Month: February 2018

Nikolas Cruz needs to face divine justice!

Recently, a friend of mine commented that, given a choice, he would rather experience God’s mercy than God’s justice. Seems like a no-brainer at first glance and I think that most people would agree with him. His comment reminded me of how there is a gaping chasm between how people understand justice and how God defines justice.

On Valentine’s Day, Nikolas Cruz went to his old school and in cold blood, shot to death 17 innocent people. If you were to create a poll on facebook proposing the question, “Should Nikolas Cruz receive, A: Divine Mercy, or B: Divine Justice?”, I guarantee that at least nine out of ten people would choose “Divine Justice.” If you were to ask me, I would say, “Yes”.

Here’s why:

Human justice revolves around retributive punishment. As humans, we have a strong drive for self preservation. From that, comes the proclivity towards being self centred. Instead of looking to what’s best for others around us, we take the very myopic approach of looking for what’s best for me…to the detriment of our society around us. We desire the catharsis of knowing that someone who has wronged us will experience the pain we have experienced. Like that somehow balances the scales. This is how we define justice. It has no purpose other than to bring us twisted satisfaction which feeds our collective narcissism and fuels the perpetuation of cyclical, societal violence.

We have projected this definition of justice upon God. This is called an anthropomorphism. As if God, who by all things exist and have being is concerned about self preservation. As if we who are the created are powerful enough to affect our Creators sense of honour and dignity. As a society, led by leaders of the western evangelical “Christian” religion have embraced this fallacy, we have forgotten what true justice is. The result of this has been catastrophic sociological regression. History tells us that every civilization which is built on the violence of retributive “justice” will inevitably collapse.

We have forgotten that Jesus, which scripture tells us is the perfect representation of God, came as the living contradiction to the anthropomorphic god of our creation. (That’s right, modern society isn’t the first group of people to push this false god) His very life not only reminded us of what Old Testament prophets told us about God’s justice, but is a practical demonstration of what divine justice looks like. Isaiah 55:8-9 talks about how “God’s ways are higher than our ways.” If you read the whole chapter, it talks about how God is merciful whereas humans are not.

Here’s some interesting trivia for you: In the Hebrew language of the Old Testament and the Koine Greek of the New Testament, the words, “righteous” and “Justice” are rendered from the same words, which means to set right, to put back into proper working order. Leviticus 19:35-36 for example says that “Just” scales are scales that are in proper order.

Here’s a small sampling of what divine justice looks like in scripture:

“ADMINISTER JUSTICE every morning BY RESCUE THE VICTIM of robbery from the hand of his oppressor”
Jeremiah 21:12

“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.’”
Zechariah 7:9-10

“HE WILL NOT CRUSH THE WEAKEST reed OR PUT OUT A flickering CANDLE. By doing this he will cause justice to be victorious.”
Matthew 12:18

“The Spirit of the Lord is on Me, because He has anointed Me to PREACH GOOD NEWS TO the POOR. He has sent Me to PROCLAIM DELIVERANCE TO the CAPTIVES and RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO the BLIND, to RELEASE THE the OPPRESSED,”
Luke 4:18

And my personal favourite, “the Lord is waiting to SHOW you MERCY, and is rising up to SHOW you COMPASSION, because the LORD is a just God”
Isaiah 30:18

Do you see any mention of retributive punishment mentioned here? It just simply isn’t there because that is NOT God’s idea of justice. God’s justice is ALWAYS restorative. Not always pleasant. God does work to correct us…and let’s face it. No one really enjoys the process of correction. He does indeed allow us to experience the brokenness that comes from our sin (relational failure). Our own sin is our punisher. God simply isn’t interested in punishing anyone and if you see God as a divine judge who is waiting eagerly to smite evildoers with no restorative intent, you simply do not know Him.

Do I hope that Nikolas Cruz will face divine justice.

YES!

I want to face divine justice too! For God’s justice flows from His mercy and leads to healing (salvation) and restoration of relationships. Like the rest of us, Nikolas Cruz has experienced brokenness and his resulting sins are rooted in being treated unjustly and then passing on injustice instead of mercy and forgiveness. His sins have simply had a larger and more dramatic effect than what our sins have had.

Our world needs change. It needs justice. Divine justice. Let’s embrace the forgiveness that we already have in Christ and stop injustice in its tracks by choosing to forgive, by choosing to not punish others with no restorative intent. Let’s go beyond that by actually reaching out to those who are victims of injustice and loving them, helping them, participating with God in bringing healing and true justice wherever we happen to be, to whomever our lives happen to touch.

This is what it means to be a Christ follower…a Christian. This is how it looks to be truly human.

My family and I just arrived back at our friends home where we are staying for a few days while on vacation. We were spending precious time visiting with relatives—beautiful people who we see far too little. Oh, you probably think that this is just another day in the privileged country of Canada where I live. Did I forget to mention that we are currently in the heart of a supposed shithole country? That’s right. As I write this, we are in the centre of Port Au Prince, and these friends of ours whose place we are staying at run a preschool for underprivileged Haitian children. They are amazing people who have also been going the extra mile in partnering with us, looking after my adopted daughters siblings who still live in Haiti. The relatives who we were just visiting are the birth parents, brothers, sister, grandmother, uncle and aunt, not to mention various cousins of my Haitian born daughters.

We fell in love with this country and its people fifteen years ago when we first came here to meet the first of two little girls we would adopt as our own. As we (my wife and I with our daughters, the birth parents, and sister) travelled via tap-tap (it’s Haiti’s public transportation—basically we rode in the back of a small pickup) to the home of the uncle and aunt while the boys were in school, I couldn’t help but to observe the vibrant life of the city that we travelled through. Every building is painted in bright colours and the sound of the traffic and street vendors are inescapable.

This trip marks our seventh time to Haiti. I have been from Jeremie in the south end of the island, all the way to Labadee in the north. Two things that stand out to me every time I come here, as I observe the people struggling to make a living any way they can against all odds: This is the home of a proud and strong people who exude dignity and determination. Also, this is a very picturesque country with majestic mountains, lush tree canopies and beautiful beaches.

There are six family’s who control Haiti’s entire economy. They are the extremely wealthy elite in this country who control most of the wealth and are also responsible for directing the political power—in their favour of course. In short, the people of Haiti are for the most part trapped under the thumb of the very rich, very powerful and very corrupt. Looking at the history of Haiti, you realize that the people here have always really been living under an extreme disadvantage. From the get-go, they were brought here as slaves from west Africa and sold to Europeans by fellow countrymen who wielded power over them. They have never had a fighting chance to escape the cycle of poverty which has entrapped them for generations.

In talking to Haitians in the streets of Port Au Prince, I have discovered that Donald Trump with his disparaging remarks is not a very popular person here. You see, if you are overweight and unhealthy, and are kept that way by being fed a poor diet and locked in a small room where you cannot exercise, it is completely unhelpful for someone to look through your window and call you a fat, lazy slob.

The population of Haiti (minus the rich, powerful and corrupt elite) want change. They don’t enjoy having to scrape by in a country that lacks potable water with 80% unemployment, poor healthcare, no social assistance, a poor education system, and scant evidence of governmental regulation. (There’s actually a much larger list of grievances than this. Consider this a small sampling). The people here want—and deserve change. And they are powerless to do anything about it as a repressed people.

It is not helpful to trample the dignity of a beautiful and strong people by calling their home a “shithole country”. They are well aware of what they lack compared to developed nations.

It’s easy for us in North America to sit back in our comfortable living rooms at the end of a day of working at a job that we take for granted and criticize those who don’t enjoy the success we have. it’s easy to assume it’s their fault and they are just too lazy to do anything about it, while we smugly pat ourselves on our collective back and go back to whatever vapid means of diversion that was entertaining us.

Put yourself in their shoes. Better yet, bring your shoes down here (with your feet in them) and get to know the people here. Spend time in their country, spend your money here, find a reputable organization that is here long term and making a difference and support them financially.

If you, in your comfortable position of being the elite worldwide economic minority, which we all are as North Americans, sit there and call the country of Haiti a “shithole country”, you are part of the problem. Whatever you do, don’t insult a downtrodden people. Don’t project a false identity of worthlessness onto them.

God Bless Haiti!

Here are some reputable long term organizations who I trust and support, and I would encourage you to also support in an effort to make life better for these beautiful people:

Home

http://mcmhaiti.org/
http://heartlineministries.org/
https://www.compassion.ca/