Tipping the Scales Toward Justice
The ancient Egyptians weighed the heart and assured passage of their pharaohs into the afterlife by using a feather to tilt the scale toward “good works." Scales and balances were used in ancient Mesopotamia, Greece, and Rome, as well as Egypt and Israel, to measure quantities in an effort to produce equitable and fair dealings. Merchants carried a bag of weighted stones to equalize the scale or balance. The Old Testament validated this practice. "You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity. You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin: I am The Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt." (Leviticus 19:35-36 RSV) "A false balance is an abomination to The Lord, but a just weight is His delight." (Proverbs 11:1 RSV) Typically, the biblical reference of scales and balances was coupled with an ethical qualifier (i.e. honesty, justice, righteousness) (Proverbs 16:11, Ezekiel 45:10, Leviticus 19:36).What kind of justice does this balance represent? Most importantly, by definition, does it tip in favor of the disenfranchised, poor, or victimized? If so, how and why? Dr. Martin Luther King postulated, “The universe bends toward justice." If this is the case, how can this point of view be justified? A just balance or a scale representative of the theme in the hands of Lady Justice stands vigil as a national symbol on many U.S. courthouse lawns. We see our most common icon
Evangelical thinker, Ron Sider, wrote that there are four kinds of justice. "Commutative justice requires fairness in agreements and exchanges between private parties. Contracts should be kept. Retributive justice is what is due to persons when they have done wrong and defines appropriate punishment for those who have broken the law. Procedural justice defines the procedures and processes that must be fair if justice is to prevail. Procedural justice requires a transparent legal framework, unbiased courts, the rule of law, etc. Distributive justice refers to how the numerous goods of society are divided (e.g. need, earning potential, birthright, etc.)”
The Old Testament and Hebrew Law were predated by Hammurabi’s Law Code. The ancient Mesopotamian influence affected the ancient world. Retributive justice was defined by harsh penalties for breaking the law. After four hundred years of slavery and the Exodus, the children of Israel, were given laws that expanded justice to include commutative emphasis on fairness, procedural processes, and a method of distribution through the Hebrew culture and included the law’s impact on its neighbors. The Hebrew nation, as a community, was chosen to manifest, through their collective lifestyle, the love of God, including his justice, thus reflecting God’s nature on the earth.
“Therefore the task of Israel, indeed the very thing that makes Israel, Israel, is to walk in the way of the Lord, that is, to imitate God through the means of the prophet (Torah), the king (Sonship), and the priest, (Knowledge). To walk in the way of God meant that Israel must be obedient to the commands (Deut. 8:6); to fear the Lord (Deut. 10:12); to love the Lord (Deut. 11:22); and thus to be perfect in the way (Gen. 17:1). But the way of obedience is also the way of intimacy, for Israel is nothing less than God’s “first-born son” (Ex. 4:22). Moreover Israel has the knowledge of the Lord as a just and compassionate God and so Israel too must act justly and with compassion (Jer. 22:16).” This relationship indicated a just scale with consistently weighted stones in the bag. God’s workings in the characters of the Old Testament narrative provides similitudes and vignettes that were a foreshadowing of the age to come. As Israel’s history evolved, the prophets began to predict a potential “tipping”.
The Old Testament took God’s ideas and principles and built a framework and when the Son of God, Jesus, came on the scene, he “fleshed out” those ideas. The Commandments and the Levitical Laws were given a new layer of meaning that before could only be interpreted by the priestly lineage. The law was revealed, fulfilled, and transformed by Christ’s applications and syntheses. Yahweh’s intent to liberate the oppressed was finally unleashed in the earth through the Gospel of Jesus. Jesus spoke often and freely of the needs of the poor. His ministry was defined by the amount of time and attention he gave to those who had been abused, neglected, ostracized, or dehumanized. He often made a comparison of the Old Testament Law and a new interpretation that took moral virtues a step farther. Jesus also encouraged self-examination as criteria for discipleship. Part of this self-examination was reflection through parables that clarified His priorities. “Jesus expressed it even more pointedly. To those who do not feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and visit the prisoners, he will speak a terrifying word at the final judgment: “Depart from me..." the meaning is clear. Jesus intends that his disciples imitate his own concern for the poor and needy.
Does justice tip for the poor and is God on their side? First, we must acknowledge that God is not biased. God’s work throughout history is to show His nature; therefore, He acts to exalt the poor because of their vulnerability and casts down the pride of the rich, as stated by Sider, but also for His name’s honor on the earth which is in keeping with His nature. This is not to say that one must denounce all materialism or embrace poverty in order to receive salvation. God does not categorize people or prefer people because of their status. He is a God of impartial justice who is moved with compassion toward their lot in life and works to empower the weak. God is not neutral in contexts of neglect or oppression. Genuine biblical repentance and conversion lead people to turn away from all sin-including economic oppression. The above statements by Ron Sider, continues with “God is on the side of the poor in the specific sense that God actively seeks justice for those who are the oppressed and neglected.
With the coming of Christ, did the scales weigh differently? At first, I believed that justice and equality were constant and static throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament. I viewed the Gospel as the fulfillment of the old covenant but with the same intent and purpose. My own recent experience, discussions in class, along with the justice quote by Dr. Martin Luther King, made me begin to wonder if indeed the scale and balance of justice did weigh in favor of the oppressed. I began with that supposition, but am now convinced that, as stated by Sider,
“God is not partial. He has the same loving concern for each person he has created. Precisely for that reason he cares as much for the weak and disadvantaged as he does for the strong and fortunate. By contrast with the way you and I, as well as the comfortable and powerful of every age and society, normally act toward the poor, God seems to have an overwhelming bias in favor of the poor. But he is biased only in contrast with our sinful unconcern. It is only when we take our sinful preoccupation with the successful and wealthy as natural and normative that God’s equal concern for all looks like a bias for the poor.”
I still hold to one concession: if Jesus holds the scales and indeed pulls the stones from his bag, carefully placing them to produce equity and justice, “a stone chip of the chief cornerstone” found innocently added to the weights in the bag, might indeed tip slightly in a specific direction. The stone that the builders’ rejected has become the chief cornerstone when doling out justice.
written by Rhonda Hearnsberger (Fall 2011 Theology of Ethics 702)
References: 1)Ched Myers & Elaine Enns, Ambassadors of Reconciliation Vol I (Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY, 2009, p. 85 2)Ron Sider, Faithful Politics 2010 (http://faithfulpolitics.org/2010/12/29/ron-sider-4-types-of-justice/html. 29 December 2010.3)Stanley Hauerwas, The Peaceable Kingdom: A Primer in Christian Ethics (University of Notre Dame Press: Notre Dame, Indiana 1983 p. 77) 4)Ron Sider, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger (Thomas Nelson, Nashville, TN, 2005, p. 59) Ibid. Ibid. Ibid., p. 62
“Therefore the task of Israel, indeed the very thing that makes Israel, Israel, is to walk in the way of the Lord, that is, to imitate God through the means of the prophet (Torah), the king (Sonship), and the priest, (Knowledge). To walk in the way of God meant that Israel must be obedient to the commands (Deut. 8:6); to fear the Lord (Deut. 10:12); to love the Lord (Deut. 11:22); and thus to be perfect in the way (Gen. 17:1). But the way of obedience is also the way of intimacy, for Israel is nothing less than God’s “first-born son” (Ex. 4:22). Moreover Israel has the knowledge of the Lord as a just and compassionate God and so Israel too must act justly and with compassion (Jer. 22:16).” This relationship indicated a just scale with consistently weighted stones in the bag. God’s workings in the characters of the Old Testament narrative provides similitudes and vignettes that were a foreshadowing of the age to come. As Israel’s history evolved, the prophets began to predict a potential “tipping”.
Does justice tip for the poor and is God on their side? First, we must acknowledge that God is not biased. God’s work throughout history is to show His nature; therefore, He acts to exalt the poor because of their vulnerability and casts down the pride of the rich, as stated by Sider, but also for His name’s honor on the earth which is in keeping with His nature. This is not to say that one must denounce all materialism or embrace poverty in order to receive salvation. God does not categorize people or prefer people because of their status. He is a God of impartial justice who is moved with compassion toward their lot in life and works to empower the weak. God is not neutral in contexts of neglect or oppression. Genuine biblical repentance and conversion lead people to turn away from all sin-including economic oppression. The above statements by Ron Sider, continues with “God is on the side of the poor in the specific sense that God actively seeks justice for those who are the oppressed and neglected.
With the coming of Christ, did the scales weigh differently? At first, I believed that justice and equality were constant and static throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament. I viewed the Gospel as the fulfillment of the old covenant but with the same intent and purpose. My own recent experience, discussions in class, along with the justice quote by Dr. Martin Luther King, made me begin to wonder if indeed the scale and balance of justice did weigh in favor of the oppressed. I began with that supposition, but am now convinced that, as stated by Sider,
“God is not partial. He has the same loving concern for each person he has created. Precisely for that reason he cares as much for the weak and disadvantaged as he does for the strong and fortunate. By contrast with the way you and I, as well as the comfortable and powerful of every age and society, normally act toward the poor, God seems to have an overwhelming bias in favor of the poor. But he is biased only in contrast with our sinful unconcern. It is only when we take our sinful preoccupation with the successful and wealthy as natural and normative that God’s equal concern for all looks like a bias for the poor.”I still hold to one concession: if Jesus holds the scales and indeed pulls the stones from his bag, carefully placing them to produce equity and justice, “a stone chip of the chief cornerstone” found innocently added to the weights in the bag, might indeed tip slightly in a specific direction. The stone that the builders’ rejected has become the chief cornerstone when doling out justice.
written by Rhonda Hearnsberger (Fall 2011 Theology of Ethics 702)
References: 1)Ched Myers & Elaine Enns, Ambassadors of Reconciliation Vol I (Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY, 2009, p. 85 2)Ron Sider, Faithful Politics 2010 (http://faithfulpolitics.org/2010/12/29/ron-sider-4-types-of-justice/html. 29 December 2010.3)Stanley Hauerwas, The Peaceable Kingdom: A Primer in Christian Ethics (University of Notre Dame Press: Notre Dame, Indiana 1983 p. 77) 4)Ron Sider, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger (Thomas Nelson, Nashville, TN, 2005, p. 59) Ibid. Ibid. Ibid., p. 62
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