Watch/Listen
Justice For The Widow And The Prisoner
Brian Mashburn
November 15, 2015
Audio Player
Justice For The Widow And The Prisoner
Biblical justice is "care for the vulnerable." Never forget it. Never neglect it.
The prophet Micah concisely captures God's mood towards this subject when he says, "He has showed you, man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God." (Mic 6:8)
As we wrap up our series on "Doing Justice," we turn our attention to two more people groups identified in scripture as unique targets for the kind of justice that God wants from His people. The widow and the prisoner.
Beginning early in the Old Testament, the Bible declares that "[God] defends the cause of the widow" (Dt 10:18), and it continues in various ways throughout its pages, concluding that anyone who follows God will do the same, asserting that "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after widows in their distress" (Jms 1:27).
Back then, and still today, widows are often invisible to us, leaving them unaddressed. And if they are invisible among us, how much more so is the prisoner locked behind walls where we can't see them. But God sees them, too, as David sings, "God sets the lonely in families, he leads forth the prisoners with singing" (Ps 68:6). No less than Jesus himself claims that when you visit a prisoner, you have visited him. (Mt 25:36)
In my study, I've realize that there are three ways to "commit" injustice, and they are all sinful (missing the mark): The sin of oppression (taking advantage of the vulnerable), the sin of ignorance (remaining unaware of them), and the sin of inaction (doing nothing on their behalf). I plead guilty. How can I not?
May we be a church that acts justly.