Where is the Love Justice?
As a kid growing up, The Justice League was one of my favorite shows. The cartoon dedicated to superheroes working together to defeat an enemy for the common good appealed to me. Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman never failed to disappoint.
Good triumphs over evil.
Everybody needs a hero.
It was so easy then to root for the “good guys” because the opposing evil was always crystal clear. The enemy was obvious, rarely disguised or sequestered in the shadows. There were no “gray areas” just right and wrong.
There is much injustice in the world now.
People are starving, dying, and trafficked as slaves.
Discrimination and religious intolerance are rampant.
War is tearing families apart.
Even some of our real life “heroes” have failed to protect the very people they once swore to serve. There is no lack of media coverage for the latest “cop gone bad” video of the day.
Politicians blatantly betray their constituents for personal gain.
What is fair about .01% of a nation’s population possessing the wealth equivalent to the bottom 90 percent combined?!
Where is “justice” today?
One of three definitions for justice as defined by Merriam Webster is “conformity to truth, fact or reason.”
Now I’ve lived long enough to learn that facts can be skewed and reason is relative.
Both vary according to personal perspective.
Yet, “truth” is absolute.
God is truth.
“Many seek an audience with a ruler, but it is from the Lord that one gets justice,” Proverbs 29:26 NIV
Justice is often viewed through our own limited experiences or by the tacit agreement of a ruling majority. However, that doesn’t make it true.
So, who are we to judge?
God spared Cain who killed his brother Able.
Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
Genesis 4:15-16 NIV
Where is the justice in that?
Mercy, maybe. Or, love.
But justice?
King Solomon asked God for wisdom and with that he was able to administer justice.
Are today’s judges/leaders/ringmasters seeking God for such wisdom?
If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. Therefore
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
If he is thirsty, give him a drink;
For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.”
Romans 12:18-20 NKJV
Our many nations “under God” certainly haven’t embraced this particular bit of scripture.
Most of us are not mature enough to wait on God’s justice.
How much less injustice would there be in our world if we waited on God instead of us rushing out and creating more mayhem?
I suspect God declares “Vengeance is Mine,” because most of us can’t comprehend what justice truly is.
I doubt any of us can fully comprehend God’s justice any more than we can fully grasp the extent of God’s love for us.
God is justice, yet God is love.
God spared Cain.
God sacrificed His Son that we could be spared as well.
God’s justice crushes the “law” that condemns; He chooses to spare us from what we rightly deserve.
Good triumphs over evil.
Everybody needs a hero Savior.