Love, not justice

As a kid I ran to the convenience store comic book rack always looking for the next issue of my favorite comic. The comic was from Marvel and called “Daredevil.” My brother’s taste in comics was based on the art and color, so we had a lot of “Thor,” The Hulk,” and “Spiderman” comics too. But for me, I was fascinated by the back story of Daredevil, and I liked the red suit.

Daredevil is a blind man who is a lawyer by day, and fights crime—actually he seeks “justice” by night. Although, like most kids I suppose, I read comic books for all the wrong reasons, and over the years I’ve realized that I have internalized some of that Daredevil ethic into my own life. Daredevil always started with idea that law, and the systems we have around those laws, would provide justice. But, of course, those systems are manipulated by criminals, or those seeking to do harm, and therefore justice is often denied. At that point, since the law has been rendered powerless, you become a masked crime-fighter and wreck all sorts of havoc on those for whom the law does not punish for their criminal and abusive behavior. It was standard vigilantism with a patina of “we tried to play by the rules but that didn’t work.”

What I learned as I started reading other books, and most of those didn’t have pictures, is that systems, and the laws around those systems, are often manipulated by one side or the other for their own advantage. The poor system is just trying to maintain some sense of order, but people keep going around it, or ignoring it, or gerrymandering its boundaries so that it no longer provides any sense of confidence that the center of the system can hold. It’s like we are standing in mid-air trying to go in all directions at once. It’s a very disconcerting place to be.

This is what led me to religion, and specifically Jesus of Nazareth on the cross, and how God responds to such events. What do you do when you’ve been betrayed? When the very systems you thought would protect you instead crucify you? What do you do when the ideas, thoughts, people, even yourself that you thought you could always count on, no longer can be counted upon to help? What do you do?

You just love.  There is nothing else in that situation. That’s the difference between Jesus of Nazareth and Daredevil. When the system failed Jesus he did not become some super-hero trying to bring about justice. He accepted his failure to receive justice in the system, and continued to love, even those who betrayed him. As Daredevil discovers it is not easy to accept failure within a system of justice, and even harder to love. It’s easier to put on a mask and start lashing out in pain, in frustration, and a sense of “fairness.” 

But that’s not what Jesus did. He loved. He died…but he loved. And I’ve always wondered if love, not justice, is what made the difference?