In the past weeks, the furore the United States and reflected here in Australia for #Blacklivesmatter has reached all of us. Justice is right at the forefront of news commentary at present – I doubt there is a time I have heard the word ‘Justice’ more. And yet, the usual obfuscation of the message has taken seed, to help us seek solace in the cushions of debate and observation from afar.

 ‘The last will be first and the first will be last’ (Matthew 20:16) - this is how our good God sees our world. We can imagine a ‘line up’ at the end of time with all the tallies going on but this ‘first/last’ thing is happening all the time. God is calling ‘the last’ -those with earthly privilege to put down their tightly protected privilege and instead place themselves in company with the persecuted, to invite them to touch us and teach us. Jesus always invited the persecuted and afflicted in earthly matters, to touch him, physically and emotionally, and in his heavenly listening and connection with them, they were healed.

The gospels teach us that we can’t courageously lead until we have learned what we need to relinquish to meet the persecuted where they are; to allow their pain to change us and try our desperate human best to learn their stories, not just hear them. This is how our faith has always described healing; healing of the injustice requires the healing of the privileged. We can’t bear witness to Jesus’ justice, until we have first courageously encountered injustice like Jesus. There will be a cost. The reason the privileged are last is because they have something to learn.

Out of all the commentaries zooming around the web, these links are only pebbles in the ocean, but hopefully useful in your journey through these times.