Observing Justice

As video of the officer placing George Floyd in what proved to be a deadly chokehold surfaced online, our nation was already on the brink. The pandemic has seen so many of our “rights” being taken away in recent months, and our adversary, the virus, remains unseen. This is much of why we feel so unsettled, and because the threat remains invisible, we are rendered powerless, with only a thin line of defense in the form of social distancing and practice of good hygiene. Yet while the pandemic is indiscriminate in who it infects, the killing of Floyd is outrageous in that here injustice has a face - and it comes at the hands of one meant to dispense lawfulness and peace. Did injustice exist before? Absolutely. But when the threat is so very tangible, we rage.

In this pandemic, I have also been confronted with my own lack of righteousness. That is, in the end, I am often discriminate towards my own good, not the good of my neighbor. I confess that I lack the ability to love justice and mercy as is exhorted of God’s people:

Blessed are they who observe justice, who do righteousness at all times! (Psalm 106:3)

This verse comes in a psalm extolling the great deeds of the Lord. It calls to attention to the lack of gratitude and obedience of the nation of Israel but the Lord’s nevertheless willingness to save. In this psalm, I see that to observe justice, I must first confront the badness in me. We who know that justice was served on the cross must yearn for a kingdom that will one day see all injustice overturned. This is our hope as redeemed people. And in remembrance that we have a Savior “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (Philippians 2:6–7 ), we can then go out in the world “to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with [our] God” (Micah 6:8).