Justice Delayed

by Chris Mereschuk | published on Nov 24, 2025

Discussion Questions 

  1. Read Revelation 21:1-8. Then read the devotional, “Justice Delayed?” 
  1. What do you believe about punishment and reward in the afterlife? 
  1. How is God calling you to demand justice for the oppressed and to call oppressors to accountability here and now? 
  1. How do you contend with events and insights that shake your long-held beliefs? 

Devotional 

[Then the one who was seated on the throne said,] “To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God, and they will be my children. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murderers, the sexual exploiters, the charlatans, the idolaters, and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” – Revelation 21:6b-8 (NRSVUE, adapted) 

Lately I’m thinking about heaven and hell. From what I hear in the news, I’m not the only one. Years ago I set aside the idea of reward and punishment in the afterlife, believing we make our own heaven and hell in this mortal life. Now beset by great cognitive and spiritual dissonance, and not a little righteous indignation, I want bad things to happen to bad people. And if they escape earthly accountability, I want them to swim in the eternal lake of fire.  

But the more I believe this, the more I’m creating my own spiritual hell on earth. And the more I burn with wrathful rage, the closer I’m treading to that sulfuric shoreline myself.   

Delaying justice until after death shirks our present responsibility to alleviate the suffering of the oppressed and silences the call for the oppressor to repent. And despite the allure of divine vengeance, something tells me God desires earthly redemption more than eternal damnation. We might have hopes and beliefs about what will happen in the hereafter. Until then, we’re called to make God’s love and justice real in the here and now. 

Prayer
Eternal One: Turn us away from desiring hell for others. Turn us towards making life on earth as it is in heaven for all. Amen.

Chris MereschukAbout the Author
Chris Mereschuk (He/Him) is the Director for Legacy and Church Redevelopment for the Southern New England Conference, UCC.