The tragedy of the Southport dance class stabbings is that it was utterly senseless. There seems no accounting for the truly evil motivation of the now-named attacker. And I imagine we will never know.
It wasn’t even random – it seems that the 17-year-old assailant took a taxi to Hart Street. And at this point we simply cannot see any connection between him and his victims. There seems no justification, however malign, for his terrible actions.
“Trying to make sense of what makes no sense can render you senseless. Let it go,” concludes author Sanjo Jendayi. Except we can’t. Our deepest instinct is to demand justice for we recoil at any sense of impunity, of this terrible crime going unpunished.
This need for justice is at the heart of being human. “That’s not fair” is spoken as soon as we learn to speak. And how often are we appalled when “someone gets away with it!”
Only yesterday the car behind me went through a red light. As it happens it wasn’t dangerous – the other cars had still to move, but nevertheless a me-first action, an affront to us all. I would have liked to have reported the offender.
The good news is that justice is in the heart of God himself, which is wonderful news if you are suffering injustice. Typically, from the prophet Isaiah: “But the Lord Almighty will be exalted by his justice, and the holy God will be proved holy by his righteous acts.” (Isaiah 5:16)
And God’s justice is not just some vague ideal, it is earthed in real situations, even including immigrants. How about: “Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge.” (Deuteronomy 24:17)?
“And because justice is such a central part of God’s character, he has declared enmity against every form of injustice. His wrath will come upon those who have exploited the poor and the weak; he will not permit his purpose to be subverted.” (Fleming Rutledge, The Crucifixion p110)
So whenever justice rolls down like water, it is a sign that God is on the move – and we read in the pages of the Hebrew scriptures a profound longing which Jesus articulates in the Lord’s Prayer: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
So where does forgiveness come in? For to ask any of the parents of those murdered young girls to forgive their attacker is both insensitive and one huge step too far. And that includes countless numbers of grieving parents, such as in Sudan where currently an utterly senseless civil war rages with tens of thousands of innocent people killed.
Clearly such forgiveness is both complex and difficult. But first the issue of justice has to be faced. No way can the wrongdoer go unpunished. Someone has to be held accountable.
I came across a remarkable quote from David Birney, Bishop of Idaho who on going to Rwanda shortly after the genocide spent time talking to the many victims. He concluded: “The hatred, the anger, the grief there are so great. If there is one thing I believe with all my being must happen, it is that before any effort at reconciliation can be made, there has got to be a means of getting a system of justice in place.”
We long for justice, even if it is obviously inadequate to compensate for the terrible pain inflicted on innocent families. No punishment which any court could impose could in no way right the wrong. The pain of those parents will endure, whatever the outcome.
For the reality is this: in our world, even in pleasant seaside towns on a summer’s day, something is terribly wrong and cries out to be put right.
But there is a another terrible truth which has to be said. And here it is said by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who indeed suffered much injustice through the Russian gulags: “The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either -- but right through every human heart -- and through all human hearts.”
For when we call down justice, we call it down even on ourselves. To quote the redoubtable Archbishop Desmond Tutu who chaired the remarkable South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission (notice the order: Truth first and then Reconciliation) : “Forgiveness is not cheap, it is not facile. It is costly. Reconciliation is not an easy option. It cost God the death of his Son.”
For it is at the cross of Jesus where God’s love and God’s justice intersect. For to downplay or even deny either his love or his justice is to deny the cross of Jesus.
Again to quote Fleming Rutledge: “If we think of Christian theology and ethics purely in terms of forgiveness, we will have neglected a central aspect of God’s own character and will be in no position to understand the cross in its fullest dimension.”
God’s free forgiveness cost him, cost him more than we could possibly imagine. And yet the cross goes beyond his forgiveness, it is his setting aright this world with its trauma and tragedy. Essentially it is God himself fixing the problem so that his shalom may flourish in his new creation.
That is why Jesus urges us to pray his prayer, for God’s kingdom. Meanwhile we pray for all the victims of this terrible tragedy:
“Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff, they comfort me.”
(Psalm 23:4)
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