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God’s justice

“Turn away from your sins and be baptized,
and God will forgive your sins.” - Luke 3:3

Justice is an essential topic in all Scripture. That God is just, as the prophets have said again and again, means that he is a liberator who takes up the cause of the poor and demands that the rights of the oppressed be respected. He is upright, and does not allow himself to be corrupted by any deceitful word nor any meaningless cult.

The Kingdom of God that is to come and is announced to the people is a Kingdom of Justice. A Kingdom where there is equality, where the hopes of the people will be realized. Knowing God, which, in Biblical language, is the same as loving him, is doing what is just (Jer. 22:13-16). True religion consists of recognizing the rights of the poor and maintaining just relations among people. (Is. 1:10-18; Jer. 7:1-11).

In proclaiming justice, John the Baptist demanded “conversion” from the people who were listening to him (cf. Luke 3:1-18). The Biblical meaning of this word is not simply “to confess, to repent, to have remorse of conscience” as traditionally understood. Rather, it refers to a change of ways, a return to the Lord who is just, and like him, doing what is just. There is no conversion before God without any conversion before others, and especially before the poor and powerless. Conversion means sharing. He who does not share is not within the justice of God.

With regard to the Roman soldiers, John concretizes conversion in terms of not abusing power entrusted to a person. The soldiers, foreigners as they were, were recruited from the masses. As servants of imperialist powers, afflicted with the system’s corruption and emboldened by the arms provided them, they continued to oppress the people. The tax collectors like Matthew, officials of the empire or local officials, because of their position extorted money from the poor. John denounces cheating in the collection of funds. Conversion has to pass through one’s pockets. It always involves rejection of power. Good intentions are not enough.

The question that Jesus asks John concerns the matter of structural sin and personal offense. One can trim the old branches of a tree, only when the roots are rotten. Sin and injustice are not only an individual transgression, which can be amended by way of individual conversion. There are situations of sin, like an economic system that is profit-oriented, benefiting only a small few, where, in the process of competition, the poor becomes poorer, and the rich becomes richer. This is the structure of sin. A political system that allows no participation of the people on the matter of decision-making, utilizing torture, crime, fraud and corruption for its survival, is likewise, an institutional sin.

Truly, an integral liberation, more than individual change, is needed in order to defeat sin. This is the message of the prophets. This is also the message of the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. #

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