The law without heart or grace | Columns | somerset-kentucky.com - Commonwealth Journal's History
Rev. Norman Franklin
The Bible speaks to or references the heart some 771 times in the NKJV. The conditions of the heart and matters of the heart must be pretty important to God.
When Jesus bumped heads numerous times with the Pharisees about their strict but hypocritical adherence to the law, it was not to deny the need for the law or to condemn its practice. It was to show them their need to administer the law with mercy and grace. It was to emphasize the conditions of their hearts.
We witnessed a very troubling exercise of the law this past week at the Southern border. Thousands of Haitian migrants had amassed under a bridge on the U.S - Mexican border. They set up camp under the Del Rio International Bridge. News footage of mounted border patrol guards herding these humans was a cringeworthy moment. For African Americans and other people of color, it was an affront. The Border Patrol supervisor simply stated that the officers were just performing their duties according to the law. President Biden has promised to hold them accountable for their harsh treatment of the migrants. It remains to be seen how this latest atrocity at the Southern Border will play out.
There were health concerns. COVID-19 still rages in the underdeveloped countries; we have not yet subdued the virus increases here. But even under that concern, there certainly was a more humane way to subdue the migrant camp. Haiti is the most impoverish nation in the Western Hemisphere. The Haitian people have suffered through two major earthquakes since 2010, numerous hurricanes and destructive tropical storms. They were not armed with deadly weapons, only hope; they trekked miles strengthened in their hope of securing the abundance of life that America offers.
The images of Border Patrol agents on horseback and grabbing migrants conjures up unpleasant memories for African Americans. The Civil Rights Era and beyond are replete with those horrid images. This was an insensitive overreaction of law enforcement. Law and order without the heart of compassion.
The Pharisees in Jesus' day cared not that the man's hand was withered, that a lame man was made to walk or that a man blind from birth was made to see, the healing on the Sabbath broke the law. No heart, no compassion, no grace. These migrants came to our borders desperate for hope. They found the harsh retart of the law.
Shifting through the newspaper archives, we find these imaginary headlines in the Sagamore News Journal on November 12, 1620, "Samoset, chief shore patrol officer, leads assault against Pilgrim's Landing party". These had fled oppression, the restraint of religious freedom and poverty in Europe to look for hope and a better life on these shores.
The Native Americans were graciously repaid for their kindness. They are now a decimated peoples living in squalor, poverty, abuse and addictions on neglected reservations. I can't help but believe that there is a judgment coming, a day of accountability for the unjust things that we have done.
Our God is a just God, and a righteous Judge. He is wise, intentional and providential. The events of our times have purpose. In Ephesians 1:11, He said, " In Him also we have an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will."
Where is our heart America? We boast of our conservative rightness, our law and order stance, our guiding godly principles, but where is our hearts, where is the compassion, where is the love of mercy, justice and humility before our God?
"These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me." Matthew 15:8
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source: https://www.somerset-kentucky.com/opinion/columns/the-law-without-heart-or-grace/article_5064f60b-a942-5324-b2d3-757a8d14de31.html
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