Into the Fire

The scales of justice as they're called sometimes get unbalanced. In both directions. The guilty go free. The innocent are imprisoned. And it's not "fair".

As children we often cried and sputtered, "It's not fair!" And, no, it might not have been - or it could've been. At the time we probably didn't have the insight to be rightful determiners of fairness because we mostly based those opinions of fairness on whether or not we got our own way about a matter of significant importance to us. Do you remember the times when we were told, "Life isn't fair."? And it usually shut us up momentarily because we couldn't figure out how or why that could be.

Swing ahead to adulthood and acknowledge the personal repetition of the "Life isn't fair" mantra to either one's own children or anyone who stammers the familiar "that's not fair!" The fairness factor is important to all of us. Sadly, the laws have been compromised in the name of "justice" to make it possible for the guilty to go free on "technicalities" and the innocent to be condemned by those who misidentify or perjure themselves under oath. Clever, expensive attorneys often convince jurors that evil people are in fact just misunderstood and victims of unfortunate events. 

Most of us detest injustice and crave justice. We need it. We hope for it. We want the final line in our Pledge of Allegiance to be true because it's right and good. So when the opposite of this desired outcome is achieved, we fear the truth is losing its grip, that reality can be altered, that the good v. evil war is slanting in the wrong direction, and that real victims will be accused of horrific crimes and have no way to gain redemption from the false reports.

So . . . we cheer when the villain is vilified! We know that evil needs to be prosecuted. We hate that wickedness often is rewarded or at least goes on without justice being served at some level. And inside we understand how wrong this is. How "unfair". Acquired cynicism has accepted we live amidst the unjust set of circumstances which permits wrongdoing to go unpunished and watch the flawed set of events which allows an unsuspecting individual in the wrong place at the wrong time to receive injustice for being unaware of how their presence there would end with such horrific results.

After watching a movie where the hero is acutely wronged but is about to see or accomplish some vindication for his trials, we desperately want the evil perpetrator of the dirty deed to get his, so as the climax rushes to its grand execution, we receive with pleasure the destruction of the malicious one who has done great harm to the hero. And we cheer! Maybe not out loud, maybe not standing with wild applause, but we rejoice because finally justice will be served! And most of the time there is no remorse because, clearly, this justice is necessary and well-deserved.

For once, a wrong has been righted. We have seen the triumph of good over evil. Even though there will be scars. Even though there was struggle. Even though danger, fear, injustice, and peril occurred, we have seen and experienced renewed justice. In the end. We are satisfied. Relieved. Safe. One more bad person faces his reckoning.

And that is why we cheer.

Of course there is the intense spiritual side to this discussion, but that's a topic for another day . . .

Father, you are the Just Judge. No one escapes your true reckoning. We will all be held accountable. The sacrifice for justice was too great. There is a price to pay for not accepting the true and brutal cost already paid for real redemption for us all. Forgive us, Lord. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.