What is Justice?
Whilst researching for a definition of justice, I found the following description from Josie Em. Paraphrasing from Josie’s biographical post, Josie was left disabled by a drunk driver at a young age, and she is unable to work. When feeling physically capable, Josie spends time with Holocaust survivors, as a museum guide, and usually guiding students. Her hope is that by touching the lives of the next generation, one person at a time, she can build a better world.
Josie understands about pain, suffering, and injustice, and explains her view of justice as follows:
“Ultimately, I would say that justice is about balance, and about responsibility. Balance for the victims and responsibility for the offenders. Ideally, the punishment should involve some form of rehabilitation and/or training to avoid a repeat performance. It's aimed at righting the wrong for the victim, and - hopefully - making the offender a better person. Of course, this is all about ideals. In the real world? It's great in theory, but in practice it has varying results.”
What a wonderful view of justice. There is such wisdom, grace, and depth of understanding from someone who knows about personal suffering and the suffering of others.
Today, we often hear opinions, especially strong opinions, on justice from folk who do not know all the facts and/or have little knowledge of what justice is. This can be seen as one of the negative aspects of social media. Anonymous people force their opinion and agenda onto others. Earlier this year, we witnessed violent disorder following the deaths of three young girls in Southport. But this type of interference is neither new nor a consequence of our social media culture. For example, we read in Matthew 27:
“Now it was the governor’s custom at the festival to release a prisoner chosen by the crowd.
But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed.”
How do you see justice? Some view justice as getting even, but a more Christian approach is to view justice as having a balanced sentence which is appropriate to the crime and the offender. The government even provides sentencing guidelines to help ensure consistency between judges. Other people view justice in terms of compensation, normally financial. Perhaps you see justice as a spiritual matter, which will be determined by God. And yes, we will receive justice and forgiveness for our sins through Christ’s death, but we still have to abide by our nation’s laws. Therefore, God may forgive us, but we might have to pay a fine, spend time in jail, or pay compensation.
Prayer
Father, please give us the wisdom and courage shown by Josie, examples of which we see in your scriptures. Father, help us to seek justice in an even-handed way and not to fall prey to the current cultural need for violent justice as exercised by extremists. Please help us to support both victims and offenders, as you would support them. Amen.
Michael Rolton
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