JUSTICE IS EXPENSIVE
Justice.
A word that has been on the tip of thousands of tongue’s in the last several weeks. From tweets, to news reports, to protests – hundreds of thousands of are crying out for justice. In all of this there may be a question well worth asking, “What does the word ‘justice’ even mean?” This is more than semantics or clever thinking.
It is important to consider, for we are bombarded with both overt and subtle messages about justice. Chances are we may be operating with different understandings, which could hinder our ability to work together toward a more just society.
In my experience most (if not all) people know our world is broken and in need of repair. Things are not as they should be and we long for them to made right. This longing within us for things to be put right is one of the great human goals and dreams. Faithful men and women know this because all men and women have heard, deep within themselves, the echo of a voice which calls us to live like that (paraphrased from N.T. Wright, Simply Christian, page 15).
This longing for things to be made right is our heart’s cry for justice. And this is what we ought to consider. Too often we understand justice only as punishment, as retribution, and fail to see it as something bigger.
We believe if you hit someone you deserve to be hit back with equal force. If you commit a crime you deserve to be punished. We want to the bad guys to lose and live to get even with those who wronged us. On it goes. This punitive idea however, is only one kind of justice, and one we are well practiced at distributing.
This is where our limited understanding of justice as retribution often breaks down. Why? Because when someone strikes us we do not return an equal blow. Rather, we deliver a blow with greater force. And then what happens? The person who struck first now believes he or she is entitled to retaliate and administer punishment – all in the name of justice. This spiral downward does not stop.
Jesus seemed to know a thing or two about this. This is why he told his followers to move beyond the ancient “eye for an eye; tooth for a tooth” idea of justice that we have yet to learn. Beyond this, justice as punishment is incomplete. This is why men and women throughout history can be punished over and over while going through little change in their heart and life.
Thankfully, there is much more to justice …
“… restorative justice, whose chief purpose is not punitive but restorative, healing. It holds as central the essential humanity of the perpetrator of even the most gruesome atrocity, never giving up on anyone, believing in the essential goodness of all as created in the image of God, and believing that even the worst of us still remains a child of God with the potential to become better, someone to be salvaged to be rehabilitated, not to be ostracized, but ultimately to be reintegrated into the community” (Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu, God is Not a Christian, page 155 – 156).
Tutu touches on God’s greatest desire, which is not to see punishment served, but to see his healing and shalom flow into this world. Even a casual reading of the Bible leads one to see God’s bent toward restoration over and above punishment. God is the one who makes all things new. The question then is why don’t we see more desire and cries for restorative justice in our world today?
Good question – allow me to attempt an answer.
We know punitive justice. Let’s be honest, it’s easy and it feels good. When someone wrongs us, few things feel better than to stand by and watch them pay. Really pay. There is a primal, visceral enjoyment in watching someone who has caused you pain experience pain. The same cannot be so easily said of healing and restoration.
These call for us to place love, care, concern for the one who wronged us before our desire for them to be punished. It calls for us to want something better for those who caused pain, did wrong or committed a crime.
This goes against everything inside us, but let’s not forget God’s heart in this. Walter Brueggeman suggests God possessed a willingness to turn the grief, wrath, anger and punishment on himself rather than to rage against his creation. “God bears the vengeance of God in order that his creation can have compassion.” What we see in God is his willingness to give everything – even his Son – so we are freed to pursue restorative justice in this world of ours.
The challenge that lies within restorative justice is one that calls us to act in a selfless way reminiscent of Jesus’ act on the cross. It asks us to kneel alongside him in the garden and pray, “Not what I want God, but what you want.” This teaches us justice is expensive. Maybe this is why so many prefer not to make the payment, and settle for an incomplete, punitive idea of justice that will never lead to the restoration we so desperately need.
But what if as we continue to cry out for justice we chose differently? What would happen if we purposed to work toward renewal? What could our neighborhoods, cities, country and world look like if we moved beyond punishment and took the long road that leads to restoration?
I suspect our cries would make the long turn from cries of longing toward shouts of celebration. And to that end may we all work.