Understanding Justice

I am working my way again through Fleming Rutledge’s marvelous work, The Crucifixion.

The understand the depths of the meaning of the cross and its importance, we have to understand what is meant by injustice. Therein lies the rub.

The subject of injustice is a threatening subject for the ruling class. The dominant class. The ones at the top. (HINT: If you are reading this, it may very well be YOU.)

“Those who suffer most from injustice are the poorly educated, the impoverished, the invisible. Justice is involved with law and judges; the people most likely to suffer injustice cannot afford good lawyers, do not even know any lawyers, whereas lawyers and judges are the ones who have the money to buy books. In other words, those most likely to be affected… are the least likely to be reading about them.” (p. 107)

If we can READ about justice and injustice, we are probably in the “ruling” or “dominant” class (and many would then say, “Well, learn to read!“), and we then have a task: We need to WANT to learn about injustice when we can AFFORD to stay ignorant.

Yet, trying to understand someone else’s predicament lies at the very heart of what it means to be a Christian. Let us not stay ignorant because we are comfortable!