Trinity Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Sermons 

What do you think of

when you hear the word "justice"?

Do you picture someone in a long black robe

sitting on the Supreme Court?

Do you imagine the figure of the blindfolded lady

holding the scales in one hand?

Do you think of phrases like

"an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth"?

What, for you, constitutes justice?

And does it look anything like

what Isaiah is describing here?

Of course, Isaiah’s primary purpose here

is to describe the servant of God.

We use much of this text to describe Christ …

indeed, there are some in Jesus’ own day

who seem to have seen him as a reflection of this text.

Isaiah may originally have intended for it

to refer to all of Israel;

that is, Israel corporately as God’s servant,

rather than a particular individual.

But regardless of who was meant,

what interests me is the servant’s job description

given at the end of verse 1:

"He will bring forth justice to the nations."

Bringing justice is probably not the first thing

that would come to our mind

if we were writing a job description for a servant!

But this is God’s servant, God’s chosen,

the one on whom God’s spirit has been put …

as the Spirit was bestowed on Jesus at his baptism/

And if we want to make any claim at all

that we are God’s servants …

then here is at least a partial job description

to measure ourselves against.

And the place I’d really like for us to focus

is verse 3:

"a bruised reed he will not break,

and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;

he will faithfully bring forth justice."

That doesn’t sound very much like

our commonly-accepted definitions of justice.

In most discussions on justice that I hear,

we talk about,

"people getting what’s coming to them."

And usually in that context,

we mean, people who’ve done something

we don’t approve of!

We as a culture seem to be enchanted with

an-eye-for-an-eye kinds of sentiments.

This prisoner murdered someone? Fry him!

Incidentally, did you know that the

eye-for-an-eye, tooth-for-a-tooth rule

was given in order to limit retribution,

not to encourage or permit it?

In other words,

if you knock my tooth out,

the most I may do in return

is knock your tooth out.

I may not knock out all your teeth,

or cut off your hand that you hit me with,

or knock out your children’s teeth,

or burn down your house,

We might keep that in mind

when we hear that rule quoted

as a rationale for revenge or unforgiveness.

It is, in fact, just the opposite.

At any rate,

what Isaiah seems to be describing in this text

is a different notion of justice altogether.

Isaiah suggests that justice means being careful

that we do no further harm

to those whom life has already been harmed.

That we help those who are burning dimly to burn brighter,

instead of dousing the little flame they have.

Most of us, if we sought to define acts such as these,

would call them compassion.

And they are.

But Isaiah also calls them justice.

We usually, though,

think of justice and compassion as sort of opposites,

that we play against each other.

Isaiah tells us

that what is compassionate is just.

And that may mean some major retooling

in how we think about all kinds of things.

Because we live in a world where

it’s considered generally acceptable

to mow down broken reeds

and to drown dimly burning wicks.

Let me tell you about an example

I heard on the news several years ago, now.

This couple (a husband and wife) and a friend of theirs,

went camping and hiking for a few days.

The friend took a bad fall and was pretty seriously hurt…

but they were able to get him into the car,

and head back into town toward the hospital.

On the way in, driving, they began thinking:

you know what, friend just lost his job,

and along with that, his health insurance.

And they had reason to believe that the nearest hospital

would not admit him without insurance.

As well as being afraid that his injuries were

possibly serious enough to be life-threatening.

So they quickly decided,

the friend would pretend to be the husband,

and vice versa.

And when they got to the hospital, that’s what they did.

The friend was admitted under the husband’s name,

using the husband’s insurance card for "proof,"

and apparently, did take quite some time to recover.

The reason it made the news, though,

is that both those men were sent to prison

when the "swap" was uncovered.

Now according to society’s definition,

that sentence was just.

They did commit fraud.

They freely admitted that they committed fraud.

But they claimed extenuating circumstances:

Saving a person’s life was more important.

The court said no.

The prosecuting attorney said, in essence,

that justice had been served.

By society’s standards he may be right,

though I think even that is questionable.

But by biblical standards, he was dead wrong.

To persecute someone already down-and-out

is unconscionable.

And unjust.

Justice, according to Isaiah,

has to do with defending the bruised reed

and the dim wick

against those who would damage or destroy them.

So looking for biblical justice

may start us asking a lot of uncomfortable questions.

Why, for example,

is a abused woman who kills her husband in self-defense

more likely to go to prison, and for a longer time,

than a man who beats his wife to death?

Why is it that

an Anglo who kills someone while driving drunk

will likely get probation,

while a black or Hispanic who steals your TV

will probably go to prison?

Why do we tend to blame

children in less-affluent school districts

for the fact that their test scores are lower?

Why, for that matter,

would we necessarily blame their teachers,

who are usually going way above and beyond to help those children?

Come to think of it,

why is it okay for a baseball player to be paid

100 times what teachers are paid?

We as a society

have gotten real good at blaming the victim.

And while the biblical teaching doesn’t justify

bruised reeds going out and bruising other reeds

in order to try to strengthen themselves somehow …

it’s also pretty clear that the bruised reeds

didn’t bruise themselves,

but have suffered from someone else’s unwanted attentions!

And that we, who are the people of God,

are to give special attention and devotion

to those who are bruised, and dim.

Those who are discouraged.

Those who are oppressed.

Our first concern is to be sure

that we don’t bruise, or discourage, or oppress any further.

But then, compassion and justice

demand more of us.

We seek to change people who bruise others.

We name, and we work to change,

systems that damage people …

whether that system is the place we work,

or the health-care system,

or the so-called criminal justice system,

or in some cases, even the church itself.

The design for justice is deceptively simple.

It is compassion, and no more,

but certainly no less.

This is the calling into which Jesus was baptized,

although many around him never understood it,

and turned on him when he persisted in it.

This is the calling into which we are baptized,

though many around us will think we are strange and even foolish

if and when we try to live it out.

We are God’s servants,

baptized into the task of proclaiming God’s justice

and seeking God’s justice,

and bringing forth God’s justice.

May we not rest until it is accomplished.

Amen.

© 2008 Julie Adkins (e-mail: DrJAdkins@trinitypresdallas.org)