Getting Even

Robert Simon is dead. He was killed last Tuesday. His family knew him as Robbie. Maybe you know him better as “Mudman.”

And maybe you thought, as I did when I heard the news, that justice had been done. Because, you see, Mudman Simon killed Franklinville police officer Lee Gonzalez four and a half years ago, and had already been condemned to death by the courts. But this had been a brutal killing, a gruesome murder by a fellow inmate. Was this really justice?

And another big story in the news this week was President Clinton’s offer of clemency to 14 convicted terrorists. Almost everyone I heard talking about it (except the defense attorney) was outraged that these men had been freed. And yet such renowned and respected figures as Nelson Mandela and Jimmy Carter had urged the President to this action. Was this the right occasion for forgiveness?

One of the women in our Thursday morning Bible study commented on the fact that everyone she knew had reacted to the news of Mudman Simon’s killing more with cheers than tears, with a “Yes!” rather than a prayer for God’s mercy. Did that strike you, too? What were your feelings, when you heard?

I’ve been thinking about all of these things this week... The passage from Matthew that I just read wasn’t pulled out for the occasion, it’s the lectionary Gospel text for this week, so forgiveness was already on the agenda. And a number of questions surfaced:

Was this killing just? Was the original sentence just? And what parts do mercy and forgiveness play in this scenario? And what about those widespread feelings of - I don’t know if satisfaction is quite the right word, but there is a sense that these two events are in balance somehow, that this second murder evened the score for the original one.

And then there was the Old Testament passage we just read. [Ex 14:5-18] When the Israelites finally won their freedom from Pharaoh, after multiple plagues and the deaths of all the Egyptian first-borns, and were on their way to the Promised Land at last, what should happen? The king reneges on the deal. He sends his armies after the Israelites, with more slavery and oppression in mind, of course. And God sets it up so that the Egyptian armies see the Israelites escaping between the waters and think they have time to catch the fleeing tribes before they make it across. They descend into the passageway, and the seas rush back and kill them all. And in the next chapter the Israelites whoop and holler and sing aloud in celebration - and yet Pharaoh’s soldiers were only following orders. Was this just?

How are we as Christians to think, and to feel, about these issues?

We know God cares about justice. God IS justice: “For the word of the LORD is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice..." [Psalm 33:4-5]

God requires justice from his followers: “Justice, and only justice, you shall pursue, so that you may live and occupy the land that the LORD your God is giving you... “ [Deut 16:20]

And God’s justice doesn’t mean only what is called “distributive justice,” that is, ensuring that everyone gets his or her fair share of the food or the land or the education or the other gifts he has given us. God also requires “retributive justice.” That kind of justice is about rewards and punishment. And Scripture is full of promises of God’s justice, from the giving of the law in Exodus all the way up to the promises of judgment in Revelation:

“YHWH [is] a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, yet by no means clearing the guilty..." [Ex 34:6-7] "YHWH is slow to anger but great in power, and ...will by no means clear the guilty..." [Nahum 1:3]

I haven’t even begin to quote all the passages that apply. The word “justice” appears 165 times, the word “judgment” 222 times, the word “just” 443 times (of course, sometimes the word “just” just means just - isn’t English fun?), and the word guilt appears 137 times, etc. etc. Plus or minus one or two, of course, depending on which translation you are using. It’s a major theme of Scripture. And yet with all of this evidence of how important justice is, Jesus tells Peter to forget all about that, and to forgive, instead.

“Then Peter came and said to him, 'Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as 7 times?' Jesus said to him, 'Not 7 times, but, I tell you, 77 times.'" [Mat 18:21-22]

So what are we to make of it all?