Justicia Par Yuri!: Rise Up and Engage Injustice

It was 10 p.m. Thursday night. In the crowded bus depot I sat quietly, preparing to lull myself to sleep once I boarded the bus - an attempt that would prove futile. It would be a dark, airless, waterless, 8 hour climb up to 15,000 feet and back down again as we traveled from the Andean city of Huánuco, Peru back to the sprawling capital of Lima.

As I looked into the crowd, I saw that Yuri's family had arrived. Yuri's mother would be coming with us to Lima. As I looked at Yuri's brother and father, I felt speechless. I couldn't help but stare at Yuri's father's eyes. Even as his body stood tall and strong, his eyes were so worn. His eyes carried the profound grief of life-shattering injustice.

This father's 8-year-old daughter Yuri was raped, then murdered by being thrown from a building. The police then "misplaced" basic forensic evidence and abandoned her case.

I find it hard to comprehend what it must be like to have one's life pervasively marred by injustice. Injustice is a vague term for those of us who rarely experience it in our protected lives - the machineries of power are more often on our side than against us. But injustice is a daily reality for Yuri's family. They know all too well that injustice is an abuse of power, where someone with more power takes from someone with less power. And it is not the frivolities and luxuries of life that are taken from the vulnerable, but rather the basics - freedom, dignity, and life itself.

Unbearable
I could hardly sleep that week. The jarring facts of Yuri's case - the quiet, desperate pleading of Yuri's mother as she passed around graphic photos from the scene of the rape and murder; the sunken eyes of Yuri's father, dejected in his inability to protect his defiled and dead daughter - swirled in my heart and mind. I found myself hinging on utter despondence.

I thought back to Cambodia, and the corridors of Tou Sleng Prison. This prison once served as a holding place for torturing innocent Cambodian citizens before they were taken to the killing fields and slaughtered. As I wandered the corridors and empty cells, I came to a scribbling on the wall. Barely legible, it read, "The pain of man's inhumanity to man is unbearable." Underneath someone had taken a sharp object and literally scraped into the wall the phrase "Bear Witness."

I often think about that writing on the wall. I think about it when I get lost in the dark corridors of my mind, corridors that lead me to places of broken-hearted fear and despondency. And I think that, on one level, the writing on that wall is right on. When and if we begin to open ourselves to see inhumanity and injustice around the globe, "man's inhumanity to man" becomes crushing. Often paralyzing. And, at worst, numbing.

And yet I think that God asks us, as those made in his image, to let ourselves be drawn into the pain of suffering and violence. To let it break our hearts. Even to lead others to these places of pain. We are called to "bear witness." But our witness should not end with observation. We are called to live as those who, in the midst of the unbearableness of the pain, do not shrink back but rather rise up. We are called to rise up, engage injustice, take "the pain of man's inhumanity to man," and bring it to the foot of the cross. Jesus Himself promises that He will redeem all things, that He will make all things new.

Even rape and murder and corruption.

But I wonder if we actually believe this?

Aroma or Stench?
Do we believe that justice is central to the heart of God? Do we believe that God desires for justice to be one of the central focuses of the Church's identity and mission? Do we believe that justice is an essential pursuit for all those who follow Jesus? Do we believe that we personally are called to do justice? Do we believe that we are called to lead others into a lifestyle of justice? Or do we believe that justice is a niche for some to pursue and others to observe?

The truth is if our lives do not include the pursuit of justice, all of our other efforts to worship God become foul stench. We literally stink in his presence.

In descriptions of sacrificial offering in the Hebrew scriptures, the Law states that the burning will create "an aroma pleasing to the Lord." Thirty-nine times this phrase appears in the scriptures. But there are two scenarios when the sacrificial aroma becomes an abhorrence to the Lord. In Leviticus 26, this is due to the people's unrelenting idol worship. In Isaiah, it is from the absence of justice.

Throughout Isaiah it is clear that even as God's people are worshipping according to the Law, they are neglecting what Jesus calls "the weightier matters of the Law" (Matthew 23:23 NIV). More specifically, they are neglecting justice. God cries out to His people, saying, "Stop doing wrong. Learn to do right." And then He immediately defines what is right in His eyes: "Seek justice, rescue the oppressed. Defend the orphan, plead for the widow."(Isaiah 1:17 NIV)

Whenever the aroma of sacrifice has not been pleasing to the Lord, it has not been a matter of neglected acts of worship, but rather a matter of the mind and heart. Isaiah laments to us, "Your whole head is injured, your whole heart afflicted. From the sole of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness - only wounds and welts and open sores, not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with oil. - Wash and make yourselves clean."(Isaiah 1:5-6, 16 NIV)

Learn To Do Right
How do we come before the Lord with a pure heart and a healed mind that desires justice, that lives a life of bringing justice to others? How do we escape from understanding justice as a niche ministry to be done by the brave and marginal few and bring it into our whole heads, our whole hearts, our whole lives?

The pursuit of justice involves first a constant intent to "learn to do right." We learn first by reading scripture with new eyes, absorbing its continual call to justice. We need to lay a firm foundation of biblical justice on which our lives and leadership can stand. While there are 39 scripture references to the pleasing aroma of burnt sacrifices, the 40th reference is to the melding of our lives with Jesus' life. Paul tells us in II Corinthians that "we are to God the aroma of Christ" (2:15 NIV). Growing into a heart, mind, and whole life of justice is a matter of living our identity in Jesus. It is an issue of discipleship - "learning" from how Jesus lives.

How does Jesus live? What is his identity? His aroma? Jesus himself made it clear to us: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed." (Luke 4:18 NIV)

Learning also comes simply and necessarily by diving in, by going to places where systems of justice are broken, and by spending time with the people who lives are broken as a result. We need only ask God to open our eyes and lead us where He wants us to go. Is there a place in your community or in the world you've always wondered about? Go to that place. Protect the vulnerable. Look for ways to intervene in the abuses of power. Go with the intent to lead others in mapping territory for the work of justice. Figure out how justice systems are broken, listen to those who are victimized by injustice, and ask God for a plan to make an impact.

If this feels daunting, think of the brilliant victories of history. There may be 27 million slaves in the world today, but 150 years ago slavery was abolished in our own country. In the past year IJM has seen hundreds of slaves rescued in other nations. Hundreds quickly turn to millions and finally to total abolition as perpetrators begin to see that they are being held accountable. There may be a million women and girls newly trafficked into forced prostitution each year, but in the past few weeks dozens of these women and children were rescued; their brothel owners and traffickers prosecuted, ending the cycle of oppression. Red-light districts are shrinking and sex tourist towns disappearing as accountability rises.

The Church needs only to live her identity - to show up and see how God will work through us.

As we grow in conviction that justice is central to our calling as followers of Jesus, we will need to increasingly understand justice itself as a spiritual discipline. Justice work can all too easily look like a firecracker - even if we explode with conviction, excitement quickly dies, and with it, commitment. We must daily ask God for the perseverance to move forward. We must continue to stare injustice in the face, get up under it and carry it forward to the foot of the cross. It is a work that can be carried as we ourselves are carried by the Holy Spirit.

Recalibrating the Scales
International Justice Mission's (IJM) casework partner in Peru has an attorney named Roberto.* Roberto knows that when cases such as Yuri's are overlooked and forgotten on the individual scale, injustice on the systemic scale flourishes. But if you pursue even one case of unprosecuted rape, land seizure, illegal detention, slavery or sex trafficking among the millions, the scales of injustice begin to recalibrate. Those who assumed they had no accountability begin to realize that others are paying attention. Corruption becomes more costly. And so Roberto took Yuri's case, and the entire staff threw themselves into seeking "justicia para Yuri - justicia para Yuri" (the chanting of the crowd still rings in my head). They plastered the town with the details of the injustice done to Yuri. They made the vague clear. They brought words to the unspeakable.

Yuri's perpetrators were finally brought to trial. In a pre-meeting with the supreme court judges, we were told that the poor rarely receive justice. The trial resulted in the full acquittal of the two men who had the most influence and means and the conviction of a boy who had no means, no influence and little evidence against him. Leaving the jail compound, we found ourselves driving alongside a red truck carrying not only the supreme court justices, but also the "defense" attorney. Two days later, Yuri's mother said goodbye to her husband and son and boarded a bus with us to make the long overnight trip to Lima.

Our small band of lawyers, social workers, Yuri's mother, and volunteers from various churches arrived in Lima at 6 a.m., showered, drank some coffee, put on our best suits, and mounted the steps of the Peruvian National Congress. Press conferences, meetings with congressmen and news broadcasting that day would bring Yuri's case out of the shadows of a small city and into the Peruvian limelight. Unprecedented defense of the poor would gain attention throughout the nation, setting a mark, laying the claim that the voiceless will be given a voice.

Yuri may be gone, and her trial still in appeals, but persevering against injustice is a testimony to the love God Himself gives to us. It is a work of bearing witness - not to inhumanity as a final reality, but to Jesus' power to rescue, to heal, and to make all things new.

May we cleanse ourselves of broken-hearted fear and daily ask God to make us His people who are marked and moved instead by broken-hearted courage. May we be an aroma pleasing to the Lord.

* To conceal their identities and safeguard ongoing IJM casework, we have used pseudonyms for particular individuals mentioned here, though the stories themselves are real. Actual names and casework are on file with IJM.

International Justice Mission is a human rights agency that rescues victims of violence, sexual exploitation, slavery, and oppression. For more information and to mobilize, go to www.ijm.org.

No Comments »

Nobody has shared their thoughts about this article yet. Be the first by filling out the form below and joining in the conversation!

Sorry, but commenting is no longer available for this post.