John 6:63
The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life.
Our nation is raging on hi-octane toxicity right now; there are a lot of hot emotions. All of the red buttons are being pushed: race; constitutional liberties; personal and collective safety; our sense of dignity; our history; feelings of injustice; systems that make us feel helpless; and our feelings of powerlessness to control what’s really going on. One of my coworkers once told me, in the midst of some heavy office drama, “don’t get involved in the freak-out!” On one level, that’s sound advice.
Jesus didn’t come to shout overtop of everyone else, and demand everyone’s compliance and obedience. He didn’t come to win the office-drama politics. That’s what empires do. They fight for turf. They fight to control. You can always smell them, because they want to be first. They want to sit in the executive desk and bulldoze everyone with the bully pulpit. It’s my way or the highway. In the ancient world it was--might makes right. In the modern world it was--majority makes right. Now in the postmodern world it’s become some gross form of--morality makes right. But it’s still the same Billy-club, and it’s always pounding away with its accusation and punishment of the other guy.
Conversely, the justice of the Lord is always perfectly objective, and always saturated with his compassionate mercies. God can perfectly love his enemies and judge them at the same time. When God serves justice his intent is to stop evil and restore people to right relationship. Both can be done. That should be our aim as well. Restoration has to be a central plank in the Christian activist movement. This is why Jesus taught his people to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
That doesn’t mean you don’t confront evil actions, or that you passively allow evil to waltz through your community. It means you can stop evil actions and systems while creating a potential future where people can change and choose the good instead of the evil. The current cultural trend is to sit in the perch of self-righteousness and demonize your enemies and condemn them to everlasting shame. Jesus died for his enemies to rescue their hearts and minds and souls from bondage to evil; he built a bridge to rescue his enemies out of hell. This should be the defining difference in the Christian’s quest for justice, it is full of humility and grace. Jesus’ words are full of life and Spirit and restoration, not accusation and death.
A detective friend of mine relayed the story of when his team did a house invasion and convicted a man who had been disseminating child-pornography. At the moment of arrest the predator actually turned and thanked the detective for arresting him. He felt so trapped in his own lifestyle; he didn’t know how to bust out of it. He knew what he was doing was wrong, but he couldn’t stop it. After years in prison, he embraced Jesus as his hope for transformation and his life began to change. New life habits began to take shape. He slowly became a different person driven by different motivations and desires. He began partnering with good instead of evil. That’s the hope of the gospel. It holds out a future in which the wolf and the lamb can lay down together in peace (Isaiah 65:25).
Christian involvement in the world is a beautiful thing. We are the salt of the earth. Social reforms are important steps in the road towards justice. As in our private lives, our communities are on an ever evolving journey to reflect the character of Jesus in many different areas and on many different issues. This article is not a full primer on Christian activism---a movement whose recent five year objectives may be praise worthy nevertheless need some correction to remain Godly and healthy. This article is simply to remind us that true Godly activism does not carry out it’s mission in the spirit of the world but in the Spirit of Christ; it restores people to God’s love and truth. Christian activism should flow out of a life reoriented in a healer, not an activist.
The Spirit always wants to go deeper than the world is willing to go. The world wants to talk about laws and systems, restitution and retribution, compensation and collection. The Spirit wants to talk about the condition of your heart and mind; forgiveness and repentance; being restored to God’s love and aligned with God’s truths. Collective habits, social patterns, and legal structures will bring healing to our communities in as much as they are built on the healing properties of God’s Word and God’s love. Just as personal healing and peace only comes from being restored to the healer, so communal healing only comes from being restored to the healer.
We should strive to be healers in our communities. We can lead with thoughtful words; gracious leadership; clear logic; lack of favoritism; responsive listening; genuine goodness; and unflinching confidence in the truth. Justice seeks to align earthly structures with God’s eternal truths. The icon that captures it well is the statue of the veiled woman holding the scales of justice. Guilt and innocence is blind to personal prejudice, national borders, ethnic anger, class fault lines, and religious sentiments.
Even while the megaphones of media are projecting death, division, and fear, you, oh Christian, have the power of the Creator to speak life: to bless the people that offend you; to heal the hands that wound you; to restore a society tearing itself to pieces. If Jesus is your role model, he chose to point out the sins of Romans and Jews. He wasn’t trying to tear one community down to build the other up. His message of equal guilt and equal responsibility was a new way. It is the way of mutual honor and respect. It is the way of laying your life down to serve one another. And it is the way of activism that doesn’t destroy others, but seeks the mutual blessing of a household whose members live in peace.
Tags: justice, grace, healing
