VENGANCE OR JUSTICE???

Ok, so I will admit that this isn't a very Christmassy sort of blog, but it is something that I have been thinking about for a while.

I was watching the news a month or so ago, and while I now can no longer remember the details about the article, I still clearly remember questioning whether or not the person being interviewed was seeking vengeance or justice.

As I thought about that I wondered how many times in my own life had I confused the short term feeling of me getting satisfaction from revenge with a desire to see justice prevail. I have heard other talk about how they want to see justice in a situation and questioned whether this was truly the case, or whether they were just looking for an opportunity to extract their pound of flesh from the person who they feel has wronged them

So, I guess my first question is what is the difference between justice and vengeance?

Justice can be defined as: The ideal of fairness, esp. with regard to the punishment of wrongdoing or punishment of a person who has wronged someone.*

Revenge is similar, it can be defined as: Any form of personal retaliatory action against an individual, institution, or group for some perceived harm or injustice. *

So you can see how it is easy to get confused between justice and revenge. When we indulge in revenge, we see ourselves as punishing the person who has offended us by causing some kind of perceived harm or injustice, and equalising the score, thus making things fair again.

But one question I have is; when we seek revenge, do we aim only to equalise things again, thus making it 'fair' or do we seek to 'one up' the person who we perceived to have wronged us, thus making our punishment 'un-fair'??!!!

So what do we do, how do we see justice served to all parties involved in a situation, and not seek revenge for perceived insults, harms or damages.

I think the best way to see justice served and not just revenge dealt is to ensure that an impartial third party first determines whether an injustice has in fact occurred and them to apportion the correct punishment that fits the severity of the affore mentioned injustice.

Isaiah 1:17 tells us: "Learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow." It seems to me that the instructions that follow the command describe what justice should look like. When we are just we stand up for those who are being walked over, who are at a disadvantage and are suffering.

The best judge of a perceived injustice is often someone else. One of the key words in this definition is 'perceived'. What we perceive to be a major injustice, may actually be rather minor when we look at the cold hard facts and remove all of the emotion around the issue. When we take something personally (and lets be honest, there are some things that are almost impossible not to take personally) we naturally want to dispense our own justice or revenge to assuage our hurt or anger at the perceived offense. This then can lead to the person we exact our revenge upon, on the basis of dispensing justice, to feel a perceived injustice and retaliate, seeking vengeance and/or justice on their own behalf. And so the cycle continues and even escalates. When we allow a third party to determine the damage done and the required compensation/punishment required to restore fairness, the personal nature of the situation is removed and hopefully all parties are treated with dignity and respect and the balance of fairness is achieved. In Zechariah 7:9 we are told; "This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another." This helps us to remember to ensure that the punishment fits the offense and the we do not oppress the unjust oppressor unfairly and thus become oppressive and unjust ourselves.

Leviticus 19:18 tells us: "Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD." So the next time you feel as though you have been wronged or offended, ask someone impartial if what has happened to you is fair, and instead of seeking revenge to even the score, allow someone else, maybe even God, to sort it out.


Actually, when I think about it, we have all been unjustly treated...




Except in this instance this injustice has worked in our favour, unjustly requiring an innocent party to take punishment that they did not deserve.

Jesus died for us, He took the punishment that was rightfully ours. God has given us His grace as unjust as it is (not that I am complaining mind you). We don't deserve it, that's why its called grace, and that's why it's amazing!!


*Wiktionary