social justice?

When I notice a person repeatedly acting selfishly, or unkindly, or unjustly, my tendency is to think that eventually enough people will recognize that behavior and isolate that person. That the community will turn their backs on such a person once they discover what he’s really like.

And that’s true. If you’re living in an animated children’s movie.

In real life, though, that’s not usually what happens, is it? There are lots of selfish, unkind, unjust people who are not rejected by the rest of the community but who are at the center of it, with control of the resources and political power, with many, many people supporting them and vying to be near them. In children’s movies, there are just one or two bad apples, who are found out and punished in the end. But in real human society, there aren’t just one or two bad apples, are there?

Look at the story of Jesus. It wasn’t the selfish, unkind, unjust ones who the community turned their backs on. The one who was rejected and cast out was Jesus.

So I shouldn’t be looking to human society for justice. But that’s not to say there is no justice to be seen. We usually don’t have to wait too long to see consequences for selfishness or injustice, because it’s bound to run up against the selfishness and injustice of other people, and those clashes will result in painful losses for all parties involved. I’d like to think God has some hand in bringing such people together.

And I do believe God is always near to them, pursuing them. Showing them again and again, in love, what they desperately do not want to see.

Themselves.