Blog Post
Trauma & Justice
It can be complicated
“I have forgiven
them, but I still really long for justice and it makes me mad to see them thriving after all the harm they have caused.” Can you relate? What do we do with that? Is it even possible for all three of those statements to be true at the same time?
Last time I wrote about what it might mean to forgive those who have harmed us: the ones whose choices mean that we now carry trauma. Now I want to turn to the issue of justice.
If we are living in the reality of forgiveness (check out my previous post to see what I mean by that), then does that not mean we should no longer seek justice? It really depends on what we mean by justice.
I think in our imagination justice, like forgiveness, gets conflated with other things. In the case of justice we tend to conflate it with condemnation and punishment.
Photo by Dushyant Kumar on Unsplash
By punishment I don’t mean consequences
consequences are the result of cause and effect – ‘we reap what we sow’*, punishment on the other hand is additional suffering intentionally applied by another. When we live in forgiveness we let go of our need to condemn, retaliate and punish those who have harmed us, but does that mean we let go of the need for justice? I don’t think so.
So what is justice? It is the act of making things right, returning things to the way they should be. When something is just, it is right, it is the way it should be.
Photo by Sushobhan Badhai on unsplash
The biblical narrative carries a particular vision of the way things should be in which the central focus is relationships – our relationships to one another, to God and to the rest of creation. Righteousness is both a noun and a verb and denotes everything (all our relationships) being the way they should be, the way God designed. The English words righteousness and justice are often interchangeable in the scriptures and the effect they have is often described as good. So God in Christ ‘went about doing good’**. Where spiritual forces, diseases, social forces and death overwhelmed the lives of those he interacted with, Jesus pushed them back to within their rightful bounds. When the forces of fear and chaos tried for supremacy Jesus walked on them in his rightful place and returned them to theirs***.
Photo by Liana S on unsplash
God is a God of justice, and New Creation is the putting of all things to rights, both ultimately on Jesus’ return, and currently in his process of making all things new.
So on our journey of healing trauma, and even as we live in the reality of forgiveness, it is right and proper to hunger, thirst and work for justice. It is an appropriate, right and just thing to establish healthy boundaries and patterns of relating and sometimes that means no contact… even when we are living in forgiveness. In fact both justice and forgiveness together and each in their own right, put a stop to the perpetuation and escalation of harm. Sometimes the just thing to do is to report harmful patterns of behaviour so that further harm can be prevented, even as we forgive from our hearts.
Photo by Elijah Hiett on unsplash
I hope this is helpful on your journey. I am grateful to those who have walked with me and lived these important but difficult questions.
Join me at a Beloved and Entrusted – Christian Training Day or Short Course to explore this and other aspects of journeying with God through trauma in everyday life, or get in touch about hosting one of these days for your team or area.
* Galatians 6:7
** Acts 10:38
*** Jesus calming the storms and walking on water speak to the biblical themes of the chaos waters and sea monsters introduced in Genesis 1 representing the active forces at work to return to decreation.
Title image photo credit: Photo by Tingy Injury Law Firm downloaded from unsplash.