In English, we translate the Latin word jus into Justice. Jus is the Roman Empire punitive concept of law and order. However, the justice in the Hebrew Bible is Mispat. Mispat is restorative rather than punitive because we understand God’s justice is also God’s love. God takes what has been broken by harm and makes all things whole. We understand this through the Hebrew law of the tithe of the first crops. The tithe was for the Levites, the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner, not because they deserved it but because they needed to eat. The year of Jubilee was a law that was put into place that all debt would be forgiven every seven years to ensure that people were not trapped in generational poverty. God commanded the law not because they deserved it but because it was what the people needed to be free from poverty.

With God’s love, we always get what we need, not what we deserve, hence the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Christ gives us Himself, not what we or anyone else thinks we deserve.

Jesus reveals love is the point of law.

—“For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”

The word Hesed means God’s “loving-kindness.” It is the same word used in Psalm 23, which says that Goodness and “Lovingkindness” or “Mercy will pursue you as you dwell in the House of the Lord forever.

This Lovingkindness is not based on merit. It is used for grace when the New Testament is translated into Hebrew. This grace reveals God’s mercy to judge according to God’s heart rather than human logic or notions of fairness. Again God’s mercy is based on love, just like Mispat. Mispat and Hessed go together - Restorative Justice and Loving Kindness.

Consider this passage by Paul and change the word grace for Hesed.

“All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life—a life that goes on and on and on, world without end. “ -(Romans 5:20-21 MSG)

The word Wehasnea only appears twice in the Hebrew Bible. Once in Micah 6:8 and again in Proverbs 11:2. In this proverb, the writer instructs the reader to choose humble integrity before prideful deceit. The verse before 11:2 says, “The Lord detests dishonest scales, but accurate weights find favor with him.” This indicates that God is talking about humility that values fair systems - no disparities and no hypocrisy. The following verses say, “The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity. Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.” This humility avoids the trap of wealth and power that can corrupt individuals.

In this proverb, it says, “With their mouths, the godless destroy their neighbors but through knowledge, the righteous escape.”

When we choose to judge our neighbor and withhold them Hesed - mercy, that is the opposite of love. It is actually hypocrisy. Those who practice Restorative Justice with their neighbors walk in humility and love mercy. This is what God truly requires of us.

“You don't get wormy apples off a healthy tree, nor good apples off a diseased tree. The health of the apple tells the health of the tree. You must begin with your own life-giving lives. It's who you are, not what you say and do, that counts. Your true being brims over into true words and deeds.”- Luke 6: 43-45

Oklahoma is a deeply religious state that ties in at number 8 with Georgia. "Pew categorizes 66 percent of Oklahoma adults as highly religious because 65 percent pray daily and 71 percent say they believe in God with absolute certainty. Of Oklahoma adults, 79 percent are Christian, 18 percent are unaffiliated with any religion and about 2 percent practice non-Christian religions, with those of Jewish, Islamic, and other faiths each making up less than 1 percent of Oklahoma adults."

Therefore we have a religious state, with 79% identifying as Christian, but why do we have some of the worst stats in the country?

The Fruit - Oklahoma Ranks

Best States for Women - #50

Access to Good Health Care #42

Quality Pre-K to 12 Education #37

Crime and Corrections (ranking measures the criminal justice system through incarceration rates, racial equity in jailing, and more #44

Access to mental health care #39

Air & Water Quality is #45

Economic Opportunity #43

#4 in teenage pregnancy

Most women incarcerated #1 or 2 historically

Global Capital of Incarceration - Top 3 Historically

Incarceration of Black Americans #1

1 in 7 Oklahomans live below the federal poverty line

1 in 4 Oklahomans go hungry

Oklahoma county jail ranks second in the country in mortality rates

Oklahoma ranks the third deadliest state (causes - heart disease, cancer, accidents, lower respiratory disease, and strokes.)

Oklahoma ranks #3 worst state to live in.

With these poor rankings, It's time for renewal in the church in Oklahoma. The people of God should be good news to our neighbors, not bad. Jesus said, "Don't pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults—unless you want the same treatment. That critical spirit has a way of boomeranging. It's easy to see a smudge on your neighbor's face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, 'Let me wash your face for you,' when your own face is distorted by contempt? It's this whole traveling road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor." - Matthew 71-5

We can take a look at the concept of Tikkun Olam. Tikkun Olam is the Jewish idea of human responsibility for fixing what is wrong with the world. The idea is to repair the world through acts of kindness. This concept goes in line with Jeremiah 29:7, which says, "Seek peace and well-being for the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its peace (well-being) you will have peace.' (AMP)

If we want to see good fruit in our state, then we must have a 'metanoia' transformation surrounding love and justice.

In the most famous New Testament scriptures, John 3:16, Jesus Christ says, "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life." This scripture reveals a saving and restorative God. God's justice here involves making individuals, families, communities, and the world right again.

The Church is called to bear witness to the reality of God's saving justice in Christ, both by proclaiming it verbally in the story of the Gospel and by putting it into practice in the way it deals with offending and failure in its own midst. Knowing God's justice to be a restoring and renewing justice, the Church is obliged to practice restorative justice in its own ranks and to summon society to move in the same direction." Chris Marshall, Center for Christian Ethics, 2012

To be a genuine follower of the way of Christ is to take the words of Christ seriously "And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.' The second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' [b] No other commandment is greater than these." - mark 12:30-31

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reminded us that "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." We can be a part of the change!