Judge Robert McGahey's face turned red as he peered down at Sandra Jacobson, pronouncing the maximum sentence of 36 years for a drunk-driving crash that killed two children's librarians.
Prosecutors said Jacobson was drunk at 10 a.m. as she drove at more than 80 mph, then lost control of her pickup, swerved across two lanes and clipped the victims' van, sending it crashing into the median. Jacobson continued driving while the victims died.
Arrested a short time later, Jacobson first told police she'd downed cold medicine, insisting she was sober and driving the speed limit but momentarily lost control of her truck after her dog went for a Cheeto.
Her blood-alcohol level was estimated to have been more than three times the legal limit. And the judge said Jacobson's contention during the trial that she was not drunk at the time of the crash was an outright lie.
Then the daughter of one of the victims told the court that Jacobson had turned to her during the trial and mouthed, "I didn't do it."
That, said Judge McGahey, "shows a level of gall almost incomprehensible to me." According to The Denver Post, Jacobson's brother and her life partner asked McGahey for mercy and forgiveness, saying Jacobson had made a tragic mistake but was not a career criminal.
The judge refused to hear it. "I am not in the mercy business, and I am not in the forgiveness business," he said. "I am in the justice business."
That's one snapshot of justice, and, perhaps, the way "justice" is most often understood: the punishment due for a wrong committed. Justice done.
But in the last ten years, a second snapshot of justice has become prominent, one symbolized by the face of Bono, the Irish rocker known for his signature shades and for music that makes sweeping allusions to "justice," but a different sort of justice than Judge McGahey's.
In 2002, Bono founded DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, and Africa), addressing Africa's "unpayable debts, the uncontrolled spread of AIDS, and unfair trade rules that keep Africans poor." He said that these issues are not about charity, but about equality and justice.
This is "justice" with political implications, especially in the areas of human rights, economic equity, and environmental protection.
In these areas, it's hard to ever pronounce justice done. It's more justice ever sought (never totally accomplished).
And since justice has been such an important recurring theme over the last ten years, church leaders have had to face key questions: What does the Bible say about justice? Specifically, what is divine justice (that only the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ can accomplish), and what is human justice (that God expects you and me to do)?
In our current culture, it's more important than ever to be clear about what justice is and what God expects of his people.
As Paul Metzger points out in “What Is Biblical Justice?,” biblical justice means wholeness, making things right. And there are different types of wholeness and rightness. Some of those things God expects us to accomplish. For instance, to "do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God."
Other types of wholeness only God can accomplish (regeneration, forgiveness of sin, and life eternal), and he expects us to trust him for those.
Amid all the conversation in recent days about justice, the church leaders we talked to were intrigued about the intersection of justice and evangelism. How can we do justice in a way that relies on and points to the grace of God? How can we bring wholeness and rightness both to body and soul, affecting both earth and heaven? How can we pronounce God's judgments and God's promised redemption?
Yes, all of us, like Judge McGahey, are in the justice business. But for church leaders, it's a bit bigger than that. It's "the justice and evangelism" business.
Marshall Shelley is director of the Doctor of Ministry program at Denver Seminary and contributing editor of CTpastors.com.
