I was rummaging in one of my kids school bags this week looking for a lunch box. It wasn’t there, but there were a variety of other bits and pieces that shouldn’t have. For example, a bottle of lighter fluid!
After several hours interrogation in a dark room with a focused bright light he confessed that it was for making stuff explode – like lunch boxes.
While his mother was pitching the, “it’s a serious problem” speech, I was hoping he wouldn’t ask if I ever did such things! I have to say I was quite impressed with his knowledge of pyrotechnics.
It didn’t take long to realize that remorse wasn’t the first thing on his mind. I’m pretty sure he wondering how he got caught? I knew this because I remember thinking exactly same thing when I was 12 years old.
Rules are rules, and generally they are there for our protection or the protection of others. Even though we know this, we behave in relatively inconsistent ways when it comes to rules. We all break them at some time or other, yet we get quite upset when other people break them in our presence.
When we get caught “red handed”, so to speak, we just have to take the consequences, make restitution and let other people vent their frustration at us. Apparently, this is called justice and it’s a very simple process.
The problem is not all situations are quite so simple. Sometime we know rules have been broken but no one has been caught “red handed” and the questions arises, “against whom do we vent our anger and frustration and who will make restitution?” How is justice to be achieved?
The situations with the Kahui twins, Jack Nicholas and Charlene Makaza make the point. No one was caught “red handed” but someone was accused.
There is a general assumption in the public arena that when the crown decides to prosecute, the accused is obviously guilty and the court process is little more than a rubber-stamping process. But it’s not.
I feel quite encouraged that people have been found “not guilty”. It means that the court system generally works for both the accused and the victim. The problem in cases such as these is that there is no one to hang! And that feels wrong.
So where is God at such times? God is with those hurting and suffering. Our pain is God’s pain. Yet justice is God’s too. So, we can rightly ask, “Where is it?”
Job asked the same question in the Old Testament, “where’s my justice? By not responding does God pervert the course of justice?” It’s great question.
In Chapter 38 God begins answering Job’s ranting questions about justice, essentially saying that we know nothing of justice or our world. God does and justice is done in the grand scheme. If we trust God, and not just a human system, we too will see it and the peace we hope for can be restored.