Justice and mercy

JUSTICE AND MERCY 

Micah 6:8 ‘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?’

The prophet Micah had a burden for justice to be seen amongst God’s people Israel. In chapter three Micah opposes two groups in Jerusalem, the spiritual and the secular authorities. First, he opposes some of the other prophets, because they were misleading the people and unjustly using their position and power for their own advantage. He said the prophets ‘lead my people astray’ (Micah 3:5). The second group against which Micah speaks are the political leaders and rulers in Jerusalem ‘because they eat the flesh of my people’, that is, financial extortion and oppressive control over the people. In all these passages it is clear that what motivates Micah is concern for this unjust use of power against his own people.
JUSTICE
Jesus also had a burden to see God’s justice amongst his own people, Israel, and like Micah, Jesus confronted the religious political power base of his day, the Scribes and Pharisees. Jesus told them they were ignoring the most important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith (Matthew 23:23). 
The Bible tells us that when he was threatened and insulted he did not threaten and insult back again but committed himself humbly into the hands of his Father, who judges righteously on our behalf – He settles the score – His way in his time. (1Peter 2:23). Jesus didn’t have to fight against injustice because he knew where to find true justice – it comes when you put things into God’s hands. That is why Jesus talked about turning the other cheek, loving your enemies, doing good to those who hate you – all those Scriptures that annoy everyone. They’re especially reinforced in the new Testament (Matthew 5:39, Romans 12:19)

This is not the way that we in our entire human history have ever organized our system of Justice, which follows the simple reward and punishment model that we see everywhere.
The Scriptures that talk about that in the New Testament are about the need for law and order in society, honouring the king, obeying the laws of the land, being subject to magistrates. This is because they have the authority under God to protect all of us by punishing the evil doers and approving of those who do good, so that we can live an ordered peaceful life ... (Romans 13, 1Peter 2.14). That common justice ultimately belongs to God.
God even said in the Old Testament that the consequences of peoples’ evil deeds will catch up with them in due time because justice ultimately belongs to God.
Their foot shall slip in due time; For the day of their calamity is at hand, And the things to come hasten upon them because vengeance is Mine, and recompense. (Deuteronomy 32:25)

But Jesus made it clear that the Law was not only about judgment of good and evil but the most important aspects of the law were justice, mercy, and faith (Matthew 23:23).
That is because God didn’t create us just to devise a judgment system to deal with good and evil and maybe enjoy a relationship with us on the way. He created us to enjoy a loving relationship with him as his children and to unfold the amazing mystery of his mercy and forgiveness to deal with the problem of good and evil on the way. 

Jesus didn’t have to fight evil with power and violence. He absorbed the full sum of all of the evil of humanity on the cross, using another kind of power called forgiveness. His last words were ‘Father forgive them for they do not know what they do.’ His death became our freedom from judgment and his resurrection became the powerful way of living a transformed life. Jesus was showing us the nature of the Father towards his children – forgiveness and mercy.

Forgiveness and mercy are not commonplace in our social dealings with each other, because unlike God, we have made forgiveness and mercy conditional upon who deserves it. We have learned that it is more efficient to negotiate our own reward and punishment systems of justice. 
This includes the blaming and shaming and judgement of people against one another that is seen everywhere today. It is a payback power play that invites the same payback treatment in return. It never transforms anyone, it just creates a cycle of further resentment and payback.

Many people align themselves with a group ideology or set of policies and they will blame and shame another group with a different ideology. God sees these people as individuals that he is mercifully and patiently trying to redeem and transform.
If we don’t see these people as individuals in this way we can be blinded to the darkness within our own individual souls that God is also mercifully and patiently trying to redeem and transform.

There are of course wonderful examples all around us of individuals showing compassion and mercy for other people who are weak and vulnerable no matter what group they belong to. This is a startling reminder that humanity is created in the image of God, so that capacity for compassion is very much a reality within every heart. And it is an observable fact that comforting and caring for someone who is suffering softens the human heart that is doing the caring. 

An even greater dimension of that kind of comfort and mercy is ours when we we receive an understanding and revelation of the powerful work of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter who lives within us. The Holy Spirit shows us the compassion that Jesus had for all of for us and that we can have for one another, thoughts of kindness and mercy.

The prophet Zechariah spoke to all of us through a prophecy to Israel about the heart of kindness and compassion we would receive when we would finally come to understand the Father’s heart of  grief that he felt when he sent his only Son to die on the cross for us. Holy Spirit has carried that mercy and compassion from the Father to the Son and to us for one another.

Zechariah 12:10 And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and  mercy, so that, when they look on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child… and from that mourning will flow ‘a spirit of kindness and prayer’ and ‘a fountain of living waters will flow out from them’ (Zechariah 13:1; 14:8).”

WALKING HUMBLY WITH OUR GOD.
Just as Jesus showed a humble trust in committing all justice into the hands of his father against the threats and insults of his enemies, we see how King David also walked humbly with his God.
There is a story of King David which shows that he had an understanding of the balance between his status as a king, and humility. In 2Samuel 16:5 David is accosted by an aggressive person called Shimei. This man cursed David as he rode along, and threw stones at him, from a hillside opposite him, accusing him of being a man of blood, a murderer. David's companions, who were riding on his right and on his left hand side, wanted to take off Shimei's head, saying - 'why should this dead dog curse the king?'. But David showed a Godly restraint and humility and replied to his men along the lines of: 'If God has sent this man to tell me what I'm really like, then I cannot destroy him for that, and on the other hand, if God has not sent him, then God will deal with the matter and even repay me good for this cursing of me today.' 

When we can have faith that humbly accepts that God is at work to show himself just and faithful and merciful on our behalf we find his grace to surrender the power of justice and judgment into his hands. We are mistaken to think that God could never be that generous with his amazing grace to actually bring perfect justice to bear for us. It takes a certain kind of humility to accept it, and not make it all about us and what we deserve. If we can receive that grace we can then live in peace and bring peace into our world.