Justice on Trial

The trial is over and the verdict is in and Casey Anthony has been found not guilty in the death of her two-year-old daughter. This verdict has upset many across the nation lighting up the social media from Facebook to Twitter.

So what is the Christian response to such an event? It is difficult when we want justice for little Caylee Anthony. Sometimes we want justice above all else. So while many are playing the blame game it is time to look at what we should desire in the light of God’s will.

How can we find justice for Caylee, when our hearts and minds are incapable of understanding the truth of right and wrong, good and bad. We pick and choose when to cry out for justice and when to look the other way.

A good biblical example is the woman caught in adultery. You know the story. A woman is caught in the very act of committing adultery, although where her partner was and why he was not brought, I do not know. This woman is brought before Jesus, the angry mob demands justice. Often at this point someone points out that Jesus had compassion on the woman allowing her to go free. While this is partially true it is not the whole story.

What is rarely taught is that Jesus was using the very law that people were using to demand justice to show what true justice would mean. The Lord was not teaching us that it was okay to commit adultery but rather, we cannot pick and choose what laws we would prefer to obey.

When Jesus had finished drawing on the ground, he looked up and there were no witnesses to bring a case. Also, there was no Sanhedrin to enforce the law. In fact, the stoning would have been unlawful. Jesus was keeping the law, not breaking it and teaching others to do the same. Unless you apply the whole law, none of it will work.

You may be asking yourself, what does this have to do with the murder of a two-year-old little girl in Florida? The truth is that as America has been moving away from God and His ways, justice has been difficult to find.

The Casey Anthony trial is an example of a culture based on television. While television is nothing more than a tool to convey information, it is the information that has corrupted our society. We have moved away from the truth of Scripture, and it is difficult to separate fact from fiction.

Without the cool CSI forensics and the Hollywood displays, a jury is hard-pressed to convict anyone. And because so few people believe in the death penalty very few are even willing to consider a guilty verdict.

We should also take note that the family had a great deal to do with this situation. Lies and convoluted testimony went a long way in making the waters muddy for the jury. Of course, what upsets us most is the choices made by Casey after her daughters death, but none of that is eligible for the jury to decide.

As long as we are far from the heart of God, we will continue to see verdicts like the Casey Anthony trial. Jesus proved that, when we are reminded of our own sin we do not have the heart to convict someone else of theirs.