An Easter Meditation
Some of us like to pray for justice. Amos 5:24 is often quoted. “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” Yet, if the Lord decides to give us what we truly deserve, perhaps we should be happy to receive mercy instead. In the Easter season, we should all reflect that our injustices and unrighteousness do not make a good case for justice and righteousness in return.
In his book, “A Guide for the Perplexed,” E.F. Schumacher argued that we ought to strive for divergent goals. If justice is important, so is mercy. If freedom is important, so is order. If equality is important, so is merit. These are not either-or choices. We must embrace these paradoxes to find the truth.
Justice is difficult. Solomon offered to split a baby in half to find it. And as we search for justice and its counterpart, mercy, we are asked to give others the benefit of our doubt, to withhold judgement, until we know enough to make a wise decision.
Some among us want “no quarter, no mercy for our enemies.” Yet long ago a young man from Galilee was executed after he said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighborand hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others?” [Matthew 5:43-47] The contrast is striking. Giving quarter requires at least a measure of love. Showing mercy requires a degree of understanding.
That young man prayed, “forgive them Father, for they know not what they do,” even as he was dying on a cross. If he had given his enemies what they truly deserved, they would not have survived one second. Instead, he has given all of us 2000 years to learn how to care for one another. And his message had nothing to do with proving ourselves right, much less waging war on one another.
The Bard wrote, “[Mercy] blesseth him that gives and him that takes: ‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes the throned monarch better than his crown; His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, the attribute to awe and majesty, wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; but mercy is above this sceptred sway; it is enthroned in the hearts of kings, it is an attribute to God himself; and earthly power doth then show likest God’s when mercy seasons justice.”
It takes strength to be merciful. Anyone can lash out, seek revenge, enact punishment. I know this well because I have done it. And I’m ashamed of my transgressions. Small-minded men seek their brand of “justice.” Those who are aware – and seeking to become wise – know that mercy sometimes requires everything they can give. After all, it required the Galilean to lay down his life for those who do not deserve mercy.
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