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Jesus Justice: So Easy a Five-Year-Old Can Do It
By Jeremy | May 15, 2007
Part 1 of 5
[This is reprinted from the May-June issue of the Journal of Student Ministries.]
Justice is so easy even a five-year-old can do it.
It took me a long time to figure that out. Even though I’ve spent the better part of a lifetime committed to the idea of justice, determined to live for justice, I really couldn’t define it until last year. This latest journey toward better understanding why Jesus loves justice began roughly last March when I was asked to sit on a social justice panel at the 2006 Urban Youth Workers Institute (UYWI), and the moderator told the panelists he would begin by asking us to define it.
In preparation I reminisced about a political theory class in which the professor began every lecture with the same question—“What is justice?â€â€”without ever arriving at an answer. That class was no different than the politicized rhetoric from pro-war/anti-war, pro-abortion/anti-abortion, pro-gay/anti-gay, pro-green/anti-green crusaders who describe justice so differently. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s definition of pornography came to mind: “I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced…But I know it when I see it.â€
That’s exactly how I felt about justice: “I can’t tell you what it is, but I know it when I see it.â€
Then Bart Campolo answered a similar question on his blog; it’s the most satisfying definition I’ve seen: “Social justice, as I understand it, is when everybody gets what he or she truly needs in order to realize his or her fullest potential as a lover of God and as a lover of other people.â€
But still I yearned for more, something that spoke of justice as an action word. So I answered the question on the panel by acknowledging my difficulty and ultimately dancing around it.
At the same time, World Vision, Fuller Seminary, and UYWI asked me to facilitate a yearlong social justice initiative in which defining it was critical to the project. I said yes, knowing full well that I’d serve the process more as a student than an expert. Later I was asked to contribute two chapters on the subject to an upcoming book, Deep Justice in a Broken World (Youth Specialties/Zondervan). Again I agreed, despite feeling unqualified to help clarify for others what was still so mushy for me.
Then Judah—my son, my muse—intervened. He helped me make sense of it all.
During our August vacation, Judah wanted to know why I needed to take a break from playtime to participate on a conference call. I told him about the book project. He asked what it was about. I mentioned justice. He didn’t understand. Could I please explain what justice was?
Uh, no I couldn’t. But as Judah probed more, it finally came to me. One of those a-ha moments that only a child, who was still five at the time, can inspire.
“Justice,†I told him, “is about righting wrongs.â€
It’s why Jesus came – to right the wrongs of sin in our lives in order to restore relationship with Him — and He expects no less from us.
While Judah and I spoke that afternoon, I remembered that this wasn’t the first time he helped me make sense of justice.
[Part 2 coming next week.]sex real scenes movieamatuer movietaboo movies incestmovie list zemanova veronicahentai movie galleries freedaily porn movies freeschoolgirl lesbian moviesmovies portбl femdom Map
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