SEEKING JUSTICE FOR ALL
What comes to my mind when you hear the word “justice”? Our natural inclination would be to think of criminals getting what they deserve. We think of the justice system with its courts and lawyers. Justice punishes the wrongdoer and protects the innocent. Justice has a heavy judicial meaning.
I found a song that laments the broken justice system of America by Metallica entitled “And justice for all.” But Metallica’s not really my thing. Then I remembered another song about justice by Toby Keith and Willie Nelson. (Read portion of lyrics).
Grandpappy told my pappy, back in my day, son
A man had to answer for the wicked that he done
Take all the rope in Texas find a tall oak tree,
Round up all them bad boys hang them high in the street
For all the people to see
That justice is the one thing you should always find
You got to saddle up your boys, you got to draw a hard line
When the gun smoke settles we'll sing a victory tune
And we'll all meet back at the local saloon
We'll raise up our glasses against evil forces singing
Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses
Does that describe justice for you? Cowboy Justice?
What if I speak of Social Justice? You may be tempted to think of tree-huggers chaining themselves to bulldozers to save a forest. You may think of protest marches with people armed with signs and shouting slogans. Or you may envision the “Truth and Reconciliation” movements of South Africa and here in Canada where First Nations groups lobby for fair treatment and equal rights.
We often define justice by placing it in these categories: political, economic, or judicial. Honestly, these categories are beyond my everyday experience; I don’t encounter these realms consciously. Yet our text in Micah 6:6-8 tells us “to do justice” in our own personal journeys. What does it mean to “do justice” on Monday morning?
This series “The Seven Realms of Discipleship” is designed to help us look on the other side of the cross. You have come to the cross, acknowledged your sin and need for Jesus’ sacrifice, and are now saved. What’s next? What happens after the cross? What happens next is that as you follow Jesus, that experience transforms every aspect of your life. One
One aspect that we are considering today is justice. What does it mean to follow Jesus in a world of injustice? How are we to respond as people of faith to the unfairness others experience?
What God Doesn’t Want from Us (Micah 6:6-7)
Micah was a man who loved his people, his nation, and he loved his God. The nation of Judah was experiencing a time of prosperity, but the political outlook was dark. Prosperity had intoxicated the people and they were unaware of the dangers of it. They knew that foreign nations wanted to invade, but their internal spiritual sickness was a cancer. The prophet Micah knew there was only one thing that could save the nation: a deep and widespread revival, a turning back to Yahweh.
The people inquired of Micah, “What does God want?” And they proceeded to offer a list of suggestions. In the text (6-7), the people are represented as an individual who asks, “With what shall I come before the LORD…?” There is an earnest if not wrong-headed desire to please God.
First, the worshiper suggests bringing “burnt offerings” to God. These are different than other offerings where the worshiper receives a portion of the meat back to eat. This offering is given completely to Yahweh. The worshiper even offers to give year-old calves, the best of his stock, the most expensive gift a person can give.
Then, the worshiper suggests quantity over quality: a thousand rams and a gross exaggeration of “ten thousands of rivers of oil.” This too is an expensive suggestion; he is willing to spend money, whatever it takes, to please God.
Finally, in desperation, this series of hypothetical questions rises to a hysterical and ghastly crescendo as the worshiper even offers to sacrifice his own child for his sins. This is so abhorrent to God, so heinous in his sight. This is what pagans do.
What is this? This is religiosity; the appearance of dcvotion. The motivation for these offerings stink. God doesn’t want any of this. God doesn't want a show. Especially when they were giving them while sinning in other areas of their lives. They think they can make up for their sins and then carry on ignoring what God really wants. He doesn’t want external devotion when the heart is still wicked.
In 1066, William the Conqueror invaded England and took the throne. His invasion led to the deaths of many men, so to help relieve the guilt he felt before God, he built a chapel on the field of the battle. It’s called “Battle Abbey.” Did he think that building a chapel would make up for his PTSD? His guilt? Build a chapel and God will look the other way? That’s not what God wants.
God doesn’t want shows of religion to make up for the areas in our life where we are disobeying him. “Well, I am unethical in my business practices, so I’ll give a big gift to the church building fund.” “I drank a little too much this week, partied too hard – I’ll go to church on Sunday.” God doesn’t want these “sacrifices;” these are poorly motivated substitutes for what he really wants.
What God Really Wants from Us (Micah 6:8)
It was no secret. Yahweh had told his people long ago what he wanted from them in the covenant. That’s why Micah says, “He has told you, O man, what is good: and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (8).
What does God want from us? There are three things in his well-known verse that are actually three sides of the same action:
To Do Justice – We are talking about biblical justice, God’s notion of justice. This is captured in two Hebrew words. The first is mishpat.
Mishpat occurs over 200 times in the OT. It basically means “treating people equitably (fair and impartial). It can mean acquitting or punishing every person on the merits of the case, regardless of race or social status (rich or poor).
We say that justice is blind. I used to think this was contradiction. Justice should see all the facts, all the evidence, and make right judgments. But what we mean is that justice is blind to the influence of the wealthy, or the pathos of the poor. Justice is blind because justice is impartial. All who break the law receive the same penalty.
But mishpat means more than punishing the wrongdoer. It also means making sure that people are treated right. Deuteronomy 18 teaches that the priests working in the tabernacle should be supported by a certain percentage of the people’s income. The support is called “the priest’s mishpat.” So, justice means giving people what they are due, whether in punishment, protection, or care (Tim Keller, Generous Justice).
The second word is tzadeqah. It can be translated as “being just” or “being righteous.” What it really gets at is living a life in right relationship with others. If mishpat focused on punishing wrongdoers and protecting victims, tzadeqah would eliminate the need for that kind of justice because everyone would be living in right relationship with everyone else. Tzadeqah is initially about being in right relationship with God, but that relationship would transform all of your relationships.
Isaiah lived at the same time as Micah and saw the same problems in Judah. He agreed with Micah and counseled the people, “…learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause,”(Is. 1:17).
The theme of justice extends into the NT. Jesus mirrored the challenge in different words, saying, “Treat people in the way you would like them to treat you; this is the intent of the law and the prophets,” (Mt. 7:12). This is the ethic Jesus
Love Kindness – Kindness does not capture the wealth of the Hebrew word represented here. In Hebrew, the word is chesed, and it means “kindness, mercy, unselfish goodness, love, faithfulness, loyalty, and covenant love.” Martin Luther summed it up saying that this is the OT version of the NT “grace.” God wants us to love and understand grace. More than that, I believe the Lord wants us to chase after grace.
Mercy is NOT giving people what they deserve. Grace is giving people what they DON’T deserve. Chesed is a combination of the two. This combination takes justice, making sure people get what they are due, and adds something more, to love grace – to go beyond what someone is due and give them even more than they are due. Give them grace; treat them better than they deserve.
When Jesus is asked which commandment is most important, he answered, “Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength,” (Mk. 12:29-30). Loving God is the first thing a person who seeks a relationship with God does. But loving God means understanding who God; God is a God of justice and grace. So, Jesus adds, “The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” (31a). Jesus ties a social obligation to knowing God. In other words, you cannot say you love God, but not love people. In the OT, commitment to Yahweh included commitment to the covenant community. In the NT, that means the church.
Walk Humbly with Your God – The reason we are cautious to preach a social justice perspective is because we don’t want to lose the heart of the mission: gospel proclamation. A social gospel that feeds the hungry but doesn’t save the soul is no gospel at all. However, the example of Jesus brings the two together: Jesus healed the sick, fed the hungry, cast out demons, and freed the prisoner from oppression. The good news went hand in hand with the relief of the poor and sickly as Jesus went from town to town.
Micah invites us to walk humbly with our God. To walk is to follow, to imitate. That is the essence of discipleship. Following Jesus changes your life. Following Jesus makes you an agent for change. Jesus said we are "salt" and "light," elements that penetrate and make a difference wherever they are found.
John says as much in 1 John 3:16-18 (read). We know what love is; Jesus showed us what love is – self-sacrifice for the sake of others.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “The hungry person needs bread, the homeless person needs shelter, the one deprived of rights needs justice, the lonely person needs community, the undiscipline one needs order, and the slave needs freedom. It would be blasphemy against God and our neighbor to leave the hungry unfed while saying that God is closest to those in deepest need,” (DBWE 6:97). Following Jesus opens your eyes to those in need.
So, the three elements of Micah’s call are to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God. Is this not the life of Jesus? Does he not encapsulate justice and mercy and humility? Are we not called to be like him in discipleship? Then we must seek the justice of all…
I like how John Perkins expressed this truth: “I am convinced that the Church, as the steward of the gospel, holds the key to justice in our society. Either justice will come through us, or it will not come at all.”
True justice comes through the church. Not through political activism or state welfare programs. The church has shirked its responsibility allowing society to dictate what justice looks like. And I think we are afraid to reveal to the world what biblical justice looks like because they will hate it and find it convicting.
The biblical gospel of Jesus naturally and powerfully leads to a passion for justice in the world. How do we do justice? But how do we think justly?
Biblical justice speaks for the helpless. Is anyone more helpless than an unborn baby? Since Roe vs. Wade in 1974, 63 million babies have been aborted in the US. In Canada, where we have no laws on abortion as such, 3000 babies are aborted every year. While we fight for higher wages and individual rights in various realms of life, a terrible holocaust is at work under our noses. And we have said nothing!
Biblical justice speaks for the oppressed. At my seminary graduation, when I first heard the president speak these words, I was taken aback. He acknowledged that Providence Seminary sat on Treaty One land and declared, “Providence carries out its activity as an educational institution on the traditional territories of the Cree, Anishinabe, and Métis nations. We honor them as the ancient peoples and current hosts of this part of God’s creation.” The same type of declaration is verbalized at Jets’ games. You might be annoyed at this and at the media-induced reminder concerning residential school atrocities against First Nations peoples. But shouldn’t their wounds break our hearts? As a people that have been chased around the world for 500 years, shouldn’t we as Anabaptists empathize with a people whose land was taken away?
Biblical Justice speaks for the outcast. Again, at Jets’ games and other NHL arenas, Pride Nights have been held. We balk at this; we do not support the intention of these evenings; they do not reflect our biblical values about sexuality. But one thing the NHL is doing that the church has failed to do is welcome those who feel outcast by society. We should have been first to welcome these folks.
How do we do justice in Rosenort? We can pray for and verbally encourage and support our principal in his ongoing work to bring positive influences into our school. We can open our homes for Safe Families to assist parents who are finding work and life hard. We can be change-makers and influencers in our community to make sure that people can experience real community. We can lead the way in making Rosenort a positive and healthy place to live. We do this for the glory of our Lord Jesus who has transformed our individual lives and taught us what real community is…
What does it mean to follow Jesus in a world of injustice? It means courageously acting like Jesus and loving the least of these.
AMEN
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