Perverted Justice

Scripture: Isaiah 53:4-12 Have we ever really considered this passage? Today as I was reflecting and meditating it, I began to think about how many times I have added a stripe to the back of our wounded savior just today. I find it quite easy to add stripes since it is an election year and I am a product of a very passionate family. I love my family and would not change a thing about them, to be fully honest. I have not seen a group so passionate about their stance, speak so boldly about it, and yet act so loving when it comes down to living out their faith even around people that disagree with them. It is probably why I have so much trouble listening to many of the political ads. “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By a perversion of justice he was taken away. Who could have imagined his future? For he was cut off from the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people.” By a perversion of justice our Lord was lead to His death. Have we ever really considered what this means? I have several passions: history, political science, theology, and spirituality to name a few. Which is a very odd combination. Over the recent years my passion for politics has decined as I began to recognize that historically we keep fighting the same fight. Which means that the same problems have been around for centuries. For centuries…in every nation around the world…which means there is a perversion of justice still. This tells me something very significant. We as Christians have a great opportunity. If we would look at the world around us we will see where we have an opportunity to provide justice. I know that some people would say that social justice is a code for liberalism, but social justice is what we are encouraged to do in scripture. Social justice means changing the world we live in, and to make it better. Opening a facility to provide care to elderly is social justice, because it is providing a better world for those that are helped. Educating the youth is social justice if it is in a public school or a private religious based school. These are things we should be doing. Yet we make them political talking points and pervert justice. Jesus died for our people and all people because we pervert justice. We use justice for personal agendas. In the process people do not receive what they need and we add stipes to the back of Christ. He said that what ever we do to the least of these you have done for me. Scary thought, what have we done for the least? Not what has the government done or some ministry but what have we done personally? These political issues are issues because we have failed as a people to bring justice to our communities. I often wonder if we did more justice if maybe we would be less likely to speak so passionatly about how bad a canidate is. If we were to be just in our community maybe some of these problems would just go away. Every Meeting of worship or church has what they need to minister in the way God is calling them. This is a bold statement but it is coming frm a pastor of a Meeting with less than 30 people, and we are ministering. We are actually considering things that we have not thought possible, like opening a school, because we were focused in the wrong areas. Our community needs a good school not because they need a Christian based education, but because our schools have been proven to be failing. The just thing is to educate the youth. The perversion of justice is to use this for control. We are passionate people and thank God for that! Let us take some ownership of our communities and bring real justice. Let us help the people God love become the people He created them to be, even if it means we lose the power we seek.