What is Mercy and Justice Ministry?
I’m being commissioned this weekend at my church to head up our new Mercy & Justice Ministry. This post is a quick overview of what “Mercy and Justice” means from a biblical perspective. If you’d like to study more, I’d highly recommend checking out Tim Keller’s book Generous Justice. More details about the ministry will be coming soon (here and elsewhere on the Net) as it rolls out!
“…and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8
Doing Justice
In the beginning, God created everything to work together in perfect resonance and shalom. Like a tapestry, the strands of creation were meant to weave together flawlessly to “declare the glory of God” (Ps 19:1). We jacked that up, however, and since declaring ourselves to be like little gods (Gen 3:5) the tapestry is horrifically broken. Life is painful. Injustice is everywhere.
Thankfully, God is not OK with this; the Bible is about His rescue mission to save us. In the Old Testament, God repeatedly commanded Israel to “do justice” - which meant dishing out what was deserved to those in need (as defined by God):
”This is what the LORD Almighty says: Administer true justice, show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the immigrant or the poor.” Zech 7:9-10
“The LORD your God…defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the immigrant, giving him food and clothing.” Deut 10:17-18
“Defend the rights of the poor and needy” Prov 31:9
Loving Mercy
Take a moment to read Luke 10:25-37. Here, Jesus responds to the man’s test with the well-known Parable of the Good Samaritan and finishes with a command to likewise show mercy to others. The call to “love mercy” in Micah 6:8 is the call to embrace the heart behind doing justice and helping those in need. But what is that heart?
Walking Humbly with God
I’ve been reading the book of Galatians over and over recently and what strikes me powerfully each time is verse 2:20:
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh [(body)] I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
In this letter, Paul makes it clear that we’re unable to follow the law. We can’t do justice. We can’t love mercy. We might do something that looks like it for a time, but ultimately apart from Christ we’re insatiably captive to self-service; helping others becomes a means to feel better about ourselves, which is far from living out the Gospel.
The Good News for us, thankfully, is not only that we’ve been rescued on the cross for our inability to follow the Law, but we’ve been given the gift of God Himself to “live in us” to do His Good Samaritan work through us. He is our Mercy. He is our Justice. He is our New Heart. He empowers us to walk humbly with Him because He is quite literally with us.
Therefore, Mercy and Justice Ministry is God’s ministry. As His people, we will be conformed to reflect Him more perfectly as He works through us by the power of the Holy Spirit to love our neighbors, cities, and world well.
