Evading justice?

Slobodan Milosevic, called the “Butcher of the Balkans” by many, died recently before an international war crimes tribunal could convict him.

Some writers have said that he therefore escaped justice.

Today’s first reading (Isaiah 1:10, 16-20) says this:

But if ye refuse and rebel,
ye shall be devoured with the sword:
for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

It is not my place to judge the state of anyone’s soul – that judgment belongs to God – yet those who say that anyone can "escape justice" by dying are seriously mistaken.

Each and every one of us will be judged by God: no one can evade God’s justice and nothing we do or think can escape his scrutiny.

Indeed, no earthly tribunal can truly mete out justice except in an analogous sense or for very minor offenses. If a man is guilty of the deaths of thousands, how could any earthly sentence constitute justice? Only in eternity will the scales of justice be leveled out.

To be sure, the processes of earthly justice are valuable and necessary, but while one might be able to escape earthly justice, there is no escaping the justice of God.

And yet God is also infinitely merciful, and no matter what we have done, if we truly repent and call upon the Lord Jesus Christ, we will be saved.

Wash you, make you clean;
put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes;
Cease to do evil; Learn to do well;
Seek judgment, relieve the oppressed,
judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD:
though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool.

If ye be willing and obedient,
ye shall eat the good of the land:

But if ye refuse and rebel,
ye shall be devoured with the sword:
for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

Lord Jesus Christ, son of the living God, be merciful to me – a sinner.