the road paved with...

I had to report to jury duty recently. Luckily I didn't have to serve; I say lucky not because I think jury duty is stupid or because I hate America - no, it's lucky because at this particular moment in my life serving on a jury would be a great financial hardship to me. (If I sound defensive it's because the judge put me through hell in getting out of serving. I felt like I was in grade-school again getting chided for "bad behavior." My patriotism was put into question as well as the legitimacy of my reason for release. Only homelessness was a good enough financial reason in this particular judges eyes for me to be excused. It was not a pleasant experience.) Anyway, while I was walking from my non-validated, self-paid parking spot into the court house to be scanned and searched, I noticed the sidewalk into the courthouse was cracked and big chunks of cement were missing. Immediately the thought came to me that the road to justice is full of holes and cracks. It's a sad thought but I also think it's kind of a true one.

That is not to say I feel justice is never given. Of course out of the hundreds of thousands cases some are bound to contain some measure of justice. But what is interesting about our legal system is all the variables that come into play. Justice is supposedly blind but is she really? If a client has enough coin or is a celebrity they usually have an advantage or edge. Judges have different personalities and different ways of interpreting laws so that can be factor. The competence, character and personality of lawyers is also critical in the outcome of a case. It seems in an odd way like the law is cut and dry until you get into a court room. Just like police can in some instances lawfully lie to a suspect, attorneys can mislead and misdirect all for the sake of winning. Truth and honor become muddied quickly by men, it is our nature defile.

I wish the road to justice was smooth and paved solid but I am realistic enough to know that it isn't. Justice takes work, perseverance, attention and above all a love for truth. Pontius Pilate is famously recorded as asking, "What is truth?" There is a part of me that wants to hide inside that question like Pilate did. There is a part me that wants to throw my hands up in the air and declare life too complicated and truth too subjective to be pinned down. But is that what God would have me do? What would Jesus say the road of righteousness and truth is paved with? I think he would say, "It is paved with the blood of innocence." His innocence paid the price of the guilty. Making what is wrong into what is right is a lesson in sacrifice, forgiveness, and mercy - it's ultimately a lesson in love.

When the wrong is too great and no repayment possible, it is there we see Justice's knife is sharp and arm long reaching. Justice in this world should be pursued and never taken for granted. Where there is no love of law there is no love for man. Justice needs an enforcer and the best enforcer of justice is no mere man. There is a justice after this life that is nearer than we know and far more lasting. May good fear keep us now and always on the narrow road that is Jesus Christ, the road paved with his priceless blood.