The word justice carries a significant amount of value for many people. Everyone seems to want it and demands its enforcement and seeks to have it apply to everyone alike. And yet not everyone agrees what this word actually means and implies. In today's discussion, let's take the time to understand what the actual definition of justice ought to be for the Christian believer.
Welcome to answers from an apostolic faith.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.
What is the meaning of justice within the Christian reality? Do we understand and approach justice in the same way as the secular world? Is it possible that the Lord Jesus' expression of justice is one that would challenge us and make many today feel uneasy?
My beloved, if you took the time to listen to the first part of this Social Justice series, which we released on March 24 th , 2021, then you know that we have taken the time to develop how social justice is indeed an important value within the Christian faith. However, we also demonstrated that there seems to be a stark difference between how the world approaches justice versus how the Lord calls us to seek it and enforce it. Today, we hope to demonstrate how the Christian approach to justice is indeed very different from the world's expression.
Let us begin with a very famous passage taken from the Gospel according to St. John. In this passage, we see how the scribes and the Pharisees bring to the Lord Jesus Christ a woman that was caught in the act of adultery and they challenge Him by asking Him what should be done to her. Let's go ahead and read it together:
'' 7 So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, ''He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.'' 8 And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 [And] then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. 10 [And] when Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, ''Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?'' 11 [And] she said, ''No one, Lord.'' And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.'' (John 8:7-11)
This is found in John, chapter 8, verses 7 to 11. My beloved, please, notice how it is here that the Lord is fully aware of the law. In fact, He Himself is the law giver, and so, He knows the law all too well. And notice also how He does not contradict the law. He does not imply that she doesn't deserve to be stoned. In reality, what the Lord is doing is demonstrating that His standard of justice is clearly different than theirs. You see, St. Augustine, he demonstrates this in his commentary on this very passage. He explains the folly and the misdirected sense of justice that was adopted by the scribes and the Pharisees. Let's take a look at what St. Augustine says: 1
''...[the accusers] laid a stumbling block for [Jesus] when it came to the third issue of justice. For the law had commanded the adulterers to be stoned, and surely the law could not command what was unjust. [And] if anyone said anything other than [that, that] what [would be] (...) commanded, he would be detected as an unjust person. Therefore, they said among themselves (...) ''If he decides to let her go, he will not be just. But, they say, in order to maintain his meekness, which has [been] made (...) already so acceptable to the people, Jesus must decide to let her go.''
'' [And] they were hoping to find an occasion to accuse him as a transgressor of the law so that he too would be stoned with the woman (...). But our Lord in his answer both maintained his justice without leaving out gentleness. They laid the snare for him, but they were the ones who were caught in it because they did not believe in the one who could pull them out of [that same] net.'' (St. Augustine, Tractates on the Gospel of John, Tractate #33, paragraph 4)
St. Augustine goes on later and he makes a beautiful statement about how this is what real justice ought to be. He says:
''What answer, then, did the Lord Jesus make? How did the truth answer? How did Wisdom answer? How did [the] Righteousness, against whom a false accusation was ready, answer? He did not say, 'Do not stone her'; otherwise he would seem to speak contrary to the law.
''But God forbid that he should say, 'Stone her', for he came not to lose what he found, but to seek what was lost. What then did he answer? See how full of righteousness, how full of meekness and truth his answer is? 'He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.'... This is the voice of justice'', [St. Augustine says.] - (St. Augustine, Tractates on the Gospel of John, Tractate #33, paragraph 5)
1 This passage from St. Augustine mentions a ''third issue of justice''. This refers to the three types of offences that fell under the responsibility of the judicial system at the time of Jesus: offences against nature, offences against custom, and offences against the laws. Adultery, which is the issue here, was an offence of the third type, an offence against the law, hence the reference to ''the third issue of justice''.
What does that mean? What does it mean when he says: This is the voice of justice? And what is being demonstrated here is that the Lord focuses on the restoration of the person that has sinned, and not merely their condemnation. And there are many other examples of this in the scriptural accounts of the Lord's ministry, hence why the Church is always teaching us that the Lord does not wish the death of a sinner, but rather that he or she returns and lives. So, what then does justice mean?
Allow me for a moment to broaden the horizon of our conversation and to talk about language. The Greek word for justice is δικαιοσύνη (dikaiosíni). It's the same root word for righteous or righteousness, meaning to set aright or to be in right standing. Other linked words to consider are what it means to say that someone is just or to justify someone or even to adjust something.
Let's consider for a moment what it means to justify text in a word editor. It means that we are realigning words so that they may properly fill a space. What does it mean to adjust something? Often, it implies to straighten an object that it may be set aright or in its proper and intended place. We forget all of this when speaking of justice.
But truly, justice ought to be focused on the realignment, the restoration and the renewal of the human being: the setting aright of the soul. This is precisely what we see in the ministry and the teaching of the Lord Jesus. He's constantly searching out for those who need adjustment and then He justifies them by placing them back in the bosom of the all loving and merciful Father.
Let's take another example of this to see how the word justice is yet again used in Scripture without the typical judicial context that we have tendency of projecting onto it. Let's read from Matthew, chapter 1:
'' 18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. 19 [And] then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. 20 But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, ''Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.'' '' (Matthew 1:18-20)
Why does the evangelist insist on pointing out that Joseph was a just man and hence he did not want to make her a public spectacle? But why not? If he was indeed a just man, at least as per the Jewish times that he lived in, would he not have known that she was pregnant out of wedlock and thus deserving of the sentence of the law, which was clearly death? Would he not have been in his right to hand her over to be stoned? And please, notice how, in the
scriptural text, it is clear that his justice is revealed even before the angel appears to him to confirm that her pregnancy was indeed of the Holy Spirit and not through adultery.
Again here, we see how the Gospel is clearly telling you and I that to be just or to work the justice of God is to demonstrate godly wisdom and mercy, and hope for the restoration of the person. St. John Chrysostom, he wants to highlight the grace that overtook Joseph. And so, he comments and explains that this was nothing short of someone who was living a higher standard than that of the world around him. Let's read what St. John Chrysostom has to say:
''Do you not see here a man, [Joseph] of exceptional self-restraint, freed from that most tyrannical passion, jealousy? (...) Joseph was so free from the passion of jealousy as to be unwilling to cause distress to the Virgin, even in the slightest way. To keep Mary in his house appeared to be a transgression of the law, but to expose and bring her to trial would cause him to deliver her to die. [And] he would do nothing of the sort. [And] so Joseph determined to conduct himself now by a higher rule than the law. For now that grace was appearing, it would be fitting that many tokens of that exalted citizenship [should] be expressed.'' (St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew, #4.4)
This higher rule than the law, that which St. John Chrysostom speaks of is a standard of justice the Lord is calling all of us to. It's not merely to be law-abiding citizens neither is it to be simply advocates for the inclusive and egalitarian values of our land. And while these things are good and indeed important, they are in and of themselves insufficient to offer the restorative transformation that the Lord has called all of us to offer each other. Justice must mean, to the Christian, the very opportunity to love the sinner and to look past the evil; to hope and pray and actively contribute to renewal of that person in the front of us.
Now, I know that many may hear this and be afraid. Some might think: Does this mean that we should turn a blind eye to abuse and evil? Should our hope for a sinner's return, that it be at the expense of tolerating evil? Now, the simple answer to this is no. Never ought we to tolerate evil, especially when we can defend those who need us to step in.
But how do we defend the vulnerable while also helping the offender to come back to God? This is the Christian dilemma that should really keep us up at night. And hopefully we can discuss this in a third part of the series. Until then, we have to pray that the Lord give us of His love, that same love which desires to stand up for the helpless, that also works tirelessly to bring back those who have strayed from the Lord, and in the process, have hurt both themselves and have potentially hurt others.
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Remember: Know your faith, live your faith, and teach your faith