THAT’S NOT FAIR!!!
Isaiah 42:1-4 - Seven Virtues #3 - Justice
By James Galbraith
Bethel First Baptist Church - June 3, 2001
That’s not fair!
Observe any gathering of children, and within five minutes you’ll here someone, somewhere shout ‘That’s not fair"
It doesn’t matter if it’s a Sunday School class, a soccer team or a singing club - there’ll always a child or two who feels as if justice is not being done at that moment.
What triggers the utterance of these words?
Perhaps there are four children hungry for a snack. Three get granola bars and eagerly tear into them. But then the granola bars run out and the fourth child feels he’s been left out.
Not fair!
BUT, the mom finds a chocolate bar to give the fourth child! Now the other three look at their crunchy snacks and holler "Not fair".
So the mom, frustrated with the whining, send the four outside to play, and now all four are hollering "not fair", because the show they want to watch is on and they want to stay inside.
We hear "Not fair" the first time because one child is not getting what the others got. This can be called "unequal treatment", and it usually triggers a not fair!
The second utterance comes from one child getting something better than the others. Even though the three were happy with the granola bars, once they see the fourth getting something better, they sense a "preferred treatment’, and that will get a "Not fair" pretty quick!
The third utterance comes form all parties being forced to do something they just don’t want to do. This can be called "coerced treatment", and it is a prime trigger of those dreaded words "Not fair".
The trouble is, all of the above is perfectly fair. The children, in all of these circumstances, are working with a sense of justice that centers around themselves, and in doing so cannot see what justice really is.
And guess what - it doesn’t get any better as they grow up. I’ve used children in this introduction, but this self centered sense of justice is the not the exception, it is the norm for any age group in any society.
We all want justice, but we all start with what we perceive to be justice for us.
Furthermore, we all consider ourselves to be "fair" or people who practice justice, but again, we start with what we perceive justice to be.
So Today I will ask and try to answer two questions -
1. What is justice?
2. How can we be "just"
Justice defined
When we speak of justice, what usually come to mind?
Judgment/Punishment - Making sure that those who do wrong get what they deserve
Fairness - ensuring that everyone is treated equally, and given equal opportunity
"Right - ness", or more formally - righteousness - simply doing the right thing because we know it is right, as opposed to wrong.
All of these concepts go into the broader meaning of justice, but none of them suffice by themselves.
We may be tempted to start with "getting what you deserve" - judgment
This is the notion of justice that is most prevalent in society - whenever we hear about justice on the news it is in the context of some criminal who should "get what he or she deserves".
I know that I have seen justice in this light. It can be a very powerful state of emotion - when we hear of a horrid crime the desire for justice to be done can be overwhelming.
I vividly remember a crime that shocked BC (British Columbia) several years ago. Mindy Tram, a beautiful little girl in Kelowna, was brutally murdered. When the news broke, I was driving to school in Vancouver.
I had to pull my car over and vent my anger that somebody could do something like this. In my anger I wanted justice , and that meant catching the killer and making sure he got what he deserved.
But justice has to be more than "getting what you deserve". If we leave it there, then who decides "what we deserve"? Who is the judge?
What if I had been given the opportunity to act on my sense of justice at the time?
What would I have done? What would you do ? I’ll bet if we asked everyone hear what should happen to that criminal, we’d get a variety of responses.
Who’s right? Me? You? Who, or what, decides what justice is?
That’s the problem that arises if we look at justice as "getting what you deserve." Somebody, or something, has to work over and above individuals to determine what justice is, or we’ll sink into everybody doing "what is right in their own eyes", and THAT is exactly what the Servant, the Messiah, came to save us from!
We can say that justice is equal treatment for all. - equality.
It is certainly equal treatment that rests at the heart of one of the most profound calls for justice that has ever been spoken
I refer to the speech Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. made in Washington DC (USA) in 1963, which has been titled "I have a dream"
Dr. King’s dream was for freedom - the word appears over twenty times in the speech. But what was the crucial element of this "freedom" he sought for all people?
Justice - equal treatment for all. Listen to some quotes from the speech -
***
This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God’s children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.
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The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.
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We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. (Amos 5:24)
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I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
***
No one would argue that equality is part of justice. But again, just as with judgment, more is needed. For what if the equal treatment is equally poor treatment, is that justice?
Say a society establishes a law which says every couple can have only one child. This rule is for all, regardless of any distinction a person may carry. Race, wealth, role, status - nothing matters - one child per couple.
And the penalties for breaking this law are always the same for anyone. Forced abortion if the baby is not yet born, or infanticide if the baby is actually born.
Does that make the law a just law? Of course not. Equal treatment, or equality, may be a part of justice, but it is not all of what justice is.
In both of the examples so far, a higher standard is needed.
Judgment is important, but by which standard is judgment made.
Equality is important, but again, what standard, what rule, will the equal treatment be given?
Justice is judgment, it is also equality, but it is also righteousness - or doing that which is right.
Justice is doing the right thing
In the Bible the two concepts are so closely intertwined that often the translators do not know which term to use - righteousness or justice - when it comes up.
And who decided what was right in that society? God. God will always be the ultimate determiner of what is right, and that is why only he can really establish justice in this world.
This word - righteousness - is not a term we use that often, is it?
And when we do, it is often in the sense of "oh - what a self -righteous so and so".
But to understand God’s justice, true justice, we have to take righteousness - doing what is right - into account, or we will leave justice hollow.
THE SERVANT
Our passage from Isaiah is one of the first times the Messiah is written about in the Old Testament.
Isaiah does not mention him by name, but most agree that "the servant" in verse 1 and onwards is indeed the Messiah.
When we read these verse one thing stands out pretty quick
- the servant - the Messiah - Jesus - is all about justice.
vs. 1 - he will bring justice to the nations
vs. 3 - in faithfulness he will bring forth justice
vs. 4 - he will not falter or be discouraged until he establishes justice on the earth
So in order to see what justice really is, we have to see what Christ brought when he came.
The servant looked forward to in this passage was to bring judgment to a people who deserved it.
Jesus, the Servant, goes one step past that. He came to not only to ensure that everybody "gets what they deserve", but to also take justice upon himself - taking upon himself what he DIDN’T deserve so that we could have a chance before God
He was to bring equality to a people who did not treat each other fairly. And what does the gospel do, if not treat everybody, regardless of any sort of classification, equally under God?
It doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor, it doesn’t matter what race you are, or anything else, the gospel lets us all know that we are sinner who need saving, and the only way to that saving is through Jesus.
And he was to do this "rightly" - according to God’s law.
He would bring this justice to all - this is why the nations are referred to in verse one.
He will do this "with God’s Spirit" on him - meaning that
God’s power will work through him,
God’s favour will be on him,
and that what he does will be equivalent to God doing it himself.
He will do this in such a way that all will be given a chance to face justice without being wiped off the face of the earth - verse 2 and 3 address how he will bring justice in such a manner that "a bruised reed he will not break, a smoldering wick he will not snuff out"
So often in society those who are weakest suffer most at the hands of what we call justice - the servant will make sure that even the weakest can have justice fairly, that they will "have a chance" before it.
And the Servant will not fail in bring justice - that is the point of verse 4. He will not falter, he will not give up - he will succeed in bring justice to a world that so desperately needs it.
So what does this mean to us today?!?!
It means that we are to be a people who strive to practice justice, or to live justly.
Listen to the words of the prophet Micah -
Micah 6:8
8 He has showed you, O man, what is good.
And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy
and to walk humbly with your God.
To act justly means to give people what they deserve, when it is our prerogative to do so.
This doesn’t just mean punishment, to also give what people what they deserve in a positive light - we give the benefit of the doubt, we give trust, we give of ourselves
To act justly means we strive to be people who treat everyone equally.
To act justly means to do what is right.
It’s a huge calling, one bigger than anyone of us should dare to take on by ourselves.
And that is why we must all look to the servant, the Messiah - Jesus for help
because he came to bring justice for all,
and to help those who take him seriously live as just people as well.
