Serving the Law | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: Serving the Law | Previous Challenge Entry
By Ken Grant
03/02/22
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Receiving that first notification in the mail was unnerving for the young man that I was. I was being summoned to do my duty as a citizen of the United States. It was my responsibility to fulfill and not just any service, but grand jury service in Los Angeles, California. It was big and I felt very small, but despite my misgivings I made the trip to the old Parker Center and joined a throng of others unsure what would happen next. The names were called, but mine was not one of them. I would not serve on a grand jury this time and haven’t since, but my obligation was not done. I was now required to do normal jury service and so it was off to the nearby federal court house and the endless process of choosing those who would serve on a jury would soon begin. It was the first time I had been in a court house and I felt it give off an air of intimidation. Here the law was king and those who flaunted it were required to pay the price for doing so. I was being invited to be part of that process and I had a unique mix of feelings as to whether I was up to the task of doing so.

The Bible has much to say about law. In fact, one of the central episodes in Israel’s history was when God gave his people the law through Moses and that memory remained with them through the generations. When Jesus came to live among his people, most of the disputes he had with the religious rulers was over the proper understanding of the law. The people of Jesus’ time understood their poor condition was due to their neglect of the law and so they were committed to following the law in excruciating detail. Unfortunately they too often focused on the letter of the law rather than its spirit and their interpretation of God’s law made it much more of a heavy weight than the means to know and understand God better. To understand the law properly it was necessary to see it through the eyes of the God who gave it.

Serving on a jury provides a unique look into the process by which the legal system attempts to provide justice; freeing the innocent and punishing the guilty. Those of us on the jury are consistently reminded that we are to make our verdict based solely on the evidence given to us and not using any outside source. It is the responsibility of the prosecutor to provide sufficient reason for the jury as a whole to find the defendant guilty. Like any human process, it is imperfect, but I grew to admire those who work every day to try to make the system as fair as possible for all involved. There is and always will be a tension between providing justice for those who have suffered loss and protecting the rights of the accused. I am proud of the times I have been part of what I considered a fair and considerate process.

We believe in a God who is the ultimate judge of everything that happens on the earth. We can be confident that while we strive for justice on earth and do all we can to try to achieve it that when we come up short that God will ultimately make all things right. This is why a fair justice system will err on the side of freeing the guilty rather than locking up the innocent. The pressure to close cases and identify the perpetrator must always be held at bay by the desire to find the right offender not just someone to make it all go away. A justice system that honors God will strive for the truth above everything else and I am proud that I have had the opportunity to be involved in just that during the trials in which I was a part.

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