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When the righteous suffer while the wicked prosper, where is justice? Diving deep into the sham trial of Jesus in Mark 14, we confront one of faith's most troubling paradoxes – the apparent absence of justice in our world.
The trial itself reveals everything wrong with human attempts at justice. Meeting at night, during a feast day, with conflicting testimonies, the religious leaders broke their own regulations to condemn an innocent man. Why? Mark 15:10 gives us the uncomfortable answer: envy. Such a common emotion led to history's greatest injustice, revealing how easily our hearts can justify terrible actions.
Justice itself seems straightforward – getting what we deserve. For God, however, justice isn't something He does occasionally; it's who He is. As Tozer insightfully noted, "Justice is not something that God has. Justice is something that God is." This explains why injustice creates such a deep ache within us – we're made in God's image, carrying a divine sensitivity toward rightness.
Yet we're confronted with a humbling truth: we're all deserving of justice. Like David, who demanded death for a sheep-stealer while ignoring his own theft of Uriah's wife and life, we're hypocrites when it comes to justice. Our sin looks different when we see it in others.
The cross provides God's astonishing solution. Romans 3:24-26 reveals that God is "just and the justifier" – maintaining perfect justice while extending undeserved mercy. Sin isn't overlooked but paid for by Christ. Meanwhile, Jesus promises future justice: "You will see the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven." Until then, we live gratefully in the tension between God's patience and our longing for righteousness.
Have you considered how God's patience with injustice – the very thing that sometimes frustrates us – might be the same patience that gives us opportunity after opportunity to experience His mercy?
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