The word justice conjures up images of courtrooms, protestors and law enforcement officials. The traditional symbol of justice tends to be a balance, which exhibits equality between two sides. Personally, I consider justice most when playing a game of pickup basketball. In pickup basketball, with no referees present, players must work out any rules infractions on their own. Usually, if players get away with a foul, then the other team can get away with a little more on their own side of the court. If someone gets overly physical with me, then I get a little more physical. I take it personally when people start slapping at the ball, or grabbing my shirt, and so I try to get a little bit more active and physical to fight back. Throughout the game, I try to balance out what I feel is unfair play in my own judgment. If you don’t play sports, then how many of you sports fans, while watching a game, yell out something like “That’s not fair…”? Equality, fairness, balance and harmony are all normative qualities of a just society. According to this definition, does justice exist in the world? Is this what Jesus represents when he announces His ministry in the synagogue? What does justice mean to the Christian? This morning, we will explore the virtue of justice in Luke’s gospel.
Of the four gospels, Luke gives us the clearest picture of God’s mission to bring about justice in the world. Throughout Luke’s gospel, we see examples of injustice, and our picture of justice fills out. The “poor” are identified as the recipients of injustice. Don’t think of “poor” as a class when you read through Luke. In ancient times, being poor meant much more than to have little wealth…being poor also involved characteristics of gender or nationality, vocation, family heritage, and religious standing. The poor can almost be interpreted as “the helpless”…those who have the deck stacked against them.
What we see in Luke is the connection between evil and the empire. On the one hand, Satan clearly works behind the scenes encouraging oppressive and pathological social injustices. When Jesus is tempted in the wilderness, we learn that Satan claims ownership of all worldly kingdoms, which most importantly for Luke, means the Roman Empire. We also see Satan enter Judas near his betrayal of Jesus, and we can assume that Satan works behind the scenes leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion. Obviously, Satan orchestrates scenes of injustice in opposition to God’s mission in the world. Luke does not see God’s mission as a class war, an ideological innovation, or a mere political or religious reform…the problem of injustice is greater than Luke’s world realized. Luke portrays how hidden spiritual forces are actualized in corrupt governments and unjust citizens. The problem of evil is both spiritual and social…two sides of the same coin.
How do we approach the problem of injustice currently? We have institutional penalties to punish crimes of injustice, such as the trials widely portrayed on news networks. We protest the injustices of those who have wealth or power, such as the protests of the Arab Spring or the recent Wall Street demonstrations. We use social media and the Internet to bring to light unjust situations, hoping that publicity will spark action. All of these actions can help victims in unjust situations, but does this actually fix the problem of injustice? Let me use an example…what does Tylenol do? What does Pepto Bismol do? What does Mucinex do? OTC medicines generally attack the symptoms of a sickness, such as runny nose, coughing or achiness. On the other hand, certain medicines, vitamins, and healthy habits empower the body to attack the root cause. Even though the symptoms are usually visible and external, the cause is often invisible and internal…but the two are interconnected. Symptoms imply internal causes, and causes bring about symptoms. Justice prevails when we focus on both the cause and the symptoms of injustice. Luke exhibits how evil in the world has both a spiritual cause, and a social actualization, and both are important to God’s mission in the world.
So what exactly is God’s mission as Jesus begins His public ministry? Luke has already given us some clues early in his gospel. Mary’s song early in the gospel speaks of God bringing down rulers and exalting the low…feeding the hungry and depriving the wealthy. Mary describes God’s mission as one of subversion and reversal of the social order. John the Baptist confirms Mary’s proclamation of reversal with his own imagery. John the Baptist’s message quotes Isaiah, foreshadowing Jesus’ own proclamation in the synagogue: “Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The crooked roads shall become straight, the rough ways smooth. And all people will see God’s salvation.” The imagery here is one of reversal, with valleys filling up, and mountains crumbling, yet salvation accompanies the reversal of the social order.
Further, Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness precedes his public proclamation in the synagogue. As we discussed two weeks ago, Satan tests Jesus’ faith in the wilderness, cementing Jesus’ identity as God’s anointed, and reaffirming Jesus’ loyalty to God’s mission. Just after the story of Jesus’ public proclamation, we see Jesus living out God’s mission by healing the sick and exorcising demons. Again, the spiritual and social aspects of God’s mission are drawn tightly together, representing different aspects of the same problem. Jesus engages both the spiritual and the social, the hidden and the obvious. Jesus’ public proclamation embodies a collision of what we consider to be two separate realms; because God’s mission is good…it is holistic…it is shalom.
Jesus stands in the synagogue and reads from the scroll of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then Jesus sits…the position of a teacher…and reveals that in Him, Isaiah’s writings are fulfilled. Here, we have the answer to injustice…here, we have God’s mission to the world. Here, we have the God-man, Jesus, the Christ. Isaiah’s text emphatically focuses on its reader, Jesus: “The spirit of the Lord is on me…because He has anointed me…He has sent me.” Jesus is the solution. Not a 10-step strategy, or a revolutionary idea, or a motivational speech, or a welfare organization, or a political regime…God centers His mission of justice in the world in the God-man Jesus.
Isaiah’s text utilizes several active and directional verbs involving the release of the “poor” from their helpless situations. The message alluded to earlier in the gospel now comes to fruition in the person of Jesus Christ. As God’s anointed, the Christ, Jesus carries the mission of God into the world. Wherever Jesus goes, the evils that corrupt the social order are stripped of their power. Jesus’ arrival means that those held captive by impossible situations are freed from their bondage. Jesus now unveils the injustice that saturates society by opening blind eyes. Jesus proclaims the release of all debtors to a new era of liberation. Isaiah’s words are personified in Jesus, as the beginning of the text emphasizes the person of Jesus, and the latter part of the text describes God’s mission to the world. Jesus’ anointing and mission are indivisible, implying that God’s mission is tied up in Jesus Christ.
What better way to bring about justice than through a man? Soul and body, two sides of the same coin. In the same way that injustice infected the social order, both hidden and revealed, Jesus carries the perfection of soul and body. Jesus exorcises demons, while at the same time meeting the needs of the destitute. He raises the dead, and heals lepers. He pardons sin, and welcomes the outcast. Jesus remedies both the cause and the symptoms of injustice, and this could only be accomplished through a person, body and soul.
Thus, Jesus Himself is justice. What does this mean for us? On the one hand, as Jesus ascended into Heaven, His return signals absolute justice. In the meantime, we will continue to see injustice rear its ugly head. However, we are not called to simply endure justice, but to be Christ’ body in His absence. Empowered by the Holy Spirit, we must seek justice in the world. We must carry Christ into those places where injustice reigns. We must constantly ask God to topple the dark forces that work behind the social order to influence injustice. We must meet the needs of the needy, and care for the helpless. And we must forgive our debtors, remembering that we too have been forgiven. We must seek to live undivided, embracing both spiritual and social practices to bring about justice. We cannot only pray, or read scripture, or fast to bring about justice. By the same token, we cannot only theorize, or teach, or strategize, or assemble, or protest, or serve to bring about justice. Most importantly, our intimacy with Jesus will bring about justice in our own lives, and in the world. Jesus fulfills God’s mission in His person and thus, we must follow this Person as closely and carefully as within our power.
(I excluded the ending, which encourages congregants to seek out an instance of injustice, pray over it, and engage it in action)
