Day 19 - What does justice look like?

Each year friends of friends at Highbury spend their summer holidays helping with the excavations at Vindolanda, a Roman fort just south of Hadrian’s Wall. How exciting! In 2017 the excavators unearthed yet more documents from the end of the first century AD. One was a letter from Andangius and a colleague, addressed to Verecundus, the commander of the fort, asking that another friend, Crispus, be given lighter duties. They knew what justice looked like. They saw it in Verecundus. Indeed, he was so, they suggested, well-known for his ‘justice’.

This, according to Luke, was exactly what the centurion who witnessed the crucifixion saw in Jesus (Luke 23:47). Maybe that centurion, like his near contemporaries Andangius and co, knew exactly what ‘justice’ looked like.

It’s such a pity that in the English translations we usually use we don’t spot it.

The New Revised Standard Version updated edition is typical of many, ‘Certainly this man was innocent’. It’s as if the centurion is giving his verdict on the case that Pilate had tried.

The Good News Bible is a bit of an outlier and has the centurion say, ‘Certainly he was a good man’, though maybe they had the very first translation into English by William Tyndale, ‘Of a surety this man was perfect’. That prompts us to think in terms of goodness and perfection.

The New International Version follows a tradition that goes back beyond the Authorised Version to the Bishops’ Bible of 1568, according to which the centurion says, ‘Verily this was a righteous man’. ‘Righteousness’ is so important, but it has connotations to do with morality: it’s so easy to be ‘self-righteous’, and even worse to be ‘more righteous than thou’!

Miles Coverdale in 1535 spotted the connection with justice and it remained in the very influential Geneva Bible of 1587, ‘Of a surety this man was just’. Perhaps it comes as no surprise that our Congregational forebears, the Dissenters, continued to use the Geneva Bible long after King James authorised the 1611 translation. They longed for justice.

Welsh congregations have a very different experience. The new Welsh translation of 1988, revised in 2004, retains William Morgan’s translation of 1588 and has the centurion describe Jesus as ‘just’, though the colloquial Bible.Net follows the NRSV. Roman Catholic friends who use the 1582 Douay-Rheims Bible would recognize the connection, after all it was there very early on in the Latin translation of the Greek, ‘Indeed this was a just man’.

What does justice look like?

Let’s take a leaf out of the centurion’s book and look at Jesus. For in him we see justice.

When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to set free those who are oppressed,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:16-21).

As Christmas approaches, I cannot help but remember staying in Bethlehem and meeting so many people there, not least from the churches there and in Jerusalem. I have tried to keep in touch through Embrace the Middle East and Bethlehem Bible College and one thing that has become more and more apparent, is the longing our Christian brothers and sisters in Palestine, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza have not only for peace but also for justice.

What does justice look like?

Look to Jesus and remember ‘he was just’.

In a world of injustice, we turn to you, Jesus.

Help us to find in you that justice we long for.

In that world of injustice,

bless those who hunger and thirst for justice,

bless those who are peacemakers.

Fill our hearts with the fire of your Spirit

that we too may hunger and thirst for justice

in our commitment to be peacemakers.

Amen

Richard Cleaves

Image: Tab. Vindol. IV 891, romaninscriptionsofbritain.org/inscriptions/TabVindol891 © The Vindolanda Trust