Beyond Justice

“Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” Luke 12:13

Jesus is presented with what appears to be a case of injustice . . . and he refuses to take action for what is fair and equitable. Instead, he warns against measuring life in terms of possessions, or one’s share of the economic pie. Whether one is or is not receiving fair treatment under the law of the land is not what he addresses. Jesus is concerned with a matter beyond justice. He asks about what we imagine to be the substance of our lives.

Are you surprised? Jesus not only refusing to help a man seeking justice, but asking him to examine his motives!

Would Jesus fit in well with today’s progressive, justice-minded Christian activism? Maybe not if he were speaking to a gathering of activists!

That’s not to say that current calls for justice in social and systemic ways are wrong-headed or unChristlike. Perhaps Jesus is giving a justice-minded church a warning about a ditch we might fall into while advocating for what is right.

Can we, in a God-driven desire to support the just treatment of all, put too much emphasis on a life defined by economic, legislative, judicial, educational, and other social matters? Is it possible to imply something about the essence of life that is neither true nor sustaining? Might we go too far, not in pursuing justice, but in failing to talk about what lies beyond justice?

Clearly, we cannot simply talk about justice coming when Jesus returns and do nothing now for those experiencing what is desperately unjust. We also cannot hope only in the justice we are able to enact through our social institutions. Perhaps we must work toward real justice, while knowing it will only truly arrive with the new heavens and earth. We work in the present, and still talk about a hope that is apocalyptic.

I suspect Jesus would sound more like today’s activists when speaking to the enfranchised, but not when speaking to the disenfranchised. Perhaps he would tell the marginalized to stop thinking their salvation will be found in achieving equal access. The Kingdom of God does not come with the reformation of the institutions of the Roman Empire. In turn, he would rebuke those supporting the status quo for systematically, if not personally, committing injustice against the powerless.

In the end, he would tell us all the truth, and none of us would get off without rebuke.  Beyond justice is truth. A stinging dose of God’s reality ultimately sets us free.

As for me, I actually deserve both reprimands.