Justice, Mercy, and the God Who Makes Things Right
- Sharon Clements
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
This past week I saw the news that a pastor at a church in our town has been sentenced to thirteen years in prison for seven counts of sexually abusing a minor under his care. A girl’s life shattered. Her life interrupted by the greed, lust, and consumption of someone whose job it was to protect her. Concurrent sentences. No possibility of parole.
Kentucky Attorney General, Russell Coleman, said: "The defendant not only betrayed the trust of his victim but an entire congregation and community. We are relieved he will be sent to prison, rather than returning to the pulpit."
"The defendant not only betrayed the trust of his victim but an entire congregation and community. We are relieved he will be sent to prison, rather than returning to the pulpit." - Russell Coleman
I breathed a huge sigh of relief. The court system had done what churches and denominations so rarely do. Bringing some measure of justice for the victim. Some degree of accountability for the perpetrator. Some echo of Ezekiel 34 in the halls of justice:
Doom to you shepherds of Israel, feeding your own mouths! Aren’t shepherds supposed to feed sheep? You drink the milk, you make clothes from the wool, you roast the lambs, but you don’t feed the sheep. You don’t build up the weak ones, don’t heal the sick, don’t doctor the injured, don’t go after the strays, don’t look for the lost. You bully and badger them.
Watch out! I’m coming down on the shepherds and taking My sheep back. They’re fired as shepherds of my sheep. No more shepherds who just feed themselves! I’ll rescue my sheep from their greed. They’re not going to feed off My sheep any longer!
From now on, I Myself am the shepherd. I’ll rescue them from all the places they’ve been scattered in the storms. I’ll bring them back to their home country.
I Myself am stepping in and making things right. (From Ezekiel 34)
Oh the relief of those words!
That the Lord would HIMSELF step in and make things right.
How I longed for someone to make things right when I was trapped in abuse.
How I wept for someone to make things right when my world was shattered and swirling in confusion, misunderstanding, and judgment in the aftermath of exposure.
How I’ve sat in the quiet of early mornings still asking, still longing to see the good and faithful hand of God fitting, refitting, and making things right in the land of the living.
And in a short news report last week, I heard an echo. Some measure of justice was beginning to, in the words of the prophet Amos, “roll on like a river”.
Justice used to scare me a little. I used to think that was the harsh, heavy-handed side of God’s character. But I understand justice differently now.
Justice is the kindness of a fiercely loving Father, fighting for His wounded sons and daughters.
Justice says, “Enough is enough”.
God’s justice is His mercy – stepping in to stop the worst of us, to lift the broken among us, and to make things right.
Do I celebrate the sentence of a perpetrator who has brought such harm to a vulnerable one? That his life will be forever marked by his worst days? That someone “got what was coming to him?”
That’s not the word I’d use.
But Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13:6 has given me words that seem elusive on days like this - days mixed with sorrow and relief, heartbreak and gratitude.
“Love doesn’t revel when others grovel, but it takes pleasure in the flowering of truth.”
I take deep pleasure in the flowering of truth.
In the echoes of justice.
In the sunrise of God’s mercy for victim and perpetrator alike.
The One who is the Truth says, “Enough."
And in His merciful justice, healing begins.
He has seen us in our woundedness and knows us in our sorrows. And for this young victim—and a church that was devastated alongside her—our loving Savior is here, stepping in, and is in the process of making all things right.
