True Justice Brings Peace

“Not by appearance shall he judge,
nor by hearsay shall he decide.”

Today’s reading from Isaiah describes a peaceful, tranquil scene in which the natural order is realigned such that animals who are born to prey on one another find peaceful existence side-by-side. It is not that tranquil scene of a wolf and a lamb living together that brings me peace though. Instead, it is within two lines that precede the idyllic that I find comfort, ‘Not by appearance shall he judge, nor by hearsay shall he decide.” It is that notion that brings me great comfort and peace, and my prayer for the remainder of this Advent season is that the young people that I work with will find the same peace through the relationships in their life - and through those relationships, that they find Christ.

I have been unusually preoccupied with social media and media in general throughout this school year. I have had front-row seats on some very sad dramas that have played out on the small screens that each of us now carry around in our pockets, and it is my hope that we stop looking down towards those screens in our hands, and instead look up and see those in front of us.

What I have come to understand about the temptation that draws us to the images upon those screens is a very perverted notion of justice. Somehow, we are drawn to look at what is happening in other peoples’ lives and then measure ourselves against what we see. Does that person have a car that is nicer than mine? Is his house bigger than mine? If the car is nicer, or the house is bigger, then I am tempted to think that life is somehow unfair, that somehow justice is lacking. But this is a perversion of the notion of ‘justice’ and today’s readings remind us that justice, when it is truly served, brings peace. Justice does not bring me material possessions, or freedoms that others do not deserve just as much as I do, nor does it take away from someone else. Instead, justice, in God’s sense of the word, seeks to fill the world with peace.

It might be helpful, as we travel through Advent together, to keep an eye on the young people in our lives. How are they comparing their lives to others’ lives? Are they falling prey to the temptation to judge by appearance? Are they being judged by their appearance? How about by hearsay? What are they saying about other people? What is being said about them? The technological window into the world tempts them, and us, to judge by appearance, and also by hearsay. Today’s readings remind us
that God does not hold us up to standards created by man, but to His own, and it is through God’s justice that we will be measured and ultimately brought to an eternal life of peace with God and his son.

Author: Tom Garrison, Principal