“That’s Not Fair!”

How many times did I hear that come from the mouth of my children while they were growing up? I wonder how many times I made such a declaration to my parents. Too numerous to count, no doubt. My claims of being treated “unfairly” generally involved decisions they made for my good that I didn’t appreciate in the moment. Other times, my complaints about unfairness were trivial in nature. My older brother got to stay out later than I did. Our baby sister got to go on a trip with mom and dad, while my brother and I had to stay back home with the grandparents because we had school and she didn’t. These were not really instances of unfairness. They were just the realities of life. My brother was older and more mature, so he had more freedoms, so long as he exercised those freedoms properly.

There are, however, times when we do experience true unfairness in life. You get passed over for a promotion that was promised to you. You didn’t get the part in the school play, though you were clearly better. You had to sit the bench, even though you had outperformed the starter. Those experiences can be painful. More painful, is the unfairness of being the subject of gossip, being betrayed, treated harshly, having your name misaligned, and being ostracized. This is much of what those in the early Church experienced as they proclaimed Christ as their Lord and Savior and pledged their allegiance to His kingdom.

When we speak of fairness, it is important to recognize that fairness, or justice among humans ended in Genesis 3, when the first humans rebelled against God’s command not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Listening to the serpent’s enticing words and subtle attempts to present God as “unfair” and “holding out” on them, the man and the woman fell to the temptation of “being like God” (Gen 3:4-6). Rebellion against God brought brokenness to our world resulting in a lack of fairness, or justice. Our attempt to implement fairness and justice apart from God will always fall short. In fact, our idea of fairness is broken because we are fallen. As a result, we often justify our reasons when acting in an unfair and unjust manner toward others.

Yet, in our best moments, something stirs within us when we, or others, are treated unfairly. For example, if you see a child being treated abusively by an adult, you know that it is wrong and interventive measures must be taken to bring an end to such an injustice. This stirring is the moral image of God in us. While this moral image has been marred by the fall, by God’s grace He has restored a measure of His moral image within humans. If not for God’s grace at work within humanity, humans would not be able to recognize or name evil as it exists in our world. Were it not for God’s grace, humans would always choose evil. God’s common grace to all humanity empowers humans with the ability to choose fairness, justice, and righteousness. And yet, there is still free will. Humans can choose to respond and cooperate with God’s grace, or they can choose not to do so.

A second thing we must consider when contemplating the unfairness we encounter in life is that God fully understands what it means and feels like to be treated unfairly. God, in Jesus, experienced the full reality of unfairness culminating with His crucifixion on the cross. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the prophet Isaiah foretold the injustice Jesus would face, saying, “Unjustly condemned, he was led away” (Isaiah 53:8a, New Living Translation). The Message translation puts it this way,

“He was beaten, he was tortured,
    but he didn’t say a word.
Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered
    and like a sheep being sheared,
    he took it all in silence.
Justice miscarried, and he was led off” (Isaiah 58:7-8a, emphasis mine).

In truth, Jesus faced injustice so that we did not have to face the penalty of our sin, which would have been eternal separation from God. In all fairness, God could have held us to account for our rebellion against Him. However, as Paul would write, “God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God” (2 Cor. 5:21, The Message).

A third observation about unfairness, is that, as followers of Jesus, we can expect to face injustice. E. Stanley Jones, who was recognized as one of the greatest Christian missionaries of the Church, wrote “When our sufferings come from an evil source outside our own will, we reply, ‘This is unjust.’ Yes, it is. But you must not expect life to be fair. It isn’t. Christianity never taught that it would be. On the contrary, it has a cross at its heart—and that is the world’s supreme injustice.”[1] Experiencing injustice should not lead us to bitterness and despair. On the contrary, the Scriptures tell us, “We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us” (Rom. 5:3-5, New International Version). God can use the unfair stuff of life to make us more like Jesus. Life isn’t always fair, but God is always good!

It is crucial to note that although the world is often not fair or just, that does not mean we should not work in the name of Christ to make it fairer and more just. After all, we pray each week, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” As agents of Jesus, we continue the mission of Christ announcing and acting in accordance with the Kingdom of God that Jesus brought near. We do so with an eye to the future when Christ will come again in final victory.  As one scholar put it, “Those who long for God’s will on earth in the future should live consistently with that longing in the present, working for God’s righteousness and seeking his will.”[2]

There is one more final comment about life’s unfairness that needs to be noted. Each of us has experienced the seeming unfairness of the sufferings of illness, disasters, tragedies, and the premature deaths of loved ones. All such experiences leave us asking the unanswerable question, “Why?” In life, we are given no guarantees. As believers in Christ, we are given His guarantee that He is with us in the sufferings and tragedies of life. Just as God redeemed the sufferings of the cross for the salvation of the world, God can redeem our sufferings for His glory as well. That is not to say that God causes our or others’ sufferings, but He can redeem them. I believe it was J.D. Walt who said something to this effect: “Everything doesn’t happen for a reason. However, in everything God has a reason.”

I recall almost thirty-years ago standing beside the hospital bed of my Aunt Sue who was in St. Bernard’s Hospital in Jonesboro suffering from cancer. Her husband, my Uncle Billy, was standing by her side opposite of me. At that point in their lives, they were not followers of Jesus. On this particular day, Sue and Billy welcomed my visit, not only as one of their many beloved nephews but also as a pastor to talk with and pray. A few days later, my mother and father called me. Sue and Billy wanted me to come again for a visit in the hospital. They had decided to follow Jesus and wanted to be baptized. We crammed a lot of family into that small hospital room who witnessed their baptisms with joy. That sterile hospital room had been transformed into holy ground overflowing with the palpable presence of the Spirit. Did God cause my Aunt Sue’s suffering to orchestrate their decision to give their lives to Jesus and be baptized? I don’t believe that was the case. I do, however, believe that the Lord worked amid her suffering to bring her and my uncle into His family.

As believers, we live with hopeful expectation and optimistic joy. As I’ve already stated, Jesus will one day return bringing heaven to earth and will “put the world to rights.” Suffering, injustice, and unfairness and all their evil expression will have no place in the new heaven and new earth. Every tear shed will be wiped away. Death, mourning, crying, and pain will be no more. The old order of things will have passed away and all things will be made new (see Rev. 21:1-5). God’s goodness will outlive this world’s unfairness.

[1] E. Stanley Jones. Victorious Living. Dean Merrill, ed. (Minneapolis: Summerside Press, 2010), 230.

[2] Craig Keener. The Gospel of Matthew: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary. (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2009), 220.