Justice, Mercy, Humility: A Meditation on Micah 6 for the 4th Sunday of Epiphany

Wherewith shall I come before the Lord,

and bow myself before the high God?

shall I come before him with burnt offerings,

with calves of a year old?

Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,

or with ten thousands of rivers of oil?

shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,

the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

 

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good;

and what doth the Lord require of thee,

but to do justly, and to love mercy,

and to walk humbly with thy God?

 

The words of the Prophet Micah echo forward from 700 years before Christ, to when the Incarnate Word preached to the gathered multitude from the mount in Matthew 5, and down through every age since.  The confusion of those times is not unlike our own, where evil abounded in the land, together with political turmoil, and the pretension of holiness promoted by the mental gymnastics of presumably educated people.  Such confusion brought a darkness upon the population which God’s Word came to illuminate, cutting through the deceptions, half-truths, and inferior philosophies to reveal what was still immutably true:  man’s obligations to his Maker are always defined by His Law as He has spoken it, not by the convolutions of men who hope to twist, hide, or add to it.  In the light of that Law are the demands of true Justice, summarized by God’s revelation to Moses on Mount Sinai in the 10 Commandments a thousand years before Micah’s time.  Before the purity of that Law all men must beg Mercy before their God, knowing their faults and their need for grace, which should then extent to others who offend them.  Lastly, knowing that no man lives apart from Mercy, the walk of the faithful with their God is one of Humility rather than pride, since no man who abides in the presence of God does so by his own merit.  Where men confuse their times with crime, manipulation, hypocrisy, and vanity, God’s Word continues to bring clarity for nurturing life in this world, and securing eternal life in the world to come.

 

This is particularly poignant in our times, as well.  What lack is there today in man-made opinions about right and wrong, good and evil?  When fallen men refer to everything but the Word of God to form their moral opinions, they end up in a bewildering diversity of contrary speculations, at odds with each other and the realm of Nature within which they are set.  The technological megaphones of our age simply reveal more obviously what has always tormented the human mind when divorced from divine inspiration:  fallen man makes poor law, both for himself and for others.  Consider the use of the word “justice” today, and the many applications it has been given which are anything but Just—from the bizarrities of contemporary sexual morality, to the rationalization of racialized mob violence, the pomposity of those who argue for the virtue of murdering children, the destruction of women’s dignity and societal protections to pander to psychologically impaired men, and the devaluation of honest education and intellectual inquiry to the blind acquiescence of political authorities.  Where the life affirming nature of God’s Word has been removed from the public square, a multiplication of destructive ideologies has filled the vacuum, bringing with them a devolution of man’s body, intellect, and soul, as well as the crumbling of his general society.

 

It is a remarkably reliable observation across history, that with the abandonment of God’s Law and His concept of true Justice, comes also a forgetfulness of God’s grace and Mercy.  Men who presume themselves their own lawmakers almost always presume themselves other men’s judges, with a right to compel others into submission.  The authoritarian impulse of fallen man often seeks to enslave his neighbor through deception of mind or brutality of body, cloaking such evil intent with a robe of feigned virtue.  Consider the self-appreciating crowds in our modern cities, which crow and berate others of differing opinion until they are “canceled” from the public sphere, deprived of their livelihoods, incarcerated as political prisoners, or victimized by violence in the streets.  When all men stand before God’s universal Law, they come to the same conclusion that they must all plead for a common Mercy, which by plain Reason extends from God to their neighbors through them.  But when men stand as their own lawgivers and their neighbors’ judges, Mercy is more often replaced with condemnation as each man seeks to promote his own interests upon others.  Only before a universal Law which demands all men yield in equality to the same divine standard, can all men see each other as brethren in a common struggle, as common beneficiaries of the universal grace which allows all men to stand together in love and compassion.

 

This commonality among men is what brings forth the true Humility of faith.  As each man stands alone before his Maker, accountable for the life he has been given before the Justice of divine Law, so each man stands in need of divine Mercy for his failure before divine Truth.  Thus the common obligation and the common need of all men, brings forth the fruit of a common Humility which confesses the same Truth, receives the same Grace, and lives together in the same eternal Hope.  Among such enlightened men there is a striving for a truly Just life, even as they know their frail frame can only approach but never attain the full holiness of their Maker.  These enlightened souls can only press forward in such a striving, knowing that their God and King is a Merciful Savior who has done all things to reconcile their fallen nature to Himself, so that their failures are overwhelmed in His own Sacrifice on their behalf.  The grace of the Gospel which overcomes the condemnation of the Law is the Vicarious Atonement of Jesus for the sins of the whole world—an irrevocable and unconquerable truth toward which the Prophets like Micah looked forward, and a truth toward which the Saints have looked back ever since.  In Jesus alone was the fullness of Justice made manifest through His Cross, and the inexhaustible riches of Mercy poured out.  There, in Jesus’ humiliation is the Humility of man made perfect, that faith might rise to everlasting life in all who follow Him, even as Jesus rose triumphantly forevermore from the grave.

 

Hear the Word of the Lord as it comes once again into the confusion and bewilderment of our times, cutting through the gloom to bring the purity of divine Light.  For what more does the Lord require of you but to strive heartily in the Justice of His Law, to love and reflect the grace of His Mercy poured out to you through Jesus, and to walk with Him in faithful Humility all the days of your life?  For in this is the life of the saints in every age, and the truth which dispels all darkness and deceit:  the divine Law which teaches all men their common obligation, the divine Gospel which reveals to all men their common salvation, and the true Faith bestowed from above by water and Spirit which is divinely empowered to walk humbly with Him forevermore.  Glory be to God Almighty, Creator and Savior of Heaven and earth: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and unto ages of ages without end!  Amen.