A Justice Based on Grace



You have worked 60 hours this week and are bone tired... It has not been easy work either, but you've been cooking in the back of a hot kitchen, on your feet, for 12 hours a day. Pay day is finally here, and you remind yourself the hard work is worth it for you wife and little boy. They are depending on you to bring home food tonight after being paid. You've been scraping by for the past few days, and a good meal will be welcome! You go to your boss to get your money, and, to your surprise, there is only pay for 30 hours of work. This will never be enough to get you through the week! You show your boss the log of hours you've worked and demand to be paid fairly, but your boss continues to deny you worked the 60 hours. Furious, you leave and go to the store to buy more rice. What else can you do? You have no legal standing in this country. No recourse for justice. If you were to complain to someone, you could be sent back to even worse conditions where you came from. So you scrape by, and go back the next day to begin again. What choice do you have?

Deuteronomy 24:14 says, "Do not take advantage of a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether that worker is a fellow Israelite or a foreigner residing in one of your towns. Pay them their wages each day before sunset, because they are poor and are counting on it. Otherwise they may cry to the LORD against you , and you will be guilty of sin."

God has a lot to say about immigrants in scripture. Deuteronomy 24:17 says, "Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice... remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this." God is passionate about grace! This includes grace for those without legal rights and financial recourse. His reason for commanding fair treatment of the immigrant was based on the Israelites' recognition of their own need for grace and protection from someone stronger and more resourced when they were slaves in Egypt. The Israelites were helpless in Egypt on their own. The societal structure they were a part of made it impossible for them to have any legal recourse for their protection or any means of prospering beyond the slavery and social stratus they were born into. They needed someone in power to advocate for them. God did this through Moses. Moses used the power God graciously moved him into as a child to give him access to the power players of the day. God then spoke to those in authority and advocated for the Israelites.

In Exodus it says God "heard the cry" of the Israelites and redeemed them from Egypt, and again in Deuteronomy 24 it says that if the foreigner is mistreated "they may cry to the LORD against you..." God's heart for the foreigner did not stop with the Israelites. Nor did it stop with the foreigners who came to Israel. God is still granting justice to those who have none.

"Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ." Eph.2:12-13

That's us y'all. The reason God gave to the Israelites to show generosity and just treatment to the immigrant still applies to us. We too were slaves, without citizenship, foreigners, without rights in God's kingdom, but God rescued us when we could not rescue ourselves. With what right do we deny this justice of grace to those who live among us now? Regardless of political affiliation, we are to be advocating for and treating with generosity those who don't have the same legal rights and financial recourse we have. This is God's heart of a justice based on grace. We are no different, so we should have a heart of compassion for those in the same position. This starts with an attitude of the heart.  Do you see yourself as different from those who have no legal rights?  Do you resent their presence?  Or do you recognize your equal position before the cross of Christ and feel the utter helplessness of your position without the grace and advocacy of Christ?  This is where God told the Israelites to start and where he wants to start in our hearts as well.  His grace.

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