Oh … please do not misunderstand me. I am not saying we should stand by and not do anything. Not at all. I am saying that it’s possible that we could use some time looking more closely at our perspective and our own motives. How do we expect to weave justice and mercy together as we wage a war on (insert social justice issue of the moment here). Mercy is usually a victim during wartime. And the visual I get of Jesus on the cross suffering gross physical injustice so that we might have mercy, brings me to my knees. The two concepts seem diametrically opposed, yet God enjoins us to put them together … what does He mean by that? And how should we do it?
I’m really digging this post Rich … it’s wonderful. Deep and full of really great stuff.
Rich, I read this last night and then I had to come back and read it again this morning. It’s just knocking me over because it’s so powerful. I’m especially meditating on the images I get with the interplay of these two sentences:
“The cross was the greatest social injustice in history, but no greater act of mercy has been recorded for mankind and the world.
Most of us, when confronted with the injustice of the world want to act.”
When I think about **how** Jesus confronted social injustice versus how we do I am gob-smacked. We want to march in and make it stop, punish the perpetrators, save the innocents, etc., etc. We look at this from an almost military perspective … and wage wars on drugs, pornography, whatever the latest evil of the moment is. This ends up creating a continuing cycle of injustice and harm in the world: the original evil, then the evil caused by stopping it.
Jesus didn’t see it like that. He didn’t wage any wars on the evils of his day (which were markedly similar to the evils of ours). He looked at the root of evil and began there. He talked to individuals and didn’t make laws on top of rules. He invited people to the table. He invited them to inspect their own hearts. While being subversive and humble, it was also the most powerful act he could do (see the woman caught in adultery, or the woman at the well, or the rich young ruler). Ultimately, when he could have saved himself against the an act of grave social injustice he engaged in a powerful act of humility and did nothing to save himself at all.
I wonder sometimes if our perspective needs to be broadened and our horizons widened so that we can see beyond ourselves and our immediate situation, dire though it may be, to the root of the evil that we face. If we were able to see that more clearly, I think we’d have a better understanding of how to weave doing justice and loving mercy together in a more whole and tightly woven cloth.
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Christians, are we arbiters of social justice or dispensers of grace to society?
March 25th, 2009 at 12:25 pmOh … please do not misunderstand me. I am not saying we should stand by and not do anything. Not at all. I am saying that it’s possible that we could use some time looking more closely at our perspective and our own motives. How do we expect to weave justice and mercy together as we wage a war on (insert social justice issue of the moment here). Mercy is usually a victim during wartime. And the visual I get of Jesus on the cross suffering gross physical injustice so that we might have mercy, brings me to my knees. The two concepts seem diametrically opposed, yet God enjoins us to put them together … what does He mean by that? And how should we do it?
I’m really digging this post Rich … it’s wonderful. Deep and full of really great stuff.
Christians, are we arbiters of social justice or dispensers of grace to society?
March 25th, 2009 at 5:15 amRich, I read this last night and then I had to come back and read it again this morning. It’s just knocking me over because it’s so powerful. I’m especially meditating on the images I get with the interplay of these two sentences:
“The cross was the greatest social injustice in history, but no greater act of mercy has been recorded for mankind and the world.
Most of us, when confronted with the injustice of the world want to act.”
When I think about **how** Jesus confronted social injustice versus how we do I am gob-smacked. We want to march in and make it stop, punish the perpetrators, save the innocents, etc., etc. We look at this from an almost military perspective … and wage wars on drugs, pornography, whatever the latest evil of the moment is. This ends up creating a continuing cycle of injustice and harm in the world: the original evil, then the evil caused by stopping it.
Jesus didn’t see it like that. He didn’t wage any wars on the evils of his day (which were markedly similar to the evils of ours). He looked at the root of evil and began there. He talked to individuals and didn’t make laws on top of rules. He invited people to the table. He invited them to inspect their own hearts. While being subversive and humble, it was also the most powerful act he could do (see the woman caught in adultery, or the woman at the well, or the rich young ruler). Ultimately, when he could have saved himself against the an act of grave social injustice he engaged in a powerful act of humility and did nothing to save himself at all.
I wonder sometimes if our perspective needs to be broadened and our horizons widened so that we can see beyond ourselves and our immediate situation, dire though it may be, to the root of the evil that we face. If we were able to see that more clearly, I think we’d have a better understanding of how to weave doing justice and loving mercy together in a more whole and tightly woven cloth.