Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II, President of Repairers of the Breach, in an interview with Chris Hayes of NBC said, “Because I had been taught by my father and mother that to say Jesus and justice is to say the same thing, to say Jesus and truth, to say Jesus and be concerned about the poor and the least is the same thing. This is not something separate. It’s not kind of like politics over here and your morality over here.”
Jesus and justice, Jesus and truth, Jesus and being concerned about the poor and the least of these is to say the same thing? We like to keep Jesus isolated from real life (limited to heaven since the resurrection—one of the great conundrum of the faith) even though we say God sent him to be like us and to live as we do, and He himself said he would be with us always, never leaving us bereft. But most of us tend to keep him out of ordinary things, out of politics, out of economics, out of our business—out of everything that we deem important to us. And it is wise that we do, because if we allowed Jesus into these aspects of life—he would turn all of them upside down! We prefer being “bereft” rather than let Jesus get involved.
Why? Because to say Jesus and justice is to say the same thing. Justice is concerned with just behavior and treatment: equality, fairness, equity, decency, integrity, ethics, values, honesty, and principles. This kind of justice applies to the individual and to society as a whole. The prophet Amos proclaims, “… let justice run down like waters, and righteousness as a mighty stream.” Jesus says he has come to proclaim good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the recovery of sight to the blind, and to set at liberty those who are oppressed. Sounds like justice to me.
To say Jesus and truth is to say the same thing. We don’t have to ponder this very much since Jesus himself proclaimed himself as the way and the truth. “What is truth” we ask along with Pilate. Truth is defined as “that which is true or in accordance with fact or reality,” or “a fact or belief that is accepted as true.”
To say Jesus and being concerned about the poor and “the least of these” is to say the same thing. In Matthew’s gospel (chapter 23) there is some instruction about this, and of course, there is the oft-quoted text of Matthew 25:31-45.
To say, Jesus and justice, Jesus and truth, Jesus and concern about the poor and the least of those among us, IS TO SAY THE SAME THING.
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