Human beings love justice, especially those of us who are residents of the west. When there is wrongdoing we are hungry to see justice done, we are passionate about ensuring that no one gets away with anything they shouldn’t. On most occasions I guess this isn’t necessarily a bad thing but I’ve noticed something interesting about our desire for justice.

We are inconsistent about ‘who’ and ‘what’ deserves this justice.

In all honesty we don’t truly desire justice. We desire that certain people and certain acts receive punishment…….but we are happy for certain people and certain acts to go unnoticed even when they are wrong. The list of who and what those certainties are will change for each of us but royals, celebrities, those with money, those with criminal records, bosses (or anyone in authority) are all on our high justice, low forgiveness list. When these people do something wrong we bay for blood, regardless of the severity of the crime.

Just to be clear, I’m not saying these people are allowed to do wrong, or should get away with wrongdoing. I’m simply saying that we are inconsistent with our justice. Let me try to paint a picture to illustrate.

Two people are caught for speeding (both at the same speed) at a police patrol. The first person is a single mum, a nurse, who left the house late and was speeding in her 2nd hand Vauxhall after getting her child to school on time to ensure she didn’t miss her shift. The second person is a executive CEO, in an expensive suit, who was late for a morning investment meeting and pushed his range rover over the limit in the speed zone while making a call to his secretary, who many suspect he is having an affair with.

Can you picture them? If we are being honest, which one would we prefer to be punished for their misdemeanor? Which one deserves ‘justice?’

We know the correct answer is both. They both committed the same crime. Neither should have been speeding. Both were late for work. But I’d be willing to take a guess that most of us would prefer to see the second person punished while the first goes free. Somewhere in our minds (depending on our socio-economic upbringing) we have likely decided that the nurse was unlucky but the CEO was being arrogant. We will have built constructs in our mind and our desire for justice is coloured.

This isn’t a post about socio economic bias or fairness, it’s an illustration around our definition and desire for justice because often we use a skewed version of this when it comes to how we approach God.

We expect, and perhaps pray, for God to enact justice on those who we feel do wrong. But our definition of ‘wrongness‘ is on our terms not His. We seem to forget that all of us have sinned and therefore fall short of the glory of God. None of us deserve forgiveness but, out of His generosity and mercy, we have received His forgiveness. If we choose to accept that gift we become a ‘new creation’ in Jesus. True justice would mean that we would all receive what we deserve. Every deviation from Gods character is ‘wrong’ and therefore none of us are free in and of our own efforts.

The verse below was the verse that triggered these thoughts today.

Many times he delivered them, but they were bent on rebellion and they wasted away in their sin. Yet he took note of their distress when he heard their cry; for their sake he remembered his covenant and out of his great love he relented. He caused all who held them captive to show them mercy. Psalm 106:43-46

I’m not trying to say we should all feel bad and hang our heads low. That’s not Gods desire for us. Jesus died to free us, to raise as up to sit at His side. However I do want to encourage us to be slow to judge and administer our justice when faced with wrong doing in our world.

Fin.