If you're my age or older, you may remember that Superman’s catchphrase was as recognized as his red cape; He fought for truth, justice, and the American way! Maybe you’ve noticed, Superman doesn’t say that anymore.
It’s interesting to me that such spiritual insight could seep from a comic book super hero, possibly without any intention whatsoever. The spiritual insight I’m referring to is the inseparable connection between truth and justice. To be clear, they cannot exist independent of one another. And this is one of the greatest struggles we are currently facing in America - the quest and pursuit of justice alongside the complete abandonment and demand for truth.
Many people say they want justice, but they don’t want the truth.
Many people expect me to want justice and fight for justice, but not if it demands the truth.
And many people hide behind the veil and shroud of what they’re calling justice in order to push their own motives and agendas. Those folks want justice about as much as my dog wants a bath.
The same goes for love.
Love embraces the truth; it doesn’t run from it or cover over it.
Love and truth go together. Justice and mercy go together. Read Psalm 40.
David cries out, “Lord, do not withhold your mercy from me…may your love and truth always protect me.”
Solomon tells us in Proverbs 12:
“Whoever speaks the truth gives honest evidence, but a false witness utters deceit. There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment.”
The Lord himself speaks through the Prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 59:
“Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself prey.”
The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.
That’s what Isaiah says next.
Many today would declare, “I’m with the Lord! I want justice!” Well, not if you don’t want truth.
Allow me to give an example.
A man is falsely accused of murder. There is no credible or eyewitness evidence of his guilt, only circumstantial evidence and corroboration from someone who thinks they saw this or that, but that man winds up going to prison based on falsehoods. While the family of the victim may feel like they’ve gotten justice, they’ve really just been handed a lie. It’s all a placebo affect. But in those moments, we sometimes want and need someone to blame so badly that we’ll just about take whatever or whoever sounds the most worthy of our disdain or scorn. Our “justice”.
The problem is, that’s not justice.
In those moments, justice is actually "turned back, and righteousness stands far away." Why? Because "truth has stumbled in the public square." Truth was suppressed. Truth was substituted. Truth was forfeited.
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Without truth there is no life.
Spiritually, without understanding and accepting the truth that you are dead in your sin, you will never see your brokenness and need for a savior. The truth of the bad news of our sin and hopelessness leads us to the truth of the good news of the gospel of Jesus.
Paul says in Romans 2 that “God’s kindness is meant to lead you repentance.” How is that possible? What does that mean? When you read Romans 1 & 2 in context, you understand that Paul is exposing the truth about us — that our hearts are set against God. But God, in his kindness and patience and mercy and love, has given us an opportunity to walk from darkness to light — to go from sin and death to freedom and life. This can and will only happen if and when we walk in the truth. Jesus is the truth.
Back to justice.
In the book and movie, Just Mercy, Brian Stevenson tells the story of spending his life fighting for men who have been wrongly imprisoned and unfairly represented. If you watch this movie or read Brian’s story, you will see very clearly that the chief weapon to fight for justice is truth. The only way to free someone who’s been wrongly condemned or imprisoned is by unearthing, facing, and accepting the truth. Truth and justice are not just linked; they are inseparable.
Friends, many people today say they want justice. I believe they really think they do. But that’s not what they’re really longing for deep down. What they want is a sugar pill. They want the appearance of justice without the pursuit of the truth. There is no such thing.
So when you see a narrative being presented on the news or by a politician or celebrity or athlete about “justice this or justice that”, I encourage you (as the Apostle John does) to examine the spirits. Test the spirits. Seek the truth. In the words of the lyrical gangster, Chuck D, don’t believe the hype. Don’t get sucked into the vortex of emotionally stirred irrationality. Test the spirits.
Right this moment, many people who claim to want “justice” for George Floyd (who was killed by a police officer last week) are rioting and looting. There are white people with masks on, spray painting buildings, throwing bricks at police officers, destroying property, upending people’s lives, all in the name of what they call “justice”. They pretend to be for racial equality. They are actually working toward racial division. There are black people confronting them, telling them, “This isn’t what we want! Go home!” They don’t listen.
There are black people who see and know about black people killed by other black people almost constantly. The city of Chicago sees this almost nonstop. But Chicago isn't alone. In the US in 2018, when the homicide victim was black, so was the suspected killer 88% of the time. And this is not an exception to the rule. From 1976 to 2005, 94% of black victims were killed by other African Americans. Those folks who are rioting right now never say a word the other 94% of the time. But the moment a black person is killed by a white person…they want “justice”. Why is this?
George Floyd’s brother, Terrence, traveled from his home in Brooklyn to Minneapolis — he went to the epicenter of the rioting and looting, right where his brother had been killed — and stood before a crowd of protesters and declared, “This will not bring my brother back.” He made it very clear that destruction is not what his brother would have wanted or how he would have protested.
Did the rioters listen? Did the looting stop? No.
Why not?
Because “justice” is not really what those folks are after. They’ve abandoned the truth. In fact, if you go back to Isaiah 59, he says something quite powerful: "Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself prey.” Did you grasp that last part? The Lord is saying that those who abandon truth — those who become incensed by hate or by lust or by anger or even simply by their own emotions — will actually come after those who cling to truth. In the midst of evil, those who seek the truth become prey. You are witnessing it firsthand.
The Lord has told you what is good. He has told us what is required of you: to love mercy, to do justly, and to walk humbly with your God.
Love and mercy. Truth and justice.
Jesus says, “In my Kingdom, they cannot be separated."
I'll leave you with one example of what this might look like for a Bible In One Year reading:
When Nelson Mandela left prison after twenty-seven years and became South Africa’s first democratically elected president, he called upon his old friend, Desmond Tutu, to chair The Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This commission was a series of hearings – some of them public – in which both victims and perpetrators gave testimony about their experiences and actions during apartheid.
At one of the hearings, a policeman called van de Broek told of how he and his fellow officers shot an eighteen-year-old youth, then burnt the body. Eight years later they went back, took the father and forced his wife to watch as he was incinerated. She was in court to hear this confession and was asked by the judge what she wanted. She said she wanted van de Broek to go to the place where they had buried her husband’s body and gather up the dust so that she could give him a decent burial. Van de Broek agreed.
She then added a further request. ‘Mr van de Broek took all my family away from me, and I still have a lot of love to give. Twice a month I would like for him to come to the ghetto and spend a day with me so that I can be a mother to him. And I would like Mr van de Broek to know that he is forgiven by God, and that I forgive him too. I would like to embrace him so he can know that my forgiveness is real.’ Spontaneously, some in the courtroom began singing ‘Amazing Grace’ as the elderly woman made her way to the witness stand. But van de Broek did not hear the hymn, he had fainted, overwhelmed.
In this story, truth and justice, love and mercy flow together. The same is true of God. ‘God is love’ (1 John 4:16) but he is also the God of truth and the God of justice. Jesus personified God’s love but he also said, ‘I am … the truth’ (John 14:6). The Holy Spirit pours God’s love into our hearts (Romans 5:5) and is also the Spirit of truth (John 15:26). Truth and justice are not opposed to love; they are part of love. And so Paul tells us to speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15).
“So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, ‘if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
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