Justice, mercy, love and hope
There’s a story told of a burglar in Antwerp in Belgium who was surprised by the owner coming home whilst he was in the house. The thief quickly escaped out the back door, managed to climb over a nine-foot wall anddropped down on the other side, only to find himself in the city prison.
Perhaps it was justice being done !
When we talk about justice I think there’s a natural thought that we’ll all agree what it is and what it means but the question of justice is one that is often far more complicated. Recently I visited the new prison up in Wrexham, the second largest in Europe – certainly it’s a lot more comfortable than many other prisons. It’s modern and there are TV’s in the cells and various other things which some people think are too generousfor some of the people in prison.
How can it be justice, some would ask, that a prisoner is relatively comfortable – others would argue though that prison isn’t just about punishment and it certainly isn’t about exacting some sort of revenge for the offence, but about rehabilitation and about believing that people, whatever they may have done, can be better.
And I think that is where God stands - whatever we may think about justice it seems that God confounds most of our thoughts… Justice seems to be thrown out in favour of grace and mercy…
Another example where justice is often considered and debated is in politics where talk of fairness and justice is very popular – it seems that everyone wants to be seen as the trustworthy friend seeking to help everyone…
The reality is that our concept of fairness and justice is something that is often adjusted to suit ourselves, and each of us probably even have an idea of how we expect God to deliver justice at times. But, again we’re reminded it seems that God allows our ideas of justice to be crowded out in favour of grace and mercy…
Today’s gospel (Matt 20:1-16) seems to really emphasise this. Jesus tells the story of a landowner who hired labourers for his vineyard. He went out early in the morning and agreed the daily wage with some, and he employed them. Later he took on some more, and then more and more.
As evening came and the labourers were called to be paid, those who were hired last were called first and paid, those who began work first were called last – the problem came though with the fact that all were paid the same wage – the wage agreed with those first labourers at the beginning of the day.
Rightly they felt aggrieved. They had worked solidly for the day, and yetthey received no more than some who had only worked for a couple of hours.
It doesn’t seem just. It doesn’t seem fair. And Jesus never meant it to be so, because, fortunately for us all, Jesus doesn’t work simply on the basis of fairness and justice, but on the basis of grace and mercy.
The Bible indicates that someone turning to God in desperation minutes before their death after leading a dreadful life, will receive all of the same rewards and benefits as someone who has served God all their lives. Think of the thief dying on the cross next to Jesus – he turned to him and asked for his mercy and Jesus didn’t put up any rules or anything, he simply said, ‘Today you will be with me in paradise…’ It was something greater than justice…
It doesn’t seem just. It doesn’t seem fair. That is until we consider it in line with the words of Paul that we heard from his letter to the Philippians (1:21-25), ‘For to me living is Christ, and dying is gain’ he said, and then went on, ‘my desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better; but to remain in the flesh is more necessary for you.’
Jesus doesn’t judge based on justice or fairness, but with the most loving and sensitive wisdom of all. His desire for us is that we live in his love, or more correctly in the knowledge of his love, every moment of every day.
And that knowledge makes it even more sad when we recognise that so often the Church is guilty of practising the sort of justice that condemns, of making judgements that are so black and white that they leave little room for anyone to stand up before God and say ‘Sorry, I’ve done wrong, but please help me to do right.’
There have been Churches in the past, and there are still some today that have publicly humiliated a member for a wrongdoing, there have been Churches that have seemed so full of apparently perfect people that normal people won’t go near them. And there are Churches with people who seem to have all the answers, who seem by virtue of the length of their membership to have some sort of authority on everything good and bad going on.
Jesus didn’t build a Church based on our version of justice, but a Church based on love, and that is the Church we must be – and when we talk about the Church we must never hide behind the collective title – it means every one of us as individuals…
We must be ready to open our arms in love for anyone who comes and for anyone who doesn’t. We must be ready to reach out and embrace those who are easy to love, and those who are not. We must be seen as a community of welcome and love, not as an elite club with a sign saying ‘members only’.
Jesus was making the point in the gospel today that it is fortunate that he doesn’t have to make his judgements based on justice, because if he did, then he could condemn every one of us because as the Bible tells us and every one of us knows, we all sometimes get things wrong !
And so our justice must not be based on applying the principle of fairness to everything, but rather the principles of love and compassion. There’s a story of a baker who came to suspect that the farmer from whom he was buying his butter was serving short weight on the butter. So for a week he carefully weighed out the butter at home and sure enough his suspicions were confirmed.
He had the farmer arrested and an enquiry began. ‘I assume you use the standard weights’ the judge asked the farmer sternly. The farmer explained that actually he didn’t, and when asked how he weighed out the butter, he replied, ‘Well when the baker began buying butter from me, I began to buy his bread, so I measure out 1 pound of butter by placing his 1 pound loaf of bread on the other side of the scale !
If we seek to do right only to those who do right to us, then the world will be a very dark and miserable place. It isn’t the way of Jesus, and it must never be the way of his followers. The parable Jesus told that we have heard this morning doesn’t speak of justice or injustice, it doesn’t speak of fairness or unfairness, it speaks of love, costly love, persistent love, enduring love….
This story of the landowner is only told in the gospel of Matthew an unpopular tax collector who took from his own people to line his own pockets and those of the Romans. Perhaps Matthew included this story because he knew that he was not worthy to receive the call of Jesus, but it came…
The truth is none of us are worthy by what we do to receive the call of Jesus, but that call still comes and he still welcomes us with open arms.
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