Justice, Mercy and Humility
July 02, 2025
Woe to those who make unjust laws,
to those who issue oppressive decrees,
to deprive the poor of their rights
and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people,
making widows their prey
and robbing the fatherless.
What will you do on the day of reckoning,
when disaster comes from afar?
To whom will you run for help?
Where will you leave your riches?
Isaiah 10:1-3
Noblesse oblige is a French term generally used to imply that wealth, power, and prestige come with responsibilities. It suggests that privilege must be balanced by duty towards those who lack such privilege. In Luke 12:48 Jesus established the same concept: “...From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” At my Law School graduation we heard a long speech about our obligation to pursue justice and give back to the community now that we had the skills and ability to do so.
But I wonder if my fellow lawyers and lawmakers are actually following these principles. I’m certain many are, but it is troubling to see how often the law is twisted these days for political reasons rather than for true justice. I really believe in the law. Taken as a whole, much of it is a house built upon a foundation hundreds of years old, carefully reasoned out after much arguing and experience. Many Supreme Court Justices have been excellent scholars and jurors who used stringent standards to uphold our Constitution – a Constitution carefully crafted to cover the most important mechanisms of governance and freedom while remaining flexible enough to allow for future contingencies that could not have been imagined by our founding fathers.
But the law can be a snare too. It can be manipulated to serve purposes other than which it was intended. This is where mercy comes in. If we stick solely to ‘the letter of the law’ without considering ‘the spirit of the law’ we can actually end up with injustice. Mercy and discretion are always necessary to bring about justice. If we go back to Luke 12:48 and look at the previous verse, we see Jesus saying this:
“The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows.” (vv. 47-48)
Hence, even if both servants did (or failed to do) the same action, the one who knew will get the worst punishment, the one who didn’t know receives mercy. We all need mercy at times. Situations are rarely black and white. Human judges have to use their best discernment and intuition, but our Heavenly Judge has ALL the facts and the COMPLETE picture.
Real justice can only be pursued with humility. We are NOT God. We are flawed and sinful, and despite our best efforts, our perception is tinted with our preconceptions, prejudices and experiences. These can be mitigated by staying in conversation with people from many ages and stages and walks of life. Our law is a patchwork of social norms crafted by many different people in many different legal cases argued and decided by many lawyers and judges over time in order to best represent our communal standards. It takes the input of many people from many backgrounds, as well as the humility of lawmakers and judges to create laws that provide the most justice to the most people.
That said, ultimate Justice is not achievable on this side of Heaven. Only God has perfect Knowledge and can dispense perfect Justice. However, we can get much closer to True Justice by following Biblical principals in both the Old and New Testaments. We can and must hold ourselves to a higher, Christlike standard – protecting the oppressed and marginalized with justice, mercy and humility. But also recall that Jesus never ‘demanded His rights’ but always lowered Himself to serve others, even to the point of turning the other cheek, giving up His coat, and going the extra mile.
Well, I got a hammer, and I got a bell
And I've got a song to sing all over this land
It's the hammer of justice, it's the bell of freedom
It's a song about love between my brothers and my sisters
All over this land
Peter, Paul & Mary
Blessings of Liberty,
Jen