Jesus and Injustice

Our world is full of injustice. Everyday women are being raped, people are being murdered, and children are dying of thirst and hunger. If I actually ever allow myself to stop and think about all these issues, it is absolutely overwhelming.

This is confusing to many Christians and non Christians who see the world and hear that God is all powerful and loving. How do we spread the good news of the gospel with all of these issues hanging over the world? How do we explain to others and to ourselves why God is allowing this to happen?

I, like many others, have struggled with this for a long time. No one likes to see others suffer and every day the news is filled with more people suffering in new ways.

So what is God’s plan and why does he seem okay with all of this suffering?

When it comes to righting injustices we have to look to our God given role model, Jesus. We need to ask ourselves if our versions of injustice the same as his? What was he passionate about? What made him angry? When reading the Bible this can be surprising. He never has anger toward the sinners who cross his path. His anger is mainly reserved for those of the faith who are misleading others, and honoring themselves instead of God. (How he treats the Pharisees and him destroying the temple are examples of this) The truth is that Jesus came because of God’s love for the world and everyone in it. That includes every person we do not like or who has done evil things, or whoever continues to do evil things every day.

Ecclesiastes 4:1 says ‘Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun; I saw the tears of the oppressed and they have no comforter; power was on the side of the oppressors and they have no comforter.

This verse shows that God is clearly aware of the evil and oppression in the world and that he sees the people being oppressed and the oppressors as both in need of a comforter.

Treating everyone with love is vitally important to God’s message. People view Christianity through the Christians that they know and read about in the news. The only way for us to spread the gospel to a world with so much injustice is by treating the people around us with love, no matter how they treat us.

Treating the injustices in the world seems like an impossible task. When you take time to comprehend all of the evil in the world, all of the poor, all of the orphans, and all of the sickness, it seems impossible.

The best possible example of how Jesus wants us to help people is through the story of the feeding of the five thousand.

Jesus didn’t choose to rain manna on the people, or provide quail. He did nothing, until the young boy came forward with the small amount of food that he had, and offered it up.

Why?

This is the best lesson for us. God can take the small things that we have to give, and multiply them in ways we can’t even imagine. But he is waiting for our small loaf of bread and fish to do it. Why is he waiting? Raining manna would have been simpler, and faster.

I think it was to give that young boy the most powerful day of his life and a day he would never forget.

The truth is that God has a plan to solve all of the injustice in the world. It is us. And there is no plan B.

Give him whatever you have, even it doesn’t seem worth anything, or it isn’t near enough to solve the problems you see around you. You never know where God will take it. We’re not alone, but he is waiting for us to give whatever we have.

One of my favourite verses in the entire Bible is the below: James 2: 14 – 17

What does it profit my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food and one of you says to them Depart in peace, be warmed and filled, but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself if it does not have works, is dead.

This verse is hard to listen to sometimes. We live in a day and age when we are to busy and to preoccupied to be bothered by the needs around us. It is very difficult to stop and remember to look outward, and to stop always thinking about ourselves. I need this reminder a million times a day. We need to remember to help each other with these reminders.