will succeed in providing for their people. God will glorify the church and God will glorify the nations.

However if the church sits back in an easy chair and complains about the darkness both it and the nations will be sentenced by God to: depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; Matthew 25:41 (NRSV). How simple and how urgent it is for us to get up out of our easy chairs and relight the lamps of justice, so that no one need stumble in the darkness? Pray with me that God gives us the energy soon!

Prayer:

            Almighty and Everlasting God, you rule the nations from your throne. You dispense justice upon the nations. Hear us as we humbly pray. We have been disobedient as a nation. We have erred and strayed from your ways in a multitude of ways. Our sins are as the stars in the sky or the sand on the seashore. Forgive us O Holy One. We earnestly desire to repent. We stand in need of your mercy and your grace that overflow to those who in no way deserve it. Forgive us, and cleanse us. Help us to administer justice to the people. Help us to extend your mercy and grace to those who like us do not deserve it. You love us, help us love others. Grant your church and this nation a new birth of justice and mercy. Amen.