I am an adjunct professor, and in class recently I did something that the students were not prepared for. I raised my hand.
Let me explain. I am teaching the Gospels, and one of the projects the students do is a group presentation on a section of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Each week a different group of three or four students teach the class about 10 verses from Jesus’ sermon in Matthew chapters 5—7. Over the course of the semester, we’ll cover the whole sermon. Last week, the group had Matthew 5, verses 21–32, which starts “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder…’”. The student teaching that section made what he thought was going to be a humorous question, “How many of you are murderers in the class?”
That’s when I raised my hand, and it threw the student off balance. He said, “Uh…I didn’t expect that.”
I don’t believe anyone in the class expected that, as I had not shared the story of my car accident when I was seventeen. You can read it here. Put simply, I was speeding, hit an Amish buggy, and a woman inside died. I was charged with vehicular homicide. Homicide is murder. While it is a technicality of language, which we call semantics, I committed murder. It was unintentional and accidental, but it was absolutely reckless, awful and 100% my fault. If you read the story, you’ll learn about the amazing forgiveness of the Amish family, and how God has redeemed a terrible sin and tragedy. Which is exactly like him.
Through the accident, I became acquainted with our state justice system in a personal way. I had a public defender, probation officer, and eventually a court hearing at the Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas. I pled guilty and was ready to receive the punishment dictated by the law. At the trial, the only question my dad asked the judge was if there might be leniency on one part of the punishment, the suspension of my driver’s license for three years. The judge said No, and I accepted his decision without hesitation, given that a woman’s life had been lost. Placed on the scales of justice, losing my driving privileges for three years doesn’t come anywhere close to the loss of a life.
And that begs the question: What is justice? How does the loss of my driver’s license for three years have any connection to the loss of life? Who came up with that sentence in the first place? Is that sentence helping offenders and families of victims find reconciliation? Is that sentence effective in keeping offenders from becoming repeat offenders?
Over the past year or so, my congregation has participated on a rotation of local churches that lead worship services at Lancaster County Prison. That connection has meant that I have spent time thinking about justice and the justice system in a new way. Does the time fit the crime? How does our justice system determine what justice looks like when a crime has been committed? Often, what it boils down to is opinion. The application of justice can seem very subjective, with judges and juries having significant leeway to make changes when it comes to rulings and sentencing.
During the War on Drugs in the 1980s, for example, people with drug offenses received longer sentences than some murderers and rapists. Parole is another conflicted part of our justice system. A person can be out on parole, but if they fail a lie detector test, they can be sent right back to prison. What if the lie detector test was faulty?
My conclusion is that justice is complex, complicated and fraught with inconsistency. That should not be surprising, however. Why? Because we are humans trying to navigate very emotional, convoluted situations that are not consistent. So if human approaches to justice are so confusing, what about God’s approach to justice? Surely God is perfectly objective, and we can trust his approach to justice to be perfect. Right?
As we continue our study through the Life of David, we’re going to be talking about justice, through the lens of 2 Samuel chapters 8, 10 and 21. I’m going to attempt to stitch these three chapters together into a narrative that features the horror of war, but also justice. I think we will learn something important about God’s heart, something that has loads of practical application to our society today, especially considering that USA 2024 presidential election is coming up in a few weeks.
Photo by Adi Goldstein on Unsplash
Engaging Scripture 