Justice or mercy?

Tomorrow I start Jury Service and my thoughts are fairly mixed. First of all I'm disappointed to be away from the Corps for a minimum of two weeks at a critical time. The start of a New Year provides soldiers with a watershed that (if managed effectively) can drive the fellowship in the right direction and if necessary steer wanderers back onto the straight and narrow. So to be away from the Corps in January is frustrating. Secondly, although I am excited about seeing the justice system working close up, I am weighed down by a shared responsibility the outcome of which will impact in a major way on both the accused and the victim(s). As a Christian judgement is taboo for me – it is not my place to judge. If I do fall into the trap of judging another person then scripture informs me that the same level of understanding and compassion I exercised will be used by God when my life is weighed in the balance.

"1"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. ²For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. ³"Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? ⁴How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? ⁵You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." (Matthew 7)

Finally, I do believe in justice and in the need to accept the ultimate outcome of our actions. I grew up in an education system that positively endorsed corporal punishment and I felt the sting of the slipper, ruler and cane many times! My headmaster was an old fashioned portly man called Mr Goss. When he punished a child he did so in front of the whole school. The guilty culprit would be compelled to bend over on the stage in a school assembly and Mr Goss would strike 6 times, each swing of the cane punctuating the following sentence – "You must ...(swish) always ...(swish) be prepared ...(swish) to accept...(swish) the consequences ...(swish) of ...(swish) your actions".

Last week someone wrongly stated that as a juror I would be a soft touch, I think the phrase went something like... "Your namby-pamby, limp wristed, born again, liberal view of the world will want to give him a second chance!" Certainly I would endorse anyone's access to a second chance but I also believe that all of us (in this world if not in the next) have to face the consequences of our actions.

Mercy and justice are not incompatible. As a Christian, I do not have to worry about the eternal consequences of my decisions but the practical consequences of those decisions confront me every day. God has 'blotted out' my transgressions, he has made a conscious decision to 'remember them no more' but the devil often replays my past in the cinema of my mind.

So, I will go tomorrow, ready (and willing) to be convinced, beyond reasonable doubt as to whether the accused is innocent or guilty. Ultimately he or she will have to face the practical consequences of their actions regardless of whether they avail themselves of God's mercy and I will pray passionately that they will do the latter. I will make my mind up as a Christian and my thinking processes will be under the control of Christ. However horrendous the crime or unfeeling the accused I will remember at all times that I am nothing more than a sinner saved by grace and it could easily (but for that grace) be me in the dock.

I have always found that Wesley, Orsborn or Gowans usually have an appropriate word for most situations – in this case I turn to Orsborn:

I have no claim on grace;
I have no right to plead;
I stand before my maker's face
condemned in thought and deed.
But since there died a Lamb
Who, guiltless, my guilt bore,
I lay fast hold on Jesus' name,
And sin is mine no more.

Grace and peace, A