Satisfying Justice
I’ve always wondered at God’s seemingly nonchalant response to the first murder in the Eden story of origin.
According to the Genesis account, God knew exactly what had happened and confronted Cain directly: “What have you done? Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground!”
But then God doesn’t demand a life for a life. Instead, He places a mark on Cain—not as a curse, but as protection - a sign of divine mercy, ensuring that Cain would not be killed by others seeking revenge.
Sure there were consequences: “If you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its produce. You shall become a constant wanderer on the earth.” But now we understand this “constant wandering” in psychological terms. Trauma, guilt, and the weight of evil became part of Cain’s inner landscape. He developed post traumatic stress disorder or ADHD - any of these dysfunction would have him wandering.....
So I wondered why God hadn't judged more fairly - made a point of establishing right and wrong - and given us a model on how to deal with our murderous souls.
Now, after having re-examined evil through the lens of the five faces, I can see God's wisdom . We who are infected with the chaos of evil are incapable of doing true justice. We can try - but it is never going to be a justice that heals, finds the truth and satisfies our need for safety.
Why?
Because we all have this hidden undercurrent need to blame—lurking beneath every form of brokenness and chaos I’ve described so far.
I first noticed this in our support group for parents of murdered children, which I joined after Candace was killed. There, I saw how easily we fall into blaming the victim—sometimes subtly, sometimes openly. This tendency stems in part from our deep need to believe that the world is fair - that life has order. Psychologists call it the just-world hypothesis: “If something bad happened, surely they - the victim - must have done something to deserve it.” Cliff, my husband, was blamed—as many family members often are when there’s been a stranger abduction.
I also noticed that in our group - the blame that should have been directed at the actual perpetrator - more often than not - was directed at the partner - the police - the church - God.
Oddly, we as victims don't direct our deepest anger at the perpetrator. Instead, we aimed it sideways—at those closest to us:
Blame-shifting—also called deflection— a psychological defense - is another way of dealing with out own guilt feelings. Blaming someone else helps us preserve our self-image and keeps us from facing the depth of our own vulnerability.
Then when this pervasive blame is used in our collective self, it can spread like wildfire—through our externals, families, churches, communities, even nations. We cancel. We ghost. We reject. We exile others the way Cain was exiled.
Yet - we want to do justice and are determined to find justice which explains why we are always searching for proof:
As Jean Chrétien once famously (and confusingly) said: “A proof is a proof. What kind of a proof? It’s a proof. A proof is a proof. And when you have a good proof, it’s because it’s proven.”
But proof doesn’t restore wholeness. It doesn’t bring back what we’ve lost. No punishment - no amount of perceived justice - can truly make things right.
Ultimately - God knew we can't do justice and has said... "vengeance is mine, I will repay. " and he has promised in the end to do a fair justice.
Till then we can only find justice and try to do things right - through forgiveness.
Forgiveness doesn’t cancel justice—it transcends it. It can transform blame into shared sorrow.
And sorrow, when shared, becomes the soil of healing. It’s when we start spilling our sweat—and not our blood—that we begin to rebuild. Not alone, but together.— David Hume
According to the Genesis account, God knew exactly what had happened and confronted Cain directly: “What have you done? Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground!”
But then God doesn’t demand a life for a life. Instead, He places a mark on Cain—not as a curse, but as protection - a sign of divine mercy, ensuring that Cain would not be killed by others seeking revenge.
Sure there were consequences: “If you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its produce. You shall become a constant wanderer on the earth.” But now we understand this “constant wandering” in psychological terms. Trauma, guilt, and the weight of evil became part of Cain’s inner landscape. He developed post traumatic stress disorder or ADHD - any of these dysfunction would have him wandering.....
So I wondered why God hadn't judged more fairly - made a point of establishing right and wrong - and given us a model on how to deal with our murderous souls.
Now, after having re-examined evil through the lens of the five faces, I can see God's wisdom . We who are infected with the chaos of evil are incapable of doing true justice. We can try - but it is never going to be a justice that heals, finds the truth and satisfies our need for safety.
Why?
Because we all have this hidden undercurrent need to blame—lurking beneath every form of brokenness and chaos I’ve described so far.
I first noticed this in our support group for parents of murdered children, which I joined after Candace was killed. There, I saw how easily we fall into blaming the victim—sometimes subtly, sometimes openly. This tendency stems in part from our deep need to believe that the world is fair - that life has order. Psychologists call it the just-world hypothesis: “If something bad happened, surely they - the victim - must have done something to deserve it.” Cliff, my husband, was blamed—as many family members often are when there’s been a stranger abduction.
I also noticed that in our group - the blame that should have been directed at the actual perpetrator - more often than not - was directed at the partner - the police - the church - God.
Oddly, we as victims don't direct our deepest anger at the perpetrator. Instead, we aimed it sideways—at those closest to us:
- Someone who is safe
- Someone close - proximity has a lot to do with our blame
- Someone perhaps who has already annoyed us - and this might serve as a dual purpose in getting rid of them as well.
Blame-shifting—also called deflection— a psychological defense - is another way of dealing with out own guilt feelings. Blaming someone else helps us preserve our self-image and keeps us from facing the depth of our own vulnerability.
Then when this pervasive blame is used in our collective self, it can spread like wildfire—through our externals, families, churches, communities, even nations. We cancel. We ghost. We reject. We exile others the way Cain was exiled.
Yet - we want to do justice and are determined to find justice which explains why we are always searching for proof:
- Proof that our pain matters.
- Proof that our retaliation is justified.
- Proof that we are owed something.
As Jean Chrétien once famously (and confusingly) said: “A proof is a proof. What kind of a proof? It’s a proof. A proof is a proof. And when you have a good proof, it’s because it’s proven.”
But proof doesn’t restore wholeness. It doesn’t bring back what we’ve lost. No punishment - no amount of perceived justice - can truly make things right.
Ultimately - God knew we can't do justice and has said... "vengeance is mine, I will repay. " and he has promised in the end to do a fair justice.
Till then we can only find justice and try to do things right - through forgiveness.
Forgiveness doesn’t cancel justice—it transcends it. It can transform blame into shared sorrow.
And sorrow, when shared, becomes the soil of healing. It’s when we start spilling our sweat—and not our blood—that we begin to rebuild. Not alone, but together.— David Hume
RSS Feed
