True Justice?
20 minutes
Ask: What is justice and who has the right to decide what justice looks like? Discuss the answers for a few minutes – you may want to split into smaller groups for this.
Split a whiteboard or flipchart down the middle and ask your young people to write up a Buzzfeed-style list of ten times where they think the human race has been awesome and ten times they think the human race has been awful.
Ask: Do you think other people may have drawn up a different list of awesome and awful human activities? What about teenagers in other countries? Would they have put things we think are awesome on the awful list or the other way around? How about people in other times during history? What do you think they would have put differently? Review the lists and reflect on the differences.
Discuss together the idea that given that people disagree so fundamentally (refer to issues and disputes your young people have just mentioned), how can there be real justice which is able to correctly judge what is right for all times, all places and all people?
Key Point 1
We all want justice but each of us has a different idea of what that would look like. We need someone who can judge justly.
The Man Of Steel or The Dark Knight?
20 minutes
Watch the trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – you can find it here. Draw (or ask a young person to draw) a Superman logo and a Batman logo at the top of the Buzzfeed-style lists. Use the Superman logo for the list of awesome human activities and the Batman one for awful human activities.
Say: Gotham’s Bat and the son of Krypton represent two different ways of looking at justice, which, in turn, are based on two different ways to understand human beings. We could compare Superman’s convictions about the goodness of government with Batman’s belief that the people need protecting from those who are corrupt. They argue over the role of government, the media and the rights and responsibilities of individuals (or vigilantes!) to seek justice. Lex Luthor, Superman’s arch-nemesis, says, ‘The oldest lie in America is that power can be innocent’. This reveals the ultimate question: who can be trusted with the power to judge justly?
Discuss the idea that two ‘good guys’ are pitted against each other (and will later be united, along with Wonder Woman, in the Justice League). We’re asked to consider: who is right? Captain America: Civil War asks a similar question within the Marvel Universe.
Ask: Is Superman correct to believe that elected officials and those in power will do what is right? Or is Batman right that individuals should take matters into their own hands?
Say: These Batman / Superman stories usually leave the question hanging because eventually a proper ‘bad guy’ shows up, providing the common enemy who forces them to work together.
Key Point 2
Batman and Superman provide us with two different approaches as to how we can get true justice. Some of us will veer towards Superman’s beliefs and others toward Batman’s views. But even here, how can we know who is right?
What can the Bible teach us about justice?
15 minutes
Read Acts 17:31 together and explain that this verse is said by the apostle Paul when he visits Athens. He’s speaking to a range of people who spent their time, ‘Doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas’ (17:21). Paul is telling them that they need to take the person of Jesus into account. When it comes to justice, God has said that he will, ‘Judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed’. This man is neither Clark Kent nor Bruce Wayne, but Jesus. In light of this, God, ‘Commands all people everywhere to repent’.
Ask: How does it make you feel that Jesus will be the judge of the whole world? Focus first on the idea that any one person could be able to have this much power. Then ask if and how this person being Jesus changes our views. If anyone doubts that Jesus would be fit to judge, ask them what they know about him and why they think he would be a bad choice.
Key Point 3
Only Jesus, who lived a perfect life and was raised from the dead, is fit to judge the world and to show us what true justice looks like.
Discuss what Paul says is the ‘proof’ of Jesus being fit to judge: God raising Jesus from the dead. The implication here is that God considered Jesus holy or righteous, (truly just and able to judge rightly), see also Acts 2:27 (and Psalm 16:8-11).
Pray
5 minutes
Say: As we look at the world around us, we should neither be surprised by corruption, abuse or wrongdoing nor fear that injustice will last forever. Pray that God would give your young people confidence in the fact that Jesus will judge the whole world.
Nate Morgan Locke is the youth evangelist at Christianity Explored Ministries and serves on the staff team at St Bart’s Church, Bath. He has co-authored a number of resources for children, youth and adults.
