Justice

It's funny how the term "justice" carries such disparate meanings.

For Judges, police officers and Israelites, it seems to connote hitting people who have done unacceptable and/or repulsive things with rocks, billy clubs, sticks, bullets, jail time, rocks, fists, rocks, jail cells, or the like.
For hippies, Northern Californians (okay, same thing.) and rock stars, it seems to connote large amounts of food to impoverished [African] nations, not giving anyone jail time and/or refusing to hit them with rocks, sanctions on impoverished [African] nations, the (RED) campaign, community housing, community organizing, community planning, community living and community-anything. Ahh...Life Together.


I think they are both wrong. Pastor Steve preached two weeks ago that "Justice is the application of Torah [and subsequently Jesus] to life." Justice is hard and nasty at times. It is revolutionarily "soft" at times. I think Pastor Steve hit the nail on the head here. Justice can look like sanctions and petitions and campaigns. maybe. But, if we are going to take the Scriptures seriously as the texts that shape and form the people of God, Justice can look like stones thrown at your head until you die. It can look like relational reconciliation that goes from Jerusalem to Galilee by foot to make it up to my brother and then back to finish my offering on the altar. Or it can look like throwing someone out of church for belligerence and disrespect. The question is, for me, are we applying Jesus' teaching and life to our lives? Then things will be just. Then life will be as it should be--is that not the true meaning of justice, when things are as they should be. I'd like to wrestle with the idea of restorative justice a bit later, but not right now. Right now, peace. happy Lent.