Justice Comes Naturally With Jesus

Today’s reading: Luke 12:13-21

It’s interesting that Jesus would not take a side among the brothers at the start of today’s reading.

“Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’  But he said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’ (Verse’s 13- 14)

He would be a disaster as the judge on  People’s Court.

Or maybe he would be exactly what the world needs on such a show.

Now that I think of it, it’s really not fair to ask someone else to settle my disputes. It is especially not right to ask Jesus. He, after all, suffered history’s cruelest injustice upon the cross. Am I to expect that he will take seriously my grievance against someone who may have cheated me of, say, $50?

No, rather than to depend upon Jesus to tell me what is right or wrong, I must simply apply to my life (and to my complaints) the principles that He taught. So, if I have been wronged, my best recourse, of course, is to forgive. Simple as that. That lesson is clearly repeated through the Bible. And if forgiving means I must also suffer, so be it. Jesus suffered far worse than I ever will. I have no standing to complain. That is the point behind Jesus’s parable, told, as it was, in response to a request for a judgement.

I am thinking of the time a woman hired me to tutor her daughter for a few afternoons a few years ago. She  never paid me the $60 we agreed upon as my fee. I asked her a few times for the money, but she did not respond. She was clearly wrong, but so be it. I have long since forgiven her and do not intend to ask her for the money again.

Meanwhile just two days ago a mysterious $50 check arrived in my mail. It was from a former roommate who has owed me that amount since I paid our final electric bill together in 1995.  I am confident I will get the $60 eventually, too.

Thanks be to God for a just world — even if my selfishness isn’t always convinced of  justice.