Fairness

God blesses those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they will be satisfied. — Matthew 5:6, NLT (Jesus speaking)

I ruined my children. As they grew up and struggled against the limits that are part of living under a parent’s authority, their frustration would inevitably boil over and they would shout, “It isn’t fair!”

My reply was as predictable as the sunrise: “I know. Life isn’t fair.”

Life isn’t fair. But what if it was?

What if the poor received the same justice as the rich? What if the weak were valued as highly as the powerful? What if the disabled, the sick, the mentally infirm were treated with the same respect as those of us with sound minds and bodies?

Sometimes, my Christian world view tempts me to look the other way when I see injustice and inequity. I believe the world has been corrupted by sin. Injustice is woven into the fabric of life. Life isn’t fair.

I should leap into action, but I shrink into apathy.

Sometimes, my comfortable affluence lulls me to sleep while others suffer terribly under the unfairness of life.

But what Jesus says in this verse challenges me to get up off my duff and get to work.

His language is much more vivid than the English translation suggests. God wants us famished for justice. Our bellies should ache to eat some fairness, some decent treatment for the oppressed.

God wants our mouths parched by injustice so we’ll crawl for all we’re worth to the living waters of his mercy and equity.

In response to the unfairness of life, Jesus calls us to pursue justice, fairness, mercy and equity; only then will we know the satisfaction that great food and affluence can never give — satisfaction of the heart.

Life isn’t fair. The Author of Justice is hoping we’ll do something about it.