God’s Wish: That We All ‘Do Justice’

A recent series of articles in The Times about neglect of the mentally ill--”The Broken Contract”--got me upset. At Christmas, I want to be joyful. Why are they running this terrible story when they should be helping me get in the mood for Christmas?

Then it hit me: Christmas is all about “the contract”--the obligation we all have to follow the lesson of Jesus Christ, to be champions for the weak and vulnerable.

We see the concept in a wide range of sources: the tales of St. Nicholas handing out food and gifts to the poor children of his town. The Hebrew concept of justice, or mishpat.

The best definition of justice I ever read, oddly enough, was in a New Age book (“Wisdom Circles,” Hyperion, 1998). In talking about the table fellowship of King Arthur, the authors comment: “The knights took an oath to serve not only the other table members but also the kingdom as a whole. Their covenant promised a humane safety net for even the most vulnerable members of society.”

This is also what the prophet Micah commended to the believers of his day. Micah says that God wants more than burnt offerings, more than 1,000 rams, more than 10,000 rivers of oil, more than sacrificing our firstborn child, as was the custom of many ancient Near East cultures. Micah says we already know what the Lord wants from us:

He has told you, O Mortal, what is good;

And what does the Lord require of you

but to do justice

and to love kindness . . .

The commentators of the Oxford Annotated NRSV note that “In this single sentence, the prophet sums up the legal, ethical, and covenantal requirements of religion.”

To do justice means to do hesed--which, depending on the context and the social position of the person addressed, refers to contract-keeping and duty as well as pity in action and free gifts of rescue.

In the the Old Testament, it is impossible to divorce the “right” thing from the “social” thing. Justice is not a reference to abstract principles but to the actual people who will be affected by a certain ruling, policy or personal action. No set of policies can cover every circumstance or every case. The heart of justice is a heart for the specific people affected in the specific circumstances.

Yes, justice refers to the act of deciding a case, as in Leviticus 17:8. It also refers to the arguing of a case, as in Jeremiah 12:1. It refers to the act of carrying out a judgment, as in Ezekiel 18:8. But more so, justice is an attribute of one’s character, as in Proverbs 21:15. It is a major part of the character of God, as in Isaiah 30:18 and 61:8.

Justice is something people expect, as in Exodus 23:6 and Proverbs 18:5. And justice is an individual, personal obligation of each person, as in Deuteronomy 24:22 and Isaiah 10:2 and Isaiah 1:16.

How can we do justice? By seeing that the vulnerable in our society are not pushed aside from the table, not denied or ripped off because they have no champion. We are to be their champion and their friend.

For once upon a time, when we were vulnerable to the curse of sin, we had no champion--till God sent his son, Jesus, to be our champion. He did battle in our place, slew the dragon of sin and obtained freedom for us.

That is why we are joyful at Christmas. We remember the birthday of our champion. And that’s why we do justice, to honor our champion by emulating what he did. We become the champion of others. We find ways to make sure, in the words attributed to Arthur’s knights, that there is a “humane safety net for even the most vulnerable members of society.”

By keeping our contract, we can have a truly merry Christmas.

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On Faith is a forum for Orange County clergy and others to offer their views on religious topics of general interest. Submissions, which will be published at the discretion of The Times and are subject to editing, should be delivered to Orange County religion page editor Jack Robinson.