In our ongoing look at the issue of justice, we need to consider justice as handled by law enforcement agencies and courts. Leviticus 19:15 states it succinctly: “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor.” A motivation for my addressing this topic comes from the book our church read and recently got to discussing, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson. If you read the story of Walter McMillan, the returning narrative of the book, and place his experience alongside the dictates of Exodus 23:12-3, 6-9, one of many passages in which the expectation of informed, impartial, and appropriate justice is made known, you’ll see that his “justice” violated every one of Moses’s demands. It was a travesty. Those who have been unwilling to repent of the injustice they perpetrated will have to give an account to the one who warned, “Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked” (Exodus 23:7).
But legal injustice is not confined to abuse by “officers of the court.” The church has long acknowledged that unjust laws are no laws. That is, laws that are being enforced might very well be unjust in and of themselves. And when injustice has manifested itself in this way, those who decided they “must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29) have been held in high esteem. The power to make laws and execute justice is not absolute. Only in God can we find an all-righteous law maker and defender. When humans fail to do justice those who serve the one who defines justice must live under his law.
That being said, even when laws are just and the associated punishment appropriate, there are times when mercy must triumph. I believe the “woman caught in adultery,” recorded in John 8, is to the point. Was she guilty of the crime? She was. Did she deserve death according to the law? She did. Were there mitigating circumstances that would have made the ruthless carrying out of the punishment an injustice? Apparently there were, for Jesus sent her way uncondemned. There are differing opinions as to what those mitigating circumstances were, but they were sufficient for the Lord to offer her another chance at life. Here, mercy triumphed over judgment.
That being said, even when laws are just and the associated punishment appropriate, there are times when mercy must triumph. I believe the “woman caught in adultery,” recorded in John 8, is to the point. Was she guilty of the crime? She was. Did she deserve death according to the law? She did. Were there mitigating circumstances that would have made the ruthless carrying out of the punishment an injustice? Apparently there were, for Jesus sent her way uncondemned. There are differing opinions as to what those mitigating circumstances were, but they were sufficient for the Lord to offer her another chance at life. Here, mercy triumphed over judgment.
The Equal Justice Initiative, the organization that Bryan Stevenson founded, reports that a short while ago Nick Sutton was recently executed. In 1980 he was convicted of murder and was imprisoned as an 18 year old. During his incarceration he became a different man. His transformation was so significant that his clemency application was “supported by correction staff, victims’ family members, many of the original jurors, and those whose lives Mr. Sutton has saved.” The last group noted included three prison guards whose lives were protected by the condemned man. His kindness and service to other inmates, as well as his continuing efforts at mediation between inmates and correction officials, made him an asset to the prison population. Nevertheless, his application was denied and his execution, some 40 years after the verdict, was carried out. Was this just? Technically, yes. Morally, no. There are enough mitigating circumstances on record that the Governor could have justly shown mercy and set aside the death sentence.
Doing justice is hard work. It can get messy. But it is required.
“He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with your God”
Micah 6:8
