I’m reading a book right now in which the main character is trying to establish a society. This is his second attempt. Last time he feels that he failed since when it came to the institution of justice, he allowed a friend of his to kill the one who had wronged him. That man was a murderer, and much more. He needed to die. But by letting his friend do it out of revenge, he sullied the impartial nature of justice and showed everyone that vengeance is something that may be pursued justly.

That society betrayed him once someone felt he had wronged them. Since he showed that justice was to claim vengeance, that eventually turned on him. So now at his second attempt he has another group of followers who are looking to him as their leader, yet again someone has done something heinous! This man also deserves to die. This time however the offended party does not wish for anything to be done. The protagonist considers his options, if he harshly punishes the evildoes then he isolates him and all his clique. If he administers no justice the he feels morally wrong, and he will likely lose members of the offended party, even though the specific harmed individual asks for no recompense.

So what does he do?! Well he does something radical! He calls up the guilty and the victim, then he asks the victim what punishment she sees fit, she says nothing. He aknowledges her goodness and forgiveness but for society there must be consequences. So he requires that the guilty suffers 20 lashes. This angers the lackeys of the guilty. But after the punishment of the guilty is done he steps forward and proclaims “The blame for these deeds lies on you, but I am your commander. I bear the blame for the misdeeds of my followers. I will take 25 lashes, and you will administer them. You were going to harm one of my followers. Harming my followers is harming me! So do it!” He then proceeds to take a few lashes from the bloodied fellow before declaring that he is too weak from the lashing for it to matter. So he orders the largest man in the crowd to whip him. He takes all 25 lashes.

He takes accountability for those who are under him in two senses. Firstly, he points out that the guilty man was going to abuse one of the women of the camp in the dark of night and hide it! So it should be no difference to abuse another member of the camp in the daylight! If it was ok last night surely it’s ok now! To go after one of his followers is to go after him, and the whole camp. And secondly he takes the same and more punishment since the misdeed happened under his watch, one of his subordinates perpetrated it, so he has failed as a leader.

I was shocked when it happened! I think I literally gasped while reading. I was then annoyed and disgusted! Why should this good man suffer because a bad man did bad things! I started thinking about it and I thought that it was kind of ridiculous! That could never work in the real world! Bad men could then do bad stuff just to get to beat the good leader! I started trying to think if anyone had ever attempted that kind of leadership and I pretty much came up blank! But then I realized that Jesus did the exact same thing! For us, on the cross. He, a PERFECT man, took the punishment for us. Took accountability for us! He took the place of the victim, suffering the pain, the sadness, and the shame. And He took the place of the guilty, suffering the punishment, the condemnation, and the exile!

And here I am 2000 years later, still loving and serving that wonderful Man! I guess it does work in real life!

So then I looked at it a little bit more closely and considered the implications. Can you imagine what the world would be like if all managers took paycuts whenever their subordinates failed? What if politicians got fired if crime rates rose, or if education levels fell? What if parents were fined along with their children for speeding?

It’s not a perfect solution, and obviously there would need to be some restrictions, but it’s easily better than no accountability, which is how our current system feels sometimes!

Most militaries know this system and have very strong accountability set up. When in basic training the whole squad fails or passes together. If you have someone in your squad who is bad at making his bed then you help him because he will cause you all to fail if he is left alone! Once you have some men under you, they are your responsibility. If one of them doesn’t show up to formation you are the first person that they go to and reprimand.