God So Loved the World - Part 2 - Justice

Theme: God so Loved the World - What is Justice?

1. It is based on truth

2. If speaks forgiveness in Christ

John 8:3-12 Then the scribes and Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery and had her stand in the center. 4 “Teacher,” they said to him, “this woman was caught in the act of committing adultery. 5 In the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” 6 They asked this to test him, so that they might have evidence to accuse him.

Jesus bent down and started writing on the ground with his finger. 7 But when they kept on asking him for an answer, he stood up and said to them, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Then he stooped down again and wrote on the ground.

9 When they heard this, they went away one by one, beginning with the older men. Jesus was left alone with the woman in the center. 10 Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” 11 “No one, Lord,” she answered. Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.” 12 When Jesus spoke to them again, he said, “I am the Light of the World. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (EHV)

This portion of God’s Word gives us profound wisdom. It’s not because Jesus condones and allows sin and wants you to live your life however you please. It’s also not because Jesus is the heavy-handed authority who just tells people how it is without a concern at all for their well-being. This section is profound wisdom because it shows us what true justice is.

The cry of injustice abounds in our world. Everyone who witnessed what happened to George Floyd, and is honest, recognizes why – what occurred at the hands of that police officer was completely evil and wrong. But when it comes to seeking justice, many different opinions abound. Some say justice is being met in the fact that the four police officers involved were immediately terminated from their positions and are now being prosecuted under the law. But for some, that’s not enough. There are calls for financial reparations for past injustices to the Black community, with one prominent black leader calling for an amount of 14 trillion dollars. There are calls to defund and abolish law enforcement systems. Some call for the removal of historical reminders of past racial injustices. Still many call out “injustice” without really knowing what to do to make things better.

Justice seems like a such of simple concept, why do we struggle so much to achieve it? We speak of justice as a natural right that all people deserve, yet we can’t even agree on what it looks like. This is where Jesus’ profound wisdom comes forth and shows us the true nature of justice. Jesus may not have been speaking about racial divide, reparations, or community action, but His Words apply today because they show us the never-changing quality of true justice as God created it. This is the substance of our longing as individuals when we see injustices happen. We struggle to define justice because our thoughts are flooded with competing opinions from the human arena. Let us step into God’s Word today and seek the Holy Spirit’s blessing on our study as we learn about two important features of justice – it centers on truth and it emphasizes forgiveness by addressing sin.

We first see that justice is centered on truth. This single point leads to many fruits that will be displayed in the one who seeks and follows truth. It means that the one who is in truth will not cave to popular opinion. It means that the one who is in truth will not desire personal glory and fame. It means that the one who is in truth will not pick and choose based on their feelings, but instead will seek to be fair and honest in all angles. This is why justice is based on truth. Without seeking and living in truth, we will stray from the just path.

We see this clearly in our lesson for today. The Pharisees didn’t care about truth. We’re told they came to Jesus, not to receive His answer to the problem, but to test Him and trick Him into a corner. Jesus would not play their game. Not only did He see past their ruse, He also didn’t care what they thought of him. He wasn’t concerned about being persecuted or cast out of the popular culture. Jesus was focused on the truth of the matter at hand.

We see this also in Jesus’ interaction with the woman. This story is often lauded by false teachers as a banner of Jesus’ tolerance for sin. But Jesus never tolerated sin in the slightest. He told the woman, “Go, and from now on, do not sin anymore.” Jesus wasn’t worried about being spurned by this woman either. He spoke the truth to her because she needed to hear it. In this way, Jesus drew a clear line of division. He wasn’t speaking a truth that was self-determined by each person – it was the same for both. He didn’t tolerate sin. He wasn’t excusing away the adultery that the woman committed any more than He was excusing away the hypocrisy of the Pharisees.  

What Jesus wouldn’t do, however, was condemn the woman for her sin. Instead, He forgave her and every indication we have from the text shows that this woman was repentant before God. This is true justice because it is also truth. God forgives repentant sinners. It doesn’t matter who they are or what they’ve done. All who trust in mercy from Jesus, through a repentant heart that shuns sin, receive total forgiveness from God – and no condemnation.

The Pharisees, however, were fixated on condemnation. Why? Because they determined their own brand of justice, and their brand didn’t care about the truth. You see, the same attitude of the Pharisees is present whenever we focus more on the person rather than Christ. The Pharisees were focused on who the woman was. She was an adulterer. She was a sinner. In other words, she was judged by her identity. At the root of the Pharisees’ problem (both in their view of Jesus and their view of the woman) was identity. They considered themselves masters of the law. They thought they were morally superior to others. They shouted others into submission under their version of what was considered good behavior. They were intimidators who pushed authority by mob rule (Jesus’ crucifixion as an example). Before they even got to the details of the situation (truth) they had made their decision. And that fixation on labeling others based on identity and not truth, led them to focus only on condemnation and not justice.

We have many polarizing identities in our day too. Male and female. Christian and non-Christian. Lutheran and Catholic. Liberal and Conservation. Democrat and Republican. Black and White. Police and protestor. What comes along with those identities is the same desire of the Pharisees – to de-personalize people by lumping them into categories – and with that, the intention to condemn. Deep down we know that it’s wrong to judge people based on identity alone – that was the sum of our message from last weekend. But we love to do it because it makes it easier to evade the truth. One modern writer says this about our culture’s obsession with identity: “When groups feel threatened, they retreat into tribalism. When groups feel mistreated and disrespected, they close ranks and become more insular, more defensive, more punitive, more us-versus-them.”

If you can categorize a person with a label, then you don’t have to do the hard work of listening to them, trying to understand them, putting yourself in their position, and most important of all – loving them as God does. It’s so much easier to ignore the truth and convince oneself of a pre-conceived notion about someone that is based on identity. But that’s not justice. It wasn’t at Jesus’ time and it’s not at our time.

As our nation struggles to define justice, we would do well to heed the danger of relegating people to groups based on identity. When you look at the way our culture is reacting to the injustice we all witnessed – you see much more of the Pharisees’ attitude, than you do of Jesus’. You see factions developing and widening based on identity. You see mob mentality fueled by emotion that is out for condemnation – intimidating and threatening anyone who doesn’t fall in line. This is not the way of our Savior, because it treats the truth as insignificant. Much better, in God’s eyes, is to make judgments based on what a person actually says and does. Because to do that involves analyzing the truth – whether it fits your desire or not, and to follow truth is to seek justice.    

But there’s something even bigger at stake here too – because true justice is also about forgiveness. Most people remember this story for Jesus putting the Pharisees in their place by pointing out their hypocrisy. But as we mentioned earlier, He was equally as honest with the woman. It would have been unloving of Jesus to withhold the message of repentance from the woman because that would have also withheld forgiveness from her. She needed to hear that she should “go and sin no more” because that was the path of Jesus taking those sins away.

Sometimes a word of justice has to take an unpopular stance in order to speak forgiveness. True justice involves telling someone (even yourself) what is not readily accepted – the message no one wants to hear – the law’s accusation. But this is done in love because for all repentant, Jesus waits at the end of the process to renew with mercy and grace and to take sin and all of its consequences away. You need people in your life that love you enough to tell you the uncomfortable message of God’s justice in Christ, just like Jesus did in His love for this woman. Sometimes, you need the courage, by faith, to tell yourself that message when you have a sin hidden away from others. This is the loving path because God emphasizes forgiveness by calling out sin.

The unjust path, according to God, is to ignore sin and to change God’s Word whenever we confront a passage that reveals our sin. Eventually, you can’t keep dodging the holy Word of God without also running from the mercy of Christ. His justice is a two-sided coin – with both the law and the gospel. To run from one is to forsake the other.

What we see today in the world is a desire for justice but an unwillingness to forgive. We see this in three distinct ways.

First, forgiveness is empowered by Christ. Yet, the ways of the world clamor for personal power. Christ won the right to forgive us by exemplifying humility, obedience, and self-submission. Yet, how quickly we run from these virtues when God calls us to forgive one another. There’s no place for forgiveness in the power struggle of the world, because forgiveness is not about our power, but Christ’s. And it can only come by believing in Christ by faith.

Second, we struggle with forgiveness because we struggle with repentance. There’s no hope of calling good/good when we can’t first call evil/evil. When we adopt a philosophy of self-choice above God’s moral laws, then it’s no wonder we can’t forgive and heal division when we need to. This is where truth must guide our way. Justice is not about each group or identity choosing what is evil and what is good. It’s about finding unity under God’s Word by faith and trusting that the Holy Spirit can change hearts from evil to good, just as He has done for us.  

Third, we struggle with forgiveness because we don’t want to let go of past injustices. It’s true that consequences linger, and we should remember the lessons of past injustices. But that doesn’t mean drudging up the past and using it as a club in the present. God says that when He forgives us, those sins are cast into the depths of the sea and are removed as far as the east is from the west. He doesn’t bring them back to use against us when He feels like it. They are gone – forever. If we can’t do the same toward one another, we won’t find forgiveness and we won’t have justice.

The first step in healing injustice is rooting out the evil. When it comes to racial injustice, we are doing that as a society. Individuals and groups that want to hang onto principles of prejudice and racism are quickly called out and thwarted – and with good reason. What we need now is to step out of the way – with our raw emotions, are anger-filled speech, our identity-based tribalism, our personal politics, our lust for mob enforcement, our quest for consolidation of power, and our desire to get back at others – and let God heal us as only He can. His call to repentance and forgiveness always sounds forth from the gospel, but He won’t force on any person or nation. And we as Christians need to be on the front lines of standing for the gospel above all else, and sharing it with the world.   

As we close, consider these words from Psalm 37:

Psalm 37:5-9 Commit your way to the Lord.

Trust in him, and he will act.

6 He will make your righteousness shine like light,

your justice like noon.

7 Be silent before the Lord. Wait patiently for him.

Do not fret when an evil man succeeds in his ways,

when he carries out his wicked schemes.

 

8 Let go of anger and abandon rage.

Do not fret—it leads only to evil.

9 For evildoers will be cut off,

but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the earth.

Jesus is the light of the world. He can shine His grace forth and dispel any problem we face. Wait for Him in faith. Do not play the world’s game. Trust in Jesus. Stop speaking anger and emotion – stop relegating others to mere categories. Wait for Jesus by faith. He will shine forth righteousness and justice into your life and into our world. Amen.