Justice and Mercy

Last year I attended a conference focused on community development. The theme of the conference was “Shalom,” but I suspect the word "justice" was used at least twice as often that weekend as the word “Shalom.”

One of the worship songs featured in the conference was taken from Micah 6:8. The chorus repeatedly urged us to "love justice and show mercy." That sounds great, doesn't it? But there's a problem.

What Micah 6:8 actually says is, "He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?"

Justice means many things: right conduct, honest dealing, fairness to all, concern for rules and laws, appropriate consequences for wrongs, and appropriate reward for goodness. Micah tells us that God wants us to act justly.

In fact, we know that God Himself loves justice. Psalm 33:5 and Psalm 37:28 say so in the same breath that they speak of God’s enduring faithfulness. Isaiah 61:8 says, "For I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery for burnt offering; I will direct their work in truth, And will make with them an everlasting covenant.” God loves us when we are right and honest in our behavior.

But Micah makes a profound point. While God wants justice to characterize our actions, it is mercy that He wants us to cherish. Justice is concerned with right and wrong. It is vitally important, but it is also impersonal. God wants our hearts to yearn for something beyond fair rules and fair living. Mercy goes beyond justice. It offers more than what is deserved. Mercy means looking past wrongs suffered. It means opening one's hands, hearts and wallets to those in need.

I’m deeply grateful for God’s justice. Where would I be if my Creator were capricious or unpredictable? But were it not for God’s mercy, His justice would mean our destruction. Thankfully, though, He is merciful, loving the unlovely and unworthy.

I want to be right in my dealings with others. I want to be a man of integrity. But I want so much more! I long to give as God gives, forgive as He forgives, love as He loves.

Whoever wrote the chorus got things turned around. And whoever attended the conference ended up with a twisted version of the verse running through their minds.

Does it really matter? I think so. First, it matters because the song obscures the profound lesson of Micah 6:8. That’s reason enough in and of itself. In addition, however, it also seems to be indicative of a blurred distinction between justice and mercy.

In Back to Virtue, Peter Kreeft says (p. 113):

Mercy is a great mystery. The familiarity of the word blinds us to this fact. Mercy goes beyond reason (how could a computer understand it?), beyond justice, beyond right, beyond law. Where justice says “punish”, mercy says “forgive”. Where justice says “this is a debt”, mercy says not that there is no debt but to dismiss the debt. To say there is no debt would be a lie since justice speaks the truth, and even mercy cannot contradict the truth, but mercy can say, “Dismiss the debt.” Dimittee nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris (“Dismiss to us our debts just as we dismiss those of our debtors”).

Throughout the conference, things that are at root merciful acts were portrayed as simple justice. Confusing justice and mercy all too easily eliminates both gratitude and neighborly love from the equation.

One who comes to view charity as his due does not have the same sense of gratitude and (dare I say it?) indebtedness as one who understands that someone else has personally taken steps to show mercy by helping him. Habitat for Humanity is one of the rare programs to make it clear that the help people receive carries with it a very real obligation to help others in the same way.

How far we have come from the day when people were embarrassed to use food stamps because it meant they were getting a handout! Today we are told that there should be no stigma, no embarrassment. Classic movies are the only place one would ever hear notions like “not being beholden” and “not taking charity.” Anonymity and entitlement make it easy to line up to sign up for more benefits, generation after generation.

I know someone who, though a person of modest means, refuses to apply for certain kinds of government help, preferring instead to seek out extra work to care for the needs of the family. These days, that kind of work ethic and sense of responsibility is becoming all too rare. As it happens, that selfsame person personally helps the household of an even more financially pinched friend make ends meet month after month. That’s probably even rarer.

Justice is a mighty fine thing, but mercy? You gotta love it.

Starting the Day with a Smile

Walking home after my morning run, I picked up plastic bottles and other garbage until I had both hands full. I stopped a park employee and asked if I could throw my findings in the back of his pickup. He said, "This is not a garbage truck." I smiled and said, "I'm not a garbage man!" He shot me a little grin. "I hear you," he said, and with a tilt of his head gestured for me to empty my garbage into his truck.

Jesus, Son of God and Son of Man

These days the web is crawling with people who have an ax to grind against Christianity. It's even trendy for people who call themselves Christians to bash Christianity!

One common assertion is that Jesus never claimed divinity for Himself. Skeptics and scoffers of all stripes with no real knowledge of the Bible make much of the fact that Jesus is more often called the "Son of Man" than the "Son of God." Don't be intimidated. Don't be argumentative either, but be aware that the facts are on your side.

To keep things simple, let's use the Gospel of Matthew as a starting point. When Jesus was interrogated by Caiaphas the high priest in Matthew 26:63-64, we read:

And the high priest said to Him, "I adjure You by the living God, that You tell us whether You are the Christ, the Son of God." Jesus said to him, "You have said it yourself; nevertheless I tell you, hereafter you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven."

There we see Jesus not only indicating that the title mentioned by the high priest (Son of God) was accurate, but also referring to Daniel 7:13-14, which says:

I kept looking in the night visions, And behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was presented before Him. And to Him was given dominion, Glory and a kingdom, That all the peoples, nations, and men of every language Might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion Which will not pass away; And His kingdom is one Which will not be destroyed.

Note that by alluding to this verse when He called Himself the Son of Man, Jesus was claiming eternal dominion over all mankind. His use of the title Son of Man was not a denial of divinity, but rather a claim of ultimate authority.

Caiphas' response upon hearing this was to accuse Jesus of blasphemy (Matthew 26:65) because he understood that Jesus was in fact claiming to be the Son of God (Matthew 27:43). Caiphas didn't like what Jesus was saying. It appears that he also didn't believe it. But he understood it perfectly.

If the person you're talking with is a spiritual seeker rather than simply an argument-seeker, this just might give you a good starting point for conversation.

Marcion Was a Red-Letter Christian

I just ran across a great article entitled "Why I'm Not a Red Letter Christian."

For those unfamiliar with the term, the Christianity Today article entitled "When Red is Blue" may be helpful. It contains a letter by Stan Guthrie with a response by Tony Campolo. The letters are tremendously revealing, both in their content and in the apparently disingenuous nature of Campolo's response.

Just to be fair, here is Campolo's earlier article, "What's a 'Red-Letter Christian'?" The attendance list in the second paragraph will speak volumes to many alert readers.

gotquestions.org gave a helpful response entitled "What Are Red-Letter Christians?" They make the following observations:

All politics aside, there are some problems associated with the Red Letter Christian movement. The first concerns the group’s open theology. Bringing together various faith backgrounds is very tolerant and progressive, but theologically untenable. Founders of the movement include those who believe that we must earn our way to heaven and those who distrust the inspiration of the Word of God.

The second problem involves the group’s piecemeal approach to Scripture. To concentrate on certain parts of the Bible to the exclusion of others is unbalanced and dangerous. “All Scripture is God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16). The Epistles, for example, were written to instruct us on the practical outworking of Jesus’ teaching and are just as inspired as Jesus’ own words. Paul’s words should not be considered inferior, as the term Red Letter Christians implies.

A third problem relates to their interpretation of Jesus’ words. In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus was not trying to write national government policy. He was presenting Himself as the fulfillment of the Old Testament Law (Matthew 5:17) and the Savior from sin for all who would believe in Him. He clearly separated Himself from all political movements and paradigms when He said, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36).

While it is true that Jesus was neither a Republican nor a Democrat, and we need public discussion on all moral values, not just abortion and homosexuality, we must handle God’s Word honestly and guard against those who undermine the sufficiency of Scripture and the sacrifice of Christ.

That sounds about right.

Scorpions in the Shower

Nestled in the breathtaking beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains is a wonderful Christian camp. It’s a place of simplicity, with well-maintained buildings and a friendly staff that somehow make the place feel like home from the moment you set foot there.

It’s also located in the middle of the range of the Plain Eastern Stripeless Scorpion. Like most scorpions, the Plain Eastern Stripeless is not aggressive and stings only when threatened. Even then, its venom is not much worse than a bee sting: oh-so-painful, but far from fatal to anyone not allergic to its toxins. Still, anyone in his right mind does everything possible to avoid being stung!

In the wild, the Plain Eastern Stripeless makes its home in leaf litter or under fallen trees. It loves cool, damp places. It also, however, has a Houdini-like ability of getting into seemingly inaccessible places in its search for prey and suitable shelter. Therein lies the problem.

At most camps, there’s nowhere that better fits the description of a “cool, damp place” than the showers. This mountain paradise is, alas, no exception. That wouldn’t be a problem, except that the showers are in the bunkhouses, so lights can’t be left on without keeping everyone awake all night. That means that first thing each day, camp counselors must make sure the bathroom is clear of scorpions before anyone takes a shower.

One morning I had to get up long before dawn to take a friend to the airport. I couldn’t turn on the lights without waking everyone else, so I put on my flip-flops, quietly gathered my things, and made my way to the bathroom. That’s when I discovered that the batteries in my flashlight were dead.

There I was: sweaty and smelling none-too-nice after a hot Tennessee night, but with no way to know if scorpions might await me in the shower. In retrospect, I can’t believe I didn’t just turn on the lights even if it would have awakened everyone in the cabin! But what I did was advance slowly into the room, feeling my way to the shower and shuffling my feet as I went, in hopes that the sound and vibration would be enough to scare any nearby scorpions out of my path.

I didn’t want to encounter any creepy-crawlies that morning, but what I wanted didn’t matter. Either they were there, or they weren’t. My wishes and preferences counted for nothing. What mattered was reality.

The same is true of spiritual reality. It doesn’t really matter what we want to believe is true. What matters is what really is true. It’s perilous to advance into eternity on the strength of our hopes and preferences rather than trying to discover what really does lie behind the world we see around us.

The message of the Bible is that God has revealed Himself to us, both by giving us His Word and by sending us His Son. He has given us a message that centers on a moment in history and a man named Jesus who demonstrated His love for us through His life and teaching and through His suffering and death on a cross.

Soldiers well acquainted with death oversaw His execution and used a spear to make sure that He was well and truly dead. People who knew and loved Him gathered up His body and took it away for burial, knowing He was dead with the same certainty I knew my daughter was gone when I held her lifeless hand.

Three days later, some of those who loved Him rose before sunrise and headed through the darkness for the place where He had been buried. When they got there, they discovered that the tomb was open and empty, and a messenger from God told them that Jesus had risen. In the weeks that followed, Jesus appeared to many, sometimes one-on-one, sometimes in small groups, and at least once before a crowd of hundreds.

That experience marked the disciples like nothing before had ever done. Most of the twelve men Jesus had chosen were executed, still proclaiming with their dying breath that Jesus had both died and risen again. An unparalleled event at a single moment in history changed their lives forever, as countless lives have been changed since.

The truth mattered to them. Either Jesus had died and risen again, or He hadn’t. They staked their lives and all of eternity on the factuality of that event. The Apostle Paul later commented that if the resurrection never happened, the Apostles were more to be pitied than anyone in the world. What counted most was not the strength or sincerity of their hope or faith, but whether or not what they believed was true. As eyewitnesses, they knew it was.

What awaits us in eternity is a question infinitely more important than whether or not there are scorpions in the shower. Isn’t it worth taking the time to examine what really awaits us rather than advancing blindly in the hope that the way we have chosen is safe? If you haven’t already done so, I hope and pray you will.