If First Justice Then Peace Follows

In preparing to preach for a colleague of mine yesterday, I was doing some reach on a quote from John Dominic Crossan. I could remember him saying something about Justice and Love but I could only remember part of the quote: "If we have justice with out love then we have ..., and love with out justice is ..." Well, I found it (and some other things I'd forgotten, too) thanks to the internet!

Here is the quote:

"Love and justice cannot exist alone," he replied. "Justice without love is brutality. Love without justice is banality. They go together like body and soul." 

 But what also struck me was Crossan's discussion of Roman peace versus what Jesus was arguing towards:

The Roman Peace might have the following slogan: First Victory, then Peace. To establish peace, conquer the people, move the Empire's troops through the area, and peace will follow. I should mention that in many ways this did work. A person could move from what is modern day London to Alexandria on the Roman roads, staying in Roman towns and do so unmolested. But this peace came with enormous consequences for the local populations.

Jesus argues instead for what might have the following slogan: First Justice, then Peace. And the kind of justice that Jesus is arguing for is distributive justice (rather than a justice of retribution/vengeance). I think (though Crossan doesn't mention it in his talk) that restorative justice is also at play. By that I mean, restoring people to the large community.

Please see “PeaceThrough Justice: Reflections on a Lecture by John Dominic Crossan” by CandaceChellew-Hodge for more of her notes on this lecture. 

With the events unfolding in Baltimore this week, the above seems all the more apropos than ever.

Blessed Be,

Joel