Defining “Justice and Reconciliation”
During one of the first class sessions for the term, Dr. Mary Hess shared the Cornel West quote, “Justice is what love looks like in public.” Given that friends have taken to calling me “Love Preacher,” it seems only fitting for that definition to guide my understanding of what justice is. However, justice goes beyond that. Justice is rooted in all aspects of life and we can find definitions of justice in all types of literature and experience. Throughout the term we have discussed justice in biblical terms using three words: sedāqāh, shalom, and mishpat.
Further, this class, and portfolio, are about more than justice. We also have to turn our eye to reconciliation - something I think people struggle to define as much, if not more, than justice. Again, definitions of reconciliation can also be grounded is all aspects of life.
Below I will dig a littler deeper into my personal, “working,” definitions of justice and reconciliation, as well as share some definitions and examples that have resonated with me throughout the term.
Justice
If I were asked to sum up my definition of justice in three points or less, these are the points I would choose, listed in no particular order.
Deeply embodied and requires action
Contextual
Not the opposite - love, forgiveness, grace, mercy all require justice
Justice is deeply embodied and requires action. We cannot find justice, for ourselves, our neighbors, our communities, unless there is action. Advocating for and seeking justice requires that we do something. In an essay by Rolf Jacobson, the author writes, “If justice is part of the very character of God, God’s people must also embody justice.” (Word & World, Spring 2010) To me, this is very much part of the gospel we must follow. It is because God loves us so fiercely, cares for us so deeply, and heeds our cries that we are able to do the same for those around us. If we are created in God’s image and called to live out our life as Christ has shown, how then can we not embody justice as God does?
In thinking about doing something I am reminded that in Healing Resistance, Kazu Haga proposes an additional response to the fight/flight/freeze model - face. “Facing means looking your assailant in the eye, not backing down, not giving into fear, and not reacting in kind. Facing also means genuinely listening to your partner when they are upset, hearing their pain, and taking full accountability for your actions without blaming or getting defensive.” Facing conflict, which is often the source of injustice, requires that you partake in action.
Justice is contextual. As much as we wish justice could be the same across the board for all situations and in all settings, that is not the reality. What “works” as justice in one community falls dramatically short in another. Also, assuming that the same response will work for even different situation fails to take into account all of the complexities of a situation. We don’t give everyone who comes into the ER a bandaid and a tetanus shot and assume it will work. Instead, the care team has to take into consideration the cause of the trauma, what’s been done already, any personal factors about the patient that may require a deviation from the norm. There is non “one size fits all” in medicine or in justice.
Justice is not the opposite. So often we see that justice is put up in opposition of other Christian values or ethics - love, grace, mercy, forgiveness. However, I believe that justice cannot exist without those other values. This is not a case of “one or the other,” instead we are looking at a “both/and.” When it comes to love and justice, I especially appreciated what Elizabeth Philips had to say in Christian Faith and Social Justice: Five Views.
“Others argue, however, that love and justice, especially understood in light of narratives of love and justice in Scripture, are complementary norms; they both function to deliver the oppressed and marginalized, to confront selfishness and injustice, and create inclusive communities of peace.”
Justice in Biblical Texts
For the Lord is a God of justice. Isaiah 30:18
Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow. Isaiah 1:17
Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-slowing stream. Amos 5:24
Reconciliation
Similarly, if I were asked to give my definition of reconciliation in three points or less, these are the ones I would choose, again given in no particular order.
About relationship
Repairing what has been broken
Helping both sides see where they are benefitting
Reconciliation is about relationship. Without relationship, a willingness of both parties to engage with each other, there cannot be reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:19 says, “that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to Godself, not counting their sins against them. And God has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” Because we are called into relationship with God, we are also called into reconciliation. Kazu Haga writes, “Resolving conflict is about fixing issues, and reconciling a conflict is about repairing relationships.” We can resolve a conflict without reaching reconciliation. However, if the relationships are missing, how long do we think that resolution will hold up?
Reconciliation is about repairing what has been broken. Continuing on from the last point, reconciliation includes repair. Often in conflict or trauma, whatever relationship existed between the parties has been damaged. If the parties were already on rocky terms, this damage can look irreparable. However, the principles of Kingian nonviolence that Haga lifts up show there is space for reconciliation in all places.
Reconciliation is about helping both sides see where they are benefiting. In this short video video with Kazu Haga, he goes over the six steps of Kinginan nonviolence. Step six is reconciliation, about which he says, “Reconciliation is about brings those parties who were in conflict together, so that they can recognize they are both winning, they both gained something out of the change they were able to agree on, and to celebrate that victory together. It’s not about separating two parties that are in a conflict, so they’re not throwing fists at each other any more, but about bringing those parties together and really being able to squash that beef. Reconciling that conflict so it no longer exists.”
Definitions from Hebrew Strong’s Dictionary
7965. שָׁלוֹם shalowm, shaw-lome´; or שָׁלֹם shalom, shaw-lome´; from 7999; safe, i.e. (figuratively) well, happy, friendly; also (abstractly) welfare, i.e. health, prosperity, peace:—x do, familiar, x fare, favour, + friend, x great, (good) health, (x perfect, such as be at) peace(-able, -ably), prosper(-ity, -ous), rest, safe(-ty), salute, welfare, (x all is, be) well, x wholly.
4941. מִשְׁפָּט mishpat, mish-pawt´; from 8199; properly, a verdict (favorable or unfavorable) pronounced judicially, especially a sentence or formal decree (human or (participant’s) divine law, individual or collective), including the act, the place, the suit, the crime, and the penalty; abstractly, justice, including a participant’s right or privilege (statutory or customary), or even a style:—+ adversary, ceremony, charge, x crime, custom, desert, determination, discretion, disposing, due, fashion, form, to be judged, judgment, just(-ice, -ly), (manner of) law(-ful), manner, measure, (due) order, ordinance, right, sentence, usest, x worthy, + wrong.
6663. צָדַק tsadaq, tsaw-dak´; a primitive root; to be (causatively, make) right (in a moral or forensic sense):—cleanse, clear self, (be, do) just(-ice, -ify, -ify self), (be turn to) righteous(-ness).
6664. צֶדֶק tsedeq, tseh´-dek; from 6663; the right (natural, moral or legal); also (abstractly) equity or (figuratively) prosperity:—x even, (x that which is altogether) just(-ice), ((un-))right(-eous) (cause, -ly, -ness).
6665. צִדְקָה tsidqah, tsid-kaw´; (Aramaic) corresponding to 6666; beneficence:—righteousness.
6666. צְדָקָה tsdaqah, tsed-aw-kaw´; from 6663; rightness (abstractly), subjectively (rectitude), objectively (justice), morally (virtue) or figuratively (prosperity):—justice, moderately, right(-eous) (act, -ly, -ness).
Definitions from Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Justice: is rendering to every one that which is his due. It has been distinguished from equity in this respect, that while justice means merely the doing what positive law demands, equity means the doing of what is fair and right in every separate case.
Justice of God that perfection of his nature whereby he is infinitely righteous in himself and in all he does, the righteousness of the divine nature exercised in his moral government. At first God imposes righteous laws on his creatures and executes them righteously. Justice is not an optional product of his will, but an unchangeable principle of his very nature. His legislative justice is his requiring of his rational creatures conformity in all respects to the moral law. His rectoral or distributive justice is his dealing with his accountable creatures according to the requirements of the law in rewarding or punishing them (Ps. 89:14). In remunerative justice he distributes rewards (James 1:12; 2 Tim. 4:8); in vindictive or punitive justice he inflicts punishment on account of transgression (2 Thess. 1:6). He cannot, as being infinitely righteous, do otherwise than regard and hate sin as intrinsically hateful and deserving of punishment. “He cannot deny himself” (2 Tim. 2:13). His essential and eternal righteousness immutably determines him to visit every sin as such with merited punishment.
Reconcilation: a change from enmity to friendship. It is mutual, i.e., it is a change wrought in both parties who have been at enmity.
(1.) In Col. 1:21, 22, the word there used refers to a change wrought in the personal character of the sinner who ceases to be an enemy to God by wicked works, and yields up to him his full confidence and love. In 2 Cor. 5:20 the apostle beseeches the Corinthians to be “reconciled to God”, i.e., to lay aside their enmity.
(2.) Rom. 5:10 refers not to any change in our disposition toward God, but to God himself, as the party reconciled. Romans 5:11 teaches the same truth. From God we have received “the reconciliation” (R.V.), i.e., he has conferred on us the token of his friendship. So also 2 Cor. 5:18, 19 speaks of a reconciliation originating with God, and consisting in the removal of his merited wrath. In Eph. 2:16 it is clear that the apostle does not refer to the winning back of the sinner in love and loyalty to God, but to the restoration of God’s forfeited favour. This is effected by his justice being satisfied, so that he can, in consistency with his own nature, be favourable toward sinners. Justice demands the punishment of sinners. The death of Christ satisfies justice, and so reconciles God to us. This reconciliation makes God our friend, and enables him to pardon and save us. (See ATONEMENT.)