Justice
Notes
Transcript
Intro: Over the last two year, more then that honestly, but loudly for the last two years we have heard many disconnected voices clamoring for justice. Some of them make some great points and should be listened to, while others of them are promoting ideologies that 1) are not justice and 2) are anti-God. So, we need to ask the question, ‘What does Biblical Justice look like?’ That is a question that God answers pretty specifically in several places, and Zechariah acknowledges that fact. The passage we are going to look at this morning is a reminder and a challenge at the same time to the people of Judah, as it should be to us. He was reminding them that God had used the prophets to speak to His people, that the people rejected His wooing call to return to Him and so He brought punishment upon them. God’s warning is this, ‘Don’t Be Like Them!’ The concept of Biblical Justice (though it probably should be referred to as Godly Justice) is the center of what He called them to do that would avoid coming catastrophe.
The Old Testament prophets were not alone though. Jesus throughout His ministry called, in various ways, for the people, especially the Jewish Leadership, to practice justice. Mot notable is what looks like two instances where the greatest commandment was spoken of, Matthew 22:36 – 39 and Mark 12:28 – 31 where Jesus answers the question, and Luke 10:24 – 37 where a lawyer answers the question, and then asks who his neighbor is. The answer on both occasions was Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul and the second is like it, love your neighbor as yourself. We might miss it, but as much as that is a very heavy distillation of the Law of Moses, it is about doing justice!
So this morning we turn to the prophet Zechariah and listen as he calls the remnant that returned to Judah and Jerusalem to Godly Justice. (READ Zechariah 7:8 – 10) Justice as it is spoken of here, and in the rest of the Old Testament, can be broken down into two parts: the what and the who, and it is to those we now turn our attention.
Then the word of the Lord came to Zechariah saying,
“Thus has the Lord of hosts said, ‘Dispense true justice and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother;
and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another.’
I. Four sides of the same pyramid
I. Four sides of the same pyramid
(three vertical faces and a horizontal face) There are two styles of pyramids that I think of when I think of pyramids: one with a square base and four sides coming to a point, and one with three sides coming to a point a triangular base, but there can be any number of sides, and the base will reflect those number of sides. Zechariah describes four sides of what make up Biblical Justice.
A. Dispense True Justice
1. Obligation to hear both sides
2. Do not favor one party over another
3. Leviticus 19:15
‘You shall do no injustice in judgment; you shall not be partial to the poor nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly.
B. Practice Kindness (Mercy) and Compassion
1. Kindness = חסד (hesed) Often translated covenant faithfulness in talking about YHWH’s faithfulness to us
2. and רַחֲמִים (raḥămîm) comes from a root word that means womb.
3. In the New Testament we talk about mercy and grace, though not a perfect match, it is a great place for us to start.
4. Love isn’t a state of perfect caring. It is an active noun like struggle. To love someone is to strive to accept that person exactly the way he or she is right here and now. —MISTER ROGERS Brown, Kristi Burton. Do Justice: Practical Ways to Engage Our World (p. 131). Leafwood Publishers. Kindle Edition.
C. No Exploitation
1. Oppression
2. Taking away their means of making a living
3. In fact, if we are showing Kindness and compassion, we cannot at the same time be exploiting people (at least not the same people)
D. No Willfully Wronging Others
1. False claims
2. Cheating
3. Stealing
II. Two People To Consider
II. Two People To Consider
A. The Vulnerable
1. Widows & Orphans
2. The Poor
3. The Alien
4. Today we might have to reconsider the Widow and the Orphan and think in terms of the divorcee and the child from a one parent home.
5. Literally God, through Zechariah, is speaking about the vulnerable in society.
6. In this we might think of
a. People with disabilities
b. Unborn children
c. People who live in undesirable locations
d. Refugees
e. Aliens, both legal and illegal
f. This is a Global Situation!
B. Those with financial means – though not broken down in the passage there are two possibilities:
1. Like you
2. Those above you.
3. And for us, this is a also a global consideration!
“Treating others with respect both dignifies them as people made in God’s image and honors God as the Creator of all (cf. Prov 17:5; 19:17; 22:2). These representative ethical standards extracted from the Mosaic law were the “legislative glue” that bonded the covenant community together as the people of God.” Richard D. Patterson and Andrew E. Hill, Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, Vol 10: Minor Prophets, Hosea–Malachi (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2008), 562. Jesus says something similar when He gives His disciples a definition of Authenticity and plan for how they are to draw other people to disciple making process, “Love One Another.” Unconditional love like Jesus showed them and us.