justice |ˈjəstis|noun
1 just behavior or treatment : a concern for justice, peace, and genuine respect for people.
• the quality of being fair and reasonable : the justice of his case.
• the administration of the law or authority in maintaining this : a tragic miscarriage of justice.
• ( Justice) the personification of justice, usually a blindfolded woman holding scales and a sword
Justice. What is Justice?
We live in a world that cries out for Justice. But do we really know what we are looking for?
In the united states justice is portrayed as a blindfolded woman holding scales. Implying that justice keeps everything in the balance, but is not partial to either side. Balance, an eye for an eye; Ghandi said that an eye for an eye would make the whole world blind.
Maybe an eye for an eye doesn’t make the world blind but rather makes justice blind? And perhaps that is the problem, that we want justice to be blind. Blind to the other side of the story, blind to anything but our way, and what we think is fair.
On my days off I watch movies. I have always looked at movies, music and media as social commentary giving insight to the behavior and interests of the world I live in. If you are what you eat, then you are what you watch, read and listen to.
Today I watched a movie that shook me and rattled me with the thoughts of justice. We desperately want and cry out for justice. But we don’t really know what Justice looks like. We live in a world where difference right from wrong is moving more and more from black and white to grey. And I sit wondering if the problem is that we’ve allowed justice to be blind.
What would happen if we allowed justice to open it’s eyes? See not just one situation, but the entire picture? The whole world picture, the good and bad, the things we deem good but are bad and the bad we deem good but is bad? What would Justice declare in that environment?
The bible says that God is the God of justice. Yet we don’t like His justice. He says that everyone gets the same outcome, death. He says that justice demands payment, and there is only payment for what happens that is wrong: Death.
Death: the only way to pay the price for wrong in the world is to die. And the outcome is that, we die. We die to pay for all the things that we have done wrong in our own life. God’s justice says that we will pay for our own wrong.
The irony is this: we long for someone else to clean up our own mess. That we want someone else to step in and take responsibility for our wrong, and God did just that. He sent His own son to make our wrong right, to perform justice. Yet we still refuse His help. Maybe in our search for blind justice, we have become blind? Maybe we need to open our eyes and see that true justice isn’t blind, that true justice is Jesus.
