GospelBlog has been on holiday this week. My obsession with keeping up with the latest news has been modified by the intermittent availability of wifi in the West of Ireland. Having said that, now that I am back in full communication it doesn’t appear that too much has moved forward in UK terms at least. The story that has dominated the headlines over the past few weeks continues to do so, only perhaps with some more momentum. I refer of course to the dam-burst of allegations that has been released about the behaviour of the late Jimmy Savile.
What has intrigued me about this story is that, under normal circumstances, where accusations of wrongdoing are brought against someone, a degree of restraint is exercised by the press until a trial takes place and the individual is found guilty or otherwise based on a fair and balanced examination of the evidence. In this case, however, the accusations have been brought after the passing of Mr Savile and he is in no position to explain his actions or defend his reputation. I confess to finding myself caught in a bind of being horrified at the nature of the behaviour he is being accused of while feeling squeamish about the forthright condemnations (“vile DJ”, “dirty old man”, etc, you’ve seen the headlines too) seen in some sections of the press concerning an individual who is unable to speak up for himself. It’s not that I doubt the truthfulness of those that have come forward. Just that there is something about due process taking place that satisfies our need for justice to have been seen to have been done.
It is an intriguing aspect of what makes humans unique that we have an in-built, I believe God-given, longing for justice. We have seen this recently in the 23 year struggle of the Liverpool families of those killed and injured in the Hillsborough disaster. But what do we do when the key protagonist is no longer around to answer our questions? Nuremberg would have been a radically different affair had Adolf Hitler been there to answer for his crimes. The millions who suffered and perished in the Gulags of Siberia were never vindicated by the courtroom examination of Joseph Stalin
Is this the tragedy of human nature, to have a longing for justice but an inability see it done? Well, that must be the case for the atheistic world view. We can almost hear the frustrated gnawings of our more outspoken media as they fulminate on what might posthumously be done to Jimmy Savile. They can’t even strip him of his knighthood as that, like his wealth and his fame, lapsed upon his passing.
For those of us who believe in a God of justice, however, death is not the end. The Apostle Peter writes that all, “will give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead” (1 Peter 4 vs5). Death does not end justice. Your capacity to know right from wrong, your desire to see justice done is a part of what it means to be ‘made in the image of God’. And this will not be the rough justice of the British media, but the perfect justice of a God who knows all about every individual; who knows precisely the motivation for each action and the psychological burdens that each had to bear.
Of course, the challenge of the Bible is that all of us are found to have sinned against God. We have all, ‘fallen short’ of God’s standard of perfect righteousness. We will all therefore have to ‘give an account before God.” Perhaps your life has been such that after your passing the newspapers will not be clamouring for your public vilification, but can you honestly say that you will be happy for God to examine your every foolish thought? I know for sure that I would not.
Fortunately, the Bible also provides a righteous basis on which we can be made right with Him. The Apostle Paul writes, ” God has made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him”. That is, the Lord Jesus took responsibility for my failings (and yours) in order that we can be granted the righteous character of God. That is something worth holding on to!