The Burdens of Justice

The Burdens of Jusice

Sin makes quite a mess. Always. Like a caustic radio-active acid, sin indiscriminately corrodes and progressively disintegrates everything it touches. So it doesn’t really matter whether you’re the one who detonates the bomb, or you’re the intended target, or you’re simply an innocent bystander—you get seriously injured in the blast. And, as the corrosive properties of sin do their destructive work, your life is eaten away bit by bit. There’s no cure. You will live with the scars, the pain and the disabilities for the rest of your life.

In the aftermath of the explosion, something inside us compels us to try to “make things right”—to somehow turn back the clock so everything can be restored, just like it was before the blast. So we fight for retribution and restitution, hoping that they will bring about a resurrection of what was lost. After a while, though, we discover it’s a futile pursuit. Our eternal quest for justice does not produce justice! It simply creates new burdens to carry—twin burdens: debilitating guilt for the one who sinned and devastating grief for the one mistreated.

In Genesis 42-45, we see this played out in the suspenseful drama of Joseph and his brothers. Ten men burdened with guilt, haunted by fear and shame. One man burdened with grief, which by God’s grace had matured over twenty years into peaceful resolution, when instead it could have so easily festered into resentment and bitterness. As we watch these men respond to their twin burdens of justice, we find much to apply to our own experiences with guilt and grief.

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Guilt Map	Grief Map

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