I used to say I believed in justice. 

But today? I’m not so sure.

Please understand… I believe one hundred percent whole-heartedly in every person’s RIGHT to justice. I also believe in the principle that promises us justice will ultimately prevail.

Today, however, I find myself full of questions on this topic. I am struggling to understand what justice is. Or what it should be. I find myself wondering if justice exists outside of the human systems designed to administer it. Where do God’s justice and human justice intersect? Is there even such a thing as balanced, equal justice… for ALL, as we say in the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance.

I have personally benefited from the fair administration of justice. Like the time I went to small claims court against a guy for stealing my idea for an advertising campaign. To be fair, the defendant didn’t even bother showing up for the hearing, so I was automatically declared the winner of the case. 

But still…

I have also personally suffered as a result of the fair administration of justice, as was the case with my recent traffic ticket. Apparently, I failed to come to a complete stop before making a right turn from Drake onto LeMay Street. Darn those traffic cameras anyway!

In each case, justice was pursued, and justice prevailed.

But where is there anything even remotely resembling justice in the case of the nine-year-old Palestinian boy shot dead while he waits for an allotment of flour at the relief checkpoint in Gaza? And where is justice in the case of the young Ukrainian girl killed by shrapnel from a bomb dropped by a Russian drone? Or what about the far more common case of the young black man stopped by a police officer in any predominately white American suburb and intensely questioned about his purposes and motives? 

I also VERY strongly suspect my positive experience with justice has everything to do with my gender, the color of my skin, my education and socio-economic status, my citizenship, and my sexual orientation. Change any one of these variables, and I am telling a very different story indeed.

So how are those scales ever balanced? When will the unjustly aggrieved parties finally have their day in court? I absolutely believe the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. when he assures us that the arc of history is long but ultimately bends toward justice. AMEN, Rev! At the same time though, I wonder how the mother of that Palestinian boy squares Dr. King’s words with the immediacy of her searing grief.

The more I attempt to sort through my ambivalence on the subject, the deeper my bewilderment grows. And so, I turn to the resource that never fails to illuminate the darkest parts of my limited brain: the 66 books of the Holy Bible! Surely there is “a word from the Lord” to be found there to help me parse this slippery beast called JUSTICE.

And sure enough, there is a LOT of guidance to be found there in God’s Word. For example, there is the prophet Micah’s famous exhortation there in the Old Testament where he speaks across the millennia and says, “He has told you, O mortal, 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?” (Micah 6:8, NRSVU).

In the New Testament we hear Jesus’ famous criticism of the Jewish religious leaders in Matthew 23:23 where he tells them, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint, dill, and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith.”

All of which only serves to circle me back to my original point of perturbation: If justice truly matters to God and truly matters to Jesus (the one-and-the-same incarnation of God), it makes me ask again: WHERE IS JUSTICE TODAY?

Do you think it is possible that God decided to entrust the entire task of designing and administering systems of justice into OUR flawed, feckless, feeble human hands? Do you think God cared enough to INSTRUCT us in the importance of justice, but then granted us the freedom to figure out how to apply it in daily life?

I’m afraid that might be the case. 

And if it is, may God help us, because we sure need it.

Abundant blessings;