Jesus brings justice to the oppressed

How does Jesus brings justice to the oppressed?

Thanks to the architects of the “Jesus brings” initiative, I have been wrestling with this issue for the last couple of months.

After I shared some conclusions, still a work in progress, at a church meeting about a month ago, a man asked me if I was a Marxist. “Groucho or Karl?” I was tempted to ask. When I said that I didn’t think so he asked me if I was a Labor supporter.

I said that I had voted Labor twice in the last 42 years. The first Labor vote was to accelerate my early exit from the army and the second was to usher John Howard into a well-deserved and post-mature retirement.

There is such security in stereotypes.

We need to tackle this question with all the theological objectivity we can muster and leave behind the prejudices that so often skew our thinking.

How does Jesus bring justice to the oppressed? My answer follows three contours.

1. Jesus reveals the God of perfect justice

The God of the Bible: the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; the God of Moses and David; the God of Isaiah, and the prophets; the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, whom Jesus reveals, is the God of perfect justice.

Will not the judge of all the earth do what is right (Genesis 18:25)?

Abraham asks the question, knowing that he would.

It is astonishing that in a country like Australia with its highly sophisticated judicial system, with all its checks and balances, still can’t get justice right. Last week within hours of the sentence being handed down on Daniel Morcombe’s killer, the QLD Attorney General announced he would appeal the leniency of the sentence, followed by the defendants lawyers giving notice that they would counter-appeal the severity of the appeal.

Family of the victims of coward punches are outraged at the leniency of the judgements made. Our best attempts at justice, with all the goodwill in the world, still struggle to get it right.

Every judgement we make as human beings will be flawed because every human being is flawed. History is littered with massive and complex questions of justice and injustice and in many cases we must humbly acknowledge that only the God of perfect justice knows what the right.

Remember also that victims of oppression in one context will also be the perpetrators of oppression in another. A person may belong to an oppressed nation. The same person may oppress members of their family or exploit others in their community.

Consider Matthew and Zacchaeus, and even Saul of Tarsus. They belonged to an oppressed nation but also exploited and abused others. As did God’s people in the time of Isaiah.

Sin will begin by questioning truth and eventually calls good evil and evil good (Genesis 3:1-13, Isaiah 5:20). Sin will subtly weaken integrity and then exploits those weaknesses. Sin will make a habit of justifying self interest and eventually calls it justice.

2. Jesus’ gospel is the hope of the oppressed and oppressor

In the Old Testament prayer of the prophet Habbakuk we have the recognition of the impeccable justice of God’s judgement and righteous anger:

In wrath, remember mercy (Habbakuk 3:2).

The nations, for their rebellion against God and their atrocities against others, deserve this wrath. God’s people, for their religious hypocrisy and their exploitation and oppression of the most vulnerable members of society (widows and orphans), deserve this wrath.

Habbakuk’s prayer would echo in the hearts of those who are contrite and humble in spirit and tremble at God’s word (Isaiah 66:2) and those who act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with their God (Micah 6:8).

The prophet’s prayer is answered in the coming of Jesus. In Jesus we meet the God who revealed himself to Moses - the God who is slow to anger and swift to steadfast love (Exodus 34:6) - the God who is full of truth and grace (John 1:14,17).

Jesus’ gospel, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand (Mark 1:15),” was heard as an announcement of coming judgement to which the only response was urgent repentance.

In the death of Jesus we see the mercy-in-wrath prayer ultimately answered. Here, finally and completely the justice and the mercy of God work in perfect harmony. Sin’s penalty is paid. Sin’s forgiveness is provided. Jesus is our substitute, taking the penalty that our sin deserves, so that he who is rich in mercy and grace offers us his undeserved love (Ephesians 2:4-5).

In the resurrection of Jesus we have the guarantee that a final day of judgement has been fixed (Acts 17:30-31) with the echo of Jesus’ words to take urgent action and repent.

In the return of Jesus we have the promise that every trace of injustice with the sorrow, pain, misery, grief, death and mourning that it brings will be destroyed (Revelation 21:1-4).

3. Jesus’ people become the agents of Jesus’ justice to the world

Jesus’ people become agents for Jesus’ justice to the world through our faithful testimony to Jesus’ death and resurrection with the urgent call to repentance and faith. If provision has been made to be rescued from the judgement we deserve, if an escape route has been provided from the punishment that we have brought on ourselves, then to share this news, this hope, with others is the most loving thing we can do for them.

Jesus’ people are agents of Jesus’ justice to the world through our ministry of sacrificial love and generosity to those in the world most vulnerable.

This will involve being a voice to those who have no voice - and there is no people group more voiceless than unborn babies!

It will involve sharing our wealth to provide the poor with the basics of water, food and shelter and to protect the vulnerable from neglect and exploitation.

The Old Testament language of ‘justice for the oppressed’ finds voice in the parallel language of love and good works in the teaching of Jesus and the apostles.

Jesus gives his disciples a new commandment (John 13:34-35, 15:12,17).

Paul speaks of a life of good works (Ephesians 2:9-10), to be rich in good deeds (1 Timothy 6:18) and a people who are eager to do good (Galatians 6:9-10, Titus 2:14).

John defines love by the death of Jesus and, echoing John 13, calls us to die for others (1 John 3:16).

After all, if we have been forgiven much, we will love much (Luke 7:47). We were once indifferent to how people were unjustly treated or even participated in abuse and exploitation. But we have now repented of that indifference and abuse. Fruit of that repentance will be our white hot defense of those who are still its victims.

This obligation to love as Jesus loved us, as a mark of God’s love abiding in us, can’t help but send a tremor through the the most hardened and hostile of self-righteous hearts: