Life Isn’t Fair

We’ve discussed in another post the question of how a good God could allow suffering.  Suffering is embodied in the larger question of whether God has created a “just” world. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary “just,” in the sense we are discussing, has two meanings:

(1): acting or being in conformity with what is morally upright or good: RIGHTEOUS

(2): being what is merited: DESERVED

So, something is “just” if it is morally good and merited. If the world were just, we would expect people to get their “just deserts,” to be rewarded with good things for doing good and to be punished for doing evil. In fact, it seems the world is frequently unjust, and the distribution of rewards and punishments is often random.

Nowhere is this clearer than in war.  A British soldier, participating in the Allied invasion of Sicily, said, “We learned out first lesson, namely that fate, not the Germans or the Italians, was our indiscriminating enemy. With the same callousness as Army orders, without fairness of judgment, “You and you—dead.  The rest of you into the truck.”

Or consider the poem “They” written by Siegfied Sassoon, about World War I

The Bishop tells us: ‘When the boys come back
‘They will not be the same; for they’ll have fought
‘In a just cause: they lead the last attack
‘On Anti-Christ; their comrades’ blood has bought
‘New right to breed an honorable race,
‘They have challenged Death and dared him face to face.’

‘We’re none of us the same!’ the boys reply.
‘For George lost both his legs; and Bill’s stone blind;
‘Poor Jim’s shot through the lungs and like to die;
‘And Bert’s gone syphilitic: you’ll not find
‘A chap who’s served that hasn’t found some change.
‘ And the Bishop said: ‘The ways of God are strange!’

The Bible’s view of the fairness of life is, at best, complicated.

David often calls on God to save him from evil men.  In Psalm 7, he says:

¹¹ God is a righteous judge,
    a God who displays his wrath every day.

¹⁴ Whoever is pregnant with evil
    conceives trouble and gives birth to disillusionment.
¹⁵ Whoever digs a hole and scoops it out
    falls into the pit they have made.
¹⁶ The trouble they cause recoils on them;
    their violence comes down on their own heads.

And again in Psalm 9:

⁸ He rules the world in righteousness
    and judges the peoples with equity.
⁹ The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed,
    a stronghold in times of trouble.

But in Psalm 10, David writes:

¹ Why, Lord, do you stand far off?
    Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

² In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak,
    who are caught in the schemes he devises.
³ He boasts about the cravings of his heart;
    he blesses the greedy and reviles the Lord.

But he says the opposite in Psalm 37:

I have been young, and now am old,
    yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken
    or his children begging for bread.

To say the least, David’s feelings change with his circumstances.  But let’s leave the last word on whether life is fair to Jesus, who says in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5):

^“44 But I say to you, ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.’” 

In the end, none of us truly wants justice; we long for mercy.  God’s mercy and grace are provided to all, sinners and non-sinners alike. Consider the parable of The Workers in the Vineyard.  The vineyard owner pays all his workers the same, whether they worked one hour, or all day. When those who have worked all day complain, the owner replies, “‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? ¹⁴ Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you. ¹⁵ Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?’ So the last will be first, and the first last.” (Matthew 20:13-16).  Where is the justice? Where is the fairness? The workers do not receive equal pay for equal work. For them, “It isn’t fair!”

But they all receive equal measures of God’s mercy.  We should pray for God’s mercy, not his justice, for God’s justice is severe. “But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap.” (Malachi 3:2)  God’s justice condemns us, but his mercy saves us. Amen and amen.