pondering "Just Mercy"

 "Just Mercy" is a moving movie that has recently come out based on a period of history that makes us all stop and think and weep. Set in rural south Ala in the late 1980's and early 1990's, the story is an account of severe injustice propagated on the most vulnerable of our society, those who receive the the death penalty without guilt and fair representation. The movie based on a true story set in Monroeville, Ala highlights how little has changed in the 30 years after the South and indeed the nation was supposedly awaken by the impact of the  movie based on Harper Lee's book "To Kill a Mockingbird."

This was particularly salient to me since I saw the movie as a young boy in Montgomery and lived in Monroeville as a young family man in the early 1970's. You might say I lived in the epicenter of the 1960's Civil Rights movement, so the story had a deep emotional connection with me.

Those of you that know me also know I have spent a great deal of my work in recent years trying to understand the effect of the human obsession with justice compared to the transforming Gospel of Grace that underwrites the Kingdom of Heaven. Basically, justice is a reciprocity based on exchanging rewards and punishment to balance one's actions. Justice is what we deserve based on what we do. People desire fairness more than anything. The natural tendency and proclivity for justice, which is central to the human condition, actually constrains what should become natural to us in the provisions and privileges of grace as Kingdom dwellers. Jesus repeatedly describes His Kingdom as one where God provides generously not based on doing good, but to those who receive by faith what Jesus has done for them. The fallen nature of man to demand justice may be the biggest constraint on the soul in trusting grace.

So, what should the Christian's response to "Just Mercy" be? Good question. Here's where I have come down. Christian's should abhor injustices when punishment is unduly administered. This type of injustice in society is simply the outgrowth of power grab for personal gain. This type of injustice should break our heart, just as it does God's. But is hating injustice the same as being an advocate for justice? Here is where Christian's should differ from any non-believing "good person." If philosophy and psychology both find that core to the human condition is a desire for the virtue of justice, then what makes a justice centric Christian different, and why is the cross of Jesus necessary?

At the end of the movie, the main character, who has admiringly committed his life to unjust death penalties, says that justice, mercy and grace is what we should all be about. This is where he lost me. If justice is getting what we deserve, mercy is not getting what we deserve, and grace is getting what we don't deserve, how can we be about all 3 at the same time? Ever thought about that? Isn't just mercy an oxymoron?

Aren't mercy and grace just forms of injustice? Not the type the story moves us to tears over, but a different form of injustice that causes many in society great concern. Those, who believe a crime should be fairly punished, do not take mercy and grace well. They see it as weak, promiscuous, and fight it at every turn. This is the battle over the death penalty itself, and even issues like abortion. One person's mercy and grace is another's injustice.

If God's mercy and grace were similar forms of injustice, then He would not be just, and that cannot be. This is the unique role of the Cross in human history and the central theme of how we are all wrapped up in His story.

My wife use to ask me after a really good movie like Just Mercy, "what did you think of the movie?" Responses like this over time is the reason she does not ask me anymore. She rather speculates on what's going on inside my head and says, "Why can't you enjoy movies like everyone else? Just take them for what they are."

Good question and certainly worth me pondering ....

the great heist

A common and popular concept of faith is captured in this Snoopy cartoon. The appeal of this idea of faith resonates with both Christians and skeptics of Christianity. Why so, would you think? Maybe its the ambiguity of what we're "holding on tight" to, what "the going" is, and what is the notion of "windy"? That about gets it. In other words, each person is left to fill in their own idea of the words used in this cartoon to fit their biases.

The world that is skeptical of Christianity sees the tree as a positive self concept - "I am powerful, unstoppable, beautiful, and so on. "The going" is our circumstances and they are windy when they challenge our well being or what we want for ourselves.

This is a very appealing idea of faith to the human condition.

Yet when the Christian claims to "hold tight" to their faith in Jesus, the world responds like this:

       “Refusal to think leads to faith. Blind acceptance and obedience leads to 
       faith. Faith is belief without evidence or in spite of evidence to the  contrary. 
      It’s wishing – nothing more."

In other words, its OK for me, the skeptic, to trust something I believe even though I cannot defend it through science, but its not OK for you Christians. The skeptic says, "I am reasonable, but you, the Christian, are just being emotional." The world's reliance on faith is evidenced in how often they claim, "you must trust your heart." In a recent Hall Mark Christmas movie the star said, "our heart can tell us more than any spreadsheet ever could." And everyone goes, "yeah!" Business people take pride in "trusting their gut." It's quite common for everyone to operate on faith.

But let a Christian's heart defend its trust in God based on an assurance of unseen evidence (their heart), then the world laughs and says he/she is just wishing. The truth is that the world's view of faith is therapeutic and not transformational. Its like taking medicine to make us feel better when the medicine doesn't cure anything.

Christians must view their faith differently, as transformational. Christian faith does not view "the going" as circumstances and does not view "windy" as something that is working against them. "The going" is being entrenched in an adoring relationship with the King of the Universe and the wind is to help us fly our kite. What the world fails to see is that the power of faith is in the object of the faith, not in the extent in which we believe.

Has the church let the world get away with a great heist. Has the world stolen the notion of faith so Christians don't readily and purposefully defend the hope that is in them? Why do Christians feel they have to prove their faith with physical evidence? That's the antithesis of faith (unseen evidence) and not even what skeptics do to support their own faith. When will Christians stand their ground and call the skeptics hand? Why isn't it enough for a Christian to say, "I trust God because my heart is sold out to Jesus and that's more clear evidence than any spreadsheet could ever provide."

"The things we think are the most important things theologically are not the most important things to God. He wants your heart."  Jon Tyson, pastor Church of the City NYC

Learning to articulate the Christian faith as a heart not based on physical evidence with the same confidence the world defends their own faith is something certainly worth pondering ......