As we commemorate and lament the two-year anniversary of the killing of Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, Iâ??m reminded again of just how elusive justice is in our broken world. The actions of a single moment can be analyzed and critiqued and justifiedâ??and even punishedâ??for days and months and years following. But in the end a life is still destroyed. A family is still irreparably incomplete. The precise meaning of justice in the aftermath of such violence is hard to pinpoint. Punishment and reparations donâ??t bring back the dead or reconcile fractured communities.
Serving on the jury at a civil trial reminded me that we live in a world marred by contingency, finitude, mistakes, and transience. My fellow jurors and I experienced an ethical gravitas, convicted by the fact that justice eludes us in our fallen state. We were experiencing what Luther called the theological use of the law.
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