When Justice Just Don’t Cut It

“Justice is human, but gracious-magnanimity is divine.”[1]

– Dr. John Sentamu, The Most Revd and Rt Hon

The Lord Archbishop of York (2005- )

Christianity is much more than the law. The Archbishop of York states very plainly the fact that there are often times when decisions are made according to the law yet the moral right is transgressed--and that’s not love. And so often does the world and so-called Christianly people do this.

The Archbishop puts it like this:

“The apostle Paul is saying to his Phillippian (sic) friends: ‘Let your moderation, patient mind, softness, magnanimity, gentleness, graciousness, forbearing spirit be known to all. The Lord is at hand.’[2]

“Put differently, ‘Let all the world know that you will meet a person half-way.’”[3]

The key word in the above verse, epieikes/epieikeia (Greek), means “fitting, suitable, reasonable, fair. When applied to authorities it denotes... lenience. It also denotes a humble, patient steadfastness, which is able to submit to injustice, disgrace, and maltreatment without hatred and malice, trusting in God in spite of [what is happening].”[4]

The intelligence of God is required in order for us to discern when the moral wrong would be discharged in serving the legal right. We know this when we ‘do the right thing’ yet are left uninspired and when we actually hurt people in the process; in other words, there’s a win/lose outcome. Win/lose outcomes seen through the eyes of epieikes/epieikeia is actually lose/lose. In fact, the owner of epieikes/epieikeia prefers to lose so another can win, if that’s the only way--now that’s love.

Justice at times is gutlessness. Take for instance the woman caught in adultery in John chapter 8; Jesus went over and above the law to not only absolve the woman in the light of the teachers of the law and the Pharisees, but also to restore her... and her reaction? She was riveted by the grace she saw in Christ. Compassion and an exhortation to leave a life of sin, not condemnation, was what she got. Justice would have seen her stoned to death. The radical action of forgiving the guilty act of a penitent woman brought her miraculous life.

There is the example also of what the Archbishop calls ‘the parable of the loving father,’ commonly referred to as ‘the parable of the prodigal/lost son.’ The real hero in this story is the father. I believe, along with the Archbishop, that the father exemplified the Father’s heart of watching and waiting in positive anticipation, keen to forgive and forget; for the wasteful son it is commendation for returning, not condemnation. And there is a glorious lesson in this for us and our relationships where people transgress us. Are there not numerous opportunities to forgive and actively forget every day? And, do we get trampled on when we issue God’s grace plentifully like this? Hardly. The forgiven are keen to make amends and return favours (not that we’d need them to) and their joy cannot be estimated. And even when we don’t receive anything back, God can fills our hearts to brimming overflow through the Holy Spirit (see Romans 5:3-5, The Message paraphrase). So, if they don’t feel joy we do!--for being obedient.

Gracious-magnanimity, as the Archbishop puts it is a subjective love richly dwelt in wisdom, catering to the subtle nuances of the actual situation at hand, sensitive to the creative and innovative loving solutions that are possible. It’s the great corrective to legalism and Pharisaic custom. It’s owned by grace and the powerful realm of the Most High, God. It is so far above us, yet through the Son we can claim it in his glorious name. To practice the gracious-magnanimity of epieikes/epieikeia is to approach the throne of God and to know salvation in the living God’s name. Surely salvation can come no other way?

Coincidentally, the secular world sees the display of epieikes/epieikeia in either one of two ways: it’s either totally absurd or a wonderful stroke of courageous leadership. Go figure.

Copyright © 2008, S. J. Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

s

ENDNOTES:
[1] Go to the site: http://www.archbishopofyork.org/242 for the whole sermon, Epieikes and Epieikeia: More than justice.
[2] Philippians 4:5 (paraphrase).
[3] Ibid to footnote (1).
[4] Fritz Rienecker & Cleon Rogers (ed.), Linguistic Key to the Greek New Testament (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1976, 1980), p. 485.

S

Note also that the key word to epieikes is the adjective and epieikeia is the noun.