How Can We Respond to the Immensity of Injustice?
Recently, a night in watching the 1996 animated film "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" exposed the fragility of my mental state. As I watched Quasimodo and Esmerelda struggle under the unjust rule of Frollo, parallels to modern-day atrocities plagued my mind. I stopped watching the movie, overwhelmed by echoes of news stories and the feeling that I needed to do something in response to what I was seeing.
For years, but especially in the past few months, I have felt this burden when reading about tragedies and violations in our nation and around the world. Human beings deprived of vital nutrition due to war or political gridlock. Immigrants denied just hearings. Countless left without equal access to health services, quality education, or any sense of stability. Voices on social media exhorted me to take action. I agreed with the voices! I should do something. But I felt unsure about how to proceed.
Many of these posts included action steps: boycotts, petitions, protests. These are all meritable pursuits, but they did little to assuage the paralyzing helplessness I felt. The small actions in my power seemed trivial: no signature or call to a representative could do much to counteract the worldwide enormity of injustice.
In moments like these, I have found only one practice that can pull me out of this helpless spiral: turning to my faith. Facing the weight of the world, I find peace in my belief that God has promised to restore perfect justice.
In the Bible, the justice of God has a dual meaning for humanity. On one hand, it teaches that humans are sinful beings who ought to fear the righteous justice of the Lord. The first major instance of this is the banishment of Adam and Eve from paradise after they disobeyed God's commands.¹ The second is the destruction of nearly all of humanity in the Great Flood after they saddened God with their corruption.² Perhaps it is the remembrance of these grim acts of justice against the sinful human race that inspired the prophet Amos to write "Woe to you who desire the day of the Lord!"³
With this in mind, how can God's justice be a source of hope? Only through the work of Christ. Through Christ's sacrifice, God has provided an opportunity for anyone to receive deliverance from their deserved judgement.⁴ This undeserved gift allows the redeemed to see past the fury of God's stringent justice unleashed in order to find hope in the perfectly just world He will create.
God has promised in Scripture to create a new heaven and earth where suffering no longer exists.⁵ He will right the wrongs done by humans to one another and raise up "the fatherless and the oppressed."⁶ These promises speak powerfully to the current brokenness of the world by demonstrating God's desire to restore joy to all but particularly to those who have experienced oppression.
These promises might seem to say that humanity should sit back and wait for God to take care of everything, but God has a different calling. The Bible argues that, because of the certainty of God's justice, it is not only possible to act but imperative. God invites humanity to join His work of restoration not passively but with zeal and fervor.⁷ He speaks through the prophet Micah, commanding His people to "do justice and to love kindness."⁸ The mission of the church has always included practical care for the marginalized and needy, just as Jesus patterned through His ministry of healing.⁹ The people of God are called to advocate, care, and give in His name.
We would not be the first in history to be inspired to action by God's promise to restore justice. For example, Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. found motivation in Scripture as he worked to resist the dehumanizing practice of segregation. In his legendary "I Have a Dream" speech, he punctuated his desire for equity by referencing two verses about the Lord's forthcoming justice. He first invoked Isaiah 40:4-5: "every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low." Later, he cries out "we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream," quoting Amos 5:24. The power of these words is palpable—on the recording, the crowd cheers loudly after each verse.
It is important to note the urgency expressed in Scripture alongside these promises. Like in the verse from Amos that King invoked or the story of the Great Flood, the Lord's justice is described in Scripture as a rushing flow of water that causes both renewal and destruction. James Baldwin, an author who helped lay the ideological foundation for the Civil Rights Movement, referenced the Flood in his essay "The Fire Next Time." He quotes a spiritual song which warns that "God gave Noah the rainbow sign, No more water, The fire next time." This refers to the promise God made to Noah after the Flood that he would not again destroy humanity with water, with the rainbow serving as a sign of this promise.¹⁰ In this context, with the reminder that God still promises to ultimately punish evil, it serves as an alarming call to action against racial injustice.
With this devotion to both hope and action, these Civil Rights leaders shaped a movement that sparked fundamental shifts towards racial equality in America. These leaders found the strength to act in the knowledge that God can and will restore the world to perfect peace. We can follow in their hopeful-yet-alert mindset. The knowledge that the God of justice holds all of human affairs in His hands empowers followers of Christ to take confident steps towards making the world more like His kingdom. We do not have to be paralyzed by the enormity of what we cannot do because justice is not on our shoulders! As we meet each new day and its accompanying torrent of headlines, let us reflect on God's promises that both bring peace and inspire action in the midst of catastrophe.
¹ Genesis 3
² Genesis 6
³ Amos 5:18
⁴ Romans 5:8-9
⁵ Revelation 21:1-4
⁶ Psalm 10:18
⁷ Romans 12:11
⁸ Micah 6:8
⁹ Acts 2:44-45, Luke 4:38-41
¹⁰ Genesis 9:15