What Does Justice Look Like and Why Does God Care about It?

Judith McCartney, Colin McCartney

• Publisher: Herald Press
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781513806204
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Theology

What does justice look like? And why does God care about it? Colin and Judith McCartney take us on a bold exploration of justice through the lens of scripture and the life of Jesus. Find out how Christians across the centuries have understood and lived God's call to justice. Discover communal and individual practices for living a life of justice in our time and place.
The Jesus Way: Small Books of Radical Faith delve into big questions about God's work in the world. These concise, practical books are deeply rooted in Anabaptist theology. Crafted by a diverse community of internationally renowned scholars, pastors, and practitioners, The Jesus Way series helps readers deepen their faith in Christ and enliven their witness. Books in series: What Is the Bible and How Do We Understand It? Dennis R. Edwards [Fall 2019]
Why Did Jesus Die and What Difference Does It Make? Michele Hershberger [Fall 2019]
What Is God's Mission in the World and How Do We Join It? Juan F. Martínez [Spring 2020]
Why Do We Suffer and Where IsGod When We Do? Valerie G. Rempel [Spring 2020]
What Is theTrinity and Why Does It Matter? Steve Dancause [Summer 2020]
Who Are Our Enemies and How Do We Love Them? Hyung Jin Kim Sun [Summer 2020]
What Does Justice Look Like and Why Does God Care about It?Judith and Colin McCartney [Fall 2020]
What Is the Church and Why Does It Exist? David Fitch [Spring 2021]
What Is God's Kingdom and What Does Citizenship Look Like? César García [Spring 2021]
Who Was Jesus and What Does It Mean to Follow Him? Nancy Elizabeth Bedford [Spring 2021]

1

The Way It Is
Supposed to Be

The temperature was climbing as I (Colin) stepped gently along narrow pathways among hovels whose inhabitants stared up at me with fearful and empty eyes. All around me were hungry people with bloated stomachs, helpless mothers holding crying babies, angry men, and many young people living together in a sea of filth. These are the forgotten ones, precious to God but ignored by humanity, forced to build their homes on a garbage dump in the middle of the bustling city of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.

As I slowly made my way past makeshift homes, I repeatedly stepped over oozing garbage that poured from the refuse dump like dripping sweat. Throughout my journey in this slum, I continually prayed silently, “Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth, right here, in this garbage dump, as it is in heaven.”1

There is something terribly wrong in our world when people are living in garbage dumps, scavenging for food. The immense worth of these precious people has been rejected by consumeristic global economic systems that value some lives more than others. In such a world, some people are considered disposable, or economic burdens. When this happens, injustice reigns in their lives. In the modern world, children should not die from hunger-related sickness, but they do! More than 3.1 million children die each year from hunger and its effects.2

We all claim to want equality, yet we continue to see racism and sexism rear their ugly heads while many of us ignore the reality that a disproportionate number of people of color experience incarceration and poverty. We claim to be open-minded, but many people continue to discriminate against others because of gender, sexual orientation, or religious beliefs. These acts of injustice occur every day.

Our world was never supposed to be this way.

God has always intended for our world to be just and fair, an Edenic paradise. Right from the start, God created beauty from empty darkness. Genesis says: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters” (Genesis 1:1-2).

In the story of creation in Genesis, God transforms dark chaos into a peaceful paradise and then declares that the world, the way it is supposed to be, is very good. The Scripture says, “God saw what he had made, and it was very good” (Genesis 1:31).

God brings life-giving symmetry into darkness, creating humanity and nature to exist together in perfect harmony. All of creation is in right relationship and at peace with God and one another. In the garden of Eden, life is just, with no hunger, no killing, no oppression, no suffering. All of creation is valued, sacred, esteemed, and treated equally, with utmost respect. All is well and whole, and lacking nothing. This is what God describes as being “very good,” and this is what God’s justice looks like. Whenever the world misses this mark of God’s definition of being “very good,” it is unjust.

When we see our world through the lens of God’s declaration that all of creation is “very good,” we are able to see a deeper reality in our world than we otherwise would. By having a Genesis 1 perspective, we are able to discern what is just because we know God’s original intent and ultimate purpose for people and our environment. A just world reflects God’s original intention for all of creation to be in right relationship and at peace with God and one another. Justice honors everything God creates as sacred, including all of humanity, which is endowed with great value as ones who are created “in the image of God” (Genesis 1:27).

Whenever we harm our environment or degrade the value of people, we deface God’s original intention for creation, and this is a great injustice. With this in mind, Martin Luther King Jr. describes justice in his famous “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” by referring to God’s moral and eternal law established in God’s original declaration that creation is “very good.” King writes:

How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.3

Sadly, injustice continues to be perpetrated every day. Our environment is pillaged, and people are oppressed. When sin entered the world, it brought grave injustice.4

God’s “very good” creation is now constantly under attack. God’s Edenic purpose has now been infected with the poisonous effects of sin. What God declared to be “very good” is now permeated with shame, division, violence, selfishness, oppression, and environmental damage. All that God declared to be “very good” is vulnerable to injustice, which threatens to make it into something that is “very bad.”

It was never supposed to be this way.

A view of the world shaped by Genesis 1 will embolden us with a heart for justice and a desire for the restoration of all creation to its state of being “very good.” With Genesis 1 eyes, we are able to respond to the marring of a “very good” creation and join God’s ongoing work to return our cosmos to its original state of goodness for all people. By doing this, we fulfill God’s original calling for humans to be stewards of creation. This means it is our God-given responsibility to be just and to work for justice for all of God’s creation, including humankind.5

When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, he did so with Genesis 1 eyes. Jesus challenged them to join him in asking God that “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10).

God is yearning for his kingdom to fully come and for his will to be done, right here on earth. God yearns for a world in which everyone is treated equally and fairly, where there is no more hunger, chaos, or oppression. Heaven on earth, a world that is “very good,” has always been the will of God.

The prophet Isaiah saw the world with Genesis 1 eyes. He saw that God intends to restore all of creation to its original goodness when he wrote these words from God, addressed to Israel:

See, I will create new heavens and a new earth. The former things will not be remembered, nor will they come to mind…. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people; the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more. Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; the one who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere child; the one who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed. They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat. For as the days of a tree, so will be the days of my people; my chosen ones will long enjoy the work of their hands. They will not labor in vain, nor will they bear children doomed to misfortune; for they will be a people blessed by the LORD, they and their descendants with them. Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, says the LORD (Isaiah 65:17, 19-25)

As followers of Jesus, the challenge for us today is this: What can we do to bring about Isaiah’s vision and the longing of the Lord’s Prayer for heaven on earth? How are we to be citizens of the kingdom of God in an age in which the kingdom of heaven is present but not yet fully realized?6

There is much to be done, so let’s jump right in and see how we can join Jesus in bringing about God’s kingdom “on earth as it is in heaven.”

LIVING IT OUT

We live in a world where things can go terribly wrong. Yet our Father wants restoration and wholeness right here on earth. We are people of hope, enabled to see our world with Genesis 1 eyes that allow us to cut through the present chaos and see the reality of a God who created everything “very good.” We must reflect God’s Genesis 1 lens in today’s world. Injustice continues, and there will always be lots to do to bring about justice. But to do so, we need to slow down and do some soul work so that our actions are aligned with what our heavenly Father is doing in our world.

I (Judith) grew up as an immigrant in a new country. My family is originally from Indonesia and moved to a rural town in Canada. We looked different from anyone else in our small town and our struggle to learn English didn’t help much with fitting in. We faced discrimination just because we were different. At the time we didn’t have much, but we had sound values, including kindness and a desire to help others. We worked hard in all we did and yet we didn’t have a conventional faith in God. We didn’t go to church, we didn’t have churchgoing friends, and we didn’t give money to a church, but my mother had a simple faith in God. She never spoke of it, but I saw a few storybooks about God that awakened my curiosity, and my soul started to stir. At a time when I was searching spiritually, someone from a church bus ministry knocked on our door to see if anyone in our family would like to attend Sunday school. That was my official introduction to church. My curiosity grew a little bit more. While this was happening, my father was beginning to make good money as a trucker. Life slowly was getting better for us, but then tragedy struck. When I was eleven years old, my mother experienced a brain aneurysm. She was in a coma for a little while before she died. The loss was great. I had seven siblings, including a toddler of two as well as young adults in their mid-twenties.

My father wasn’t with us when my mother was rushed to the hospital; he was far away on the road making a delivery. He received a call on his CB radio telling him to get off at the nearest truck stop and call home because there was an emergency. All alone at a truck stop, my father found out that his wife was in a coma, dying from a brain aneurysm. With tears streaming down his face, my father began to plead with the people around him to help him get to the nearest airport. He knew he had to be with his wife before she passed away. However, the people either ignored him or rudely told him to speak proper English. No one there helped my father, and he collapsed into a nearby booth and wept. A woman saw my dad in his state of grief and, though she didn’t know my father, sat down beside him and asked if he needed help. My father wept as he shared the tragic news with this complete stranger. She comforted him and prayed for him and my family. Then she went out of her way to drive my father to the airport and help him book a flight so he could be with his dying wife and grieving children. This woman was like an angel sent by God to help him at this tragic time, and he never forgot her kindness. She was the hands and feet of Jesus to my hurting father.

We had lost the heartbeat and the life of our home, my mother. Soon after my mom died, my father had major health issues and our middle-class family quickly became poor once again. On top of the scarcity and racism we experienced as newcomers to Canada, we now struggled in our grief. At times we felt that we didn’t measure up to other families, and we were well aware of the stares and sneering some people expressed toward us. Though we were made to feel like outsiders and dismissed by some people, the local church, full of people we did not know, gathered around our family and supported us through these dark days and in the years to come. Church members visited us, befriended my family, and helped provide for our needs. Some of the seniors adopted us as their grandchildren, groceries were dropped off at our porch, and some people even paid for my sister and I to attend a private school. These wonderful people never made us feel inferior because we weren’t white, spoke broken English, or held to different customs. They saw us as important to God and thus important to them and responded with practical acts of kindness. They also knew that it would be a great injustice if they, who had plenty, were to ignore our family, who had little. So they acted justly by caring for us. These Christians lived out the words of the prophet Micah, who said, “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).

Though this is a sad story, something very good happened in the midst of it. My family began to attend church. My father never forgot the kindness he experienced through the Christians who came into his life. The woman at the truck stop and the people of the local church who surrounded our family in our time of need had left their mark on all of us. The curiosity of my soul also deepened even more, and surrounded by Christians who acted justly on behalf of our family, I started to fall in love with my new friend, Jesus, who cared for the hurting and the poor. I remember this experience as rich and wonderful. It is a memory that I return to when I need to reorient myself in the busyness of my life.

The loss of my mother and the many experiences I encountered during those dark days launched me into a life of caring for others who suffer. My relationship with Jesus that was birthed through the influence of loving Christians now drives my passion to work to bring about social justice for the poor and vulnerable...

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction to The Jesus Way Series from Herald Press
• Introduction
• 1 The Way It Is Supposed to Be
• 2 What Went Wrong?
• 3 What Justice Looks Like
• 4 God’s Restoration Plan
• 5 The Eight Traits of Justice
• 6 What to Do about Systemic Injustice
• 7 Justice and Societal Structures
• Glossary
• Discussion and Reflection Questions
• Shared Convictions
• Notes
• The Authors