Get Angry at Injustice

What do you consider to be the worst human trait?  Self-centeredness?  Arrogance?  Cruelty?  Impatience?  Self-righteousness?  Dishonesty? 

Rendered blind and deaf at nineteen months of age by an unknown illness, Helen Keller understood well the trials and tragedies of life, but as she contemplated the worst human trait, Helen Keller remarked, “Science may have found a cure for most evils, but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all—the apathy of human beings.”

The great scientific genius Albert Einstein agreed.  He commented, “The world won’t be destroyed by those that do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.” 

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines apathy as the “lack of feeling or emotion” or as the “lack of interest or concern.”  It comes from the Greek prefix a, meaning without,and the Greek word pathos, meaning emotion or feeling.  To be apathetic is to lack interest in or concern about something or someone.  “I couldn’t care less” is the rallying cry of apathy.

Apathetic is not the word to describe Nehemiah. 

Out of deep concern over the welfare of his homeland, Nehemiah petitioned the king of Persia to let him go to Jerusalem to rebuild the city.  When the builders he organized received threats from surrounding enemies, rather than giving up, Nehemiah armed half the workers with spears and appointed them to stand guard over those who were busy making repairs to the wall.  Suddenly, though, work came to a halt.  Nehemiah 5:1 reports, “Now there was a great outcry of the people and of their wives against their Jewish kin.” 

Dr. Luke Bobo explains that three distinct groups cried out for justice:

• “First group (5:2): Large families whose husbands and fathers or the primary breadwinners were attending to the wall for no pay.  This meant they had no time for their usual work to earn money to buy grain to feed their large families.  The first group’s problem was life-threatening; they were starving.
• “Second group (5:3): Some had to sell their assets or mortgage their fields, their vineyards, and their houses to acquire food or grain for their families.  This meant, sadly, that the second group was on a trajectory to insolvency.
• “Third group (5:4): Many had to borrow money from their Jewish brothers to pay the Persian king’s tax on their assets.  However, on top of this loan, the wealthy Jewish brothers were charging interest.  Property might be taken in a pledge pending repayment of a loan; however, taking interest from a fellow Israelite who borrowed out of poverty and need was a major no-no (Deuteronomy 23:19-20).  Some were so behind in paying their debt that they were selling their sons and daughters into debt-slavery.  While this practice was legal, it nonetheless hit these financially strapped families quite hard and simply added insult to injury.” (from “God-Fearers Respond to Economic Injustice Properly” in The Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation and Culture) 

Verse 1 reports that there was “a great outcry” from the people over what they were facing.    

The Hebrew word used here for “outcry” is ze’akah.  Ray Vander Laan explains the significance of this word: “Ze’akah, one of the most impassioned, power-filled words in Hebrew, communicates intense emotion.  Usually translated as ‘cry’ or ‘outcry,’ the depth of suffering that causes such a cry is not conveyed by English words.  Ze’akah implies a heart-wrenching, wailing; though there are no recognizable words, when you hear it you know what it is.  Such an outcry rises out of great pain, suffering, and despair caused not simply by impersonal suffering but by the brutality and cruelty of other people.  Scripture reveals that God never fails to hear ze-akah, and his response against those who cause it is frightening…. Nahum Sarna, the great Exodus scholar, notes, ‘Ze’akah is one of the most powerful words in the language.  Pervaded by moral outrage and soul-stirring passion, it denotes the anguished cry of the oppressed, the agonized pleas of the helpless victim.’” (Fire on the Mountain Discovery Guide, p. 107-108)

Verse 6 records Nehemiah’s un-apathetic response: “I was very angry when I heard their outcry.” 

If Nehemiah had been governed by apathy, he would have felt nothing, and he would have done nothing.  But because he was governed by the passionate care of God, he got angry, and he thought it over (verse 7), then he called together the leaders of the people, and he confronted them over the injustices going on.  He called for the immediate release of all the Jewish debt-slaves (verses 8-9), the end of usury against their fellow citizens (verse 10), and the restitution of fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses that were stripped from them through usury (verse 11). 

As with Nehemiah, God calls us to get angry at injustices that leave our fellow countrymen and women impoverished, disenfranchised or homeless.  Perhaps the prayer our country needs most desperately at this time is the Franciscan Benediction:

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.