Seeing Jesus Better: What We Can Learn from Black History Month
Recently, I have been thinking about all the things happening in my life, the life of the Church, and the world around me. Snow is falling as I type this in my central Washington state home. Cold weather is also currently hitting southern American states with sheets of ice and snow leading to frozen pipes, power outages, and downed telephone lines that are hindering communication and basic needs. One thing is happening to me that creates a sense of beauty, wonder, and calming reflection while the same thing hits another group of people with a completely different experience of chaos, concern, and desperate action.
The Church has just launched into a 40-day observance of the Lenten season which marks a time of fasting, lamenting, and expanding of the community’s senses in preparation for Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday. This is an opportunity to remember and anticipate the fullness of Jesus’ gifts of atonement, justice, righteousness, and salvation to all who call on the name of the Lord. For some, this marks a deep time of personal mourning and emptying, and for others in the Church, it’s not even observed.
I can’t help but think of how certain events and practices can be so different for different people. The snowfall in Washington state is warmly welcomed (ironic that snow is warmly welcomed…) for the ski/snowboard community. While at the same time, I’ve heard from brothers and sisters working hard to get people basic access to water, power, and everyday needs after the winter storm rolled through Texas. Lent has historically been such a beautiful opportunity to reflect and enlarge one’s soul through practicing fasting and lament. It has also been highly discouraged in some Evangelical circles because of its liturgical ties and ultimately, because of negative views held toward the Roman Catholic Church.
It seems that our human race can’t make it very far without experiencing and participating in polarizing views, practices, and opinions. One such topic that is touched by divisive views is Black History Month. Black History Month is an annual celebration held by the US, UK, Canada, and other nations in remembrance of the achievements of black brothers and sisters throughout our collective history. For some, this month is a powerful time of honoring those who have gone before them and inspiration for how far we have come and the work still yet to be done in living in a better world. For others, this month is seen as racist for its focus on only one group of people, or as demoralizing because it’s only one month rather than a longer time of celebration, or as idol worship because of its elevation of certain members in history.
Regardless of the divisive views, I believe it is the responsibility of Christ-followers to carefully examine our lives, our experiences, and our world through the lens of Jesus, His Word, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit both personally and in community. I believe a deeper look at Black History Month, as well as many other hot topics today, can be helpful for the Church as we continue to love God, love people, make disciples, and seek first the Kingdom together.
As a white male, I don’t have the natural inclination to think about race. I didn’t grow up thinking about how my ethnic makeup would affect my status in school, sports, society, and the sanctuary where I worshipped. I’ve never had to worry about getting callbacks for jobs because of my name. I’ve only been talked to once about my hairdo, and that was by a football coach worried another player would grab my long hair. *Side note, I did have dreadlocks for a few years and had lots of white friends talk to me negatively about this decision or talk about my hair as something “different” or “other”.
Overall, I was raised to be “colorblind” and not see race, and I believe that was to my detriment. Whether I was in school, the church, or other places in society, I grew up seeing through the lens of others who did not see color, which ultimately meant they didn’t recognize the full weight of historical and current ethnic disparities.
All I learned in school history classes about black people and people of color was an incomplete history of slavery and racism marked with some very-well known events and heroes. I was taught about Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and George Washington Carver (who I was told invented peanut butter, but contributed so much more to our world). For other groups of people, such as Native Americans, I was pointed towards overarching stories that did not help provide the full picture of the disgusting history of the colonists and our ongoing history of discrimination against our indigenous brothers and sisters.
I was never taught about anything dealing with the Asian American experience except for a brief mention of internment camps in the World War II period. I didn’t learn much about my Latino brothers and sisters in the school setting except for the brief overviews of Spain, the Missions in California, and some history on Mexican-American relations. Overall, the best teachers I had as it pertained to race and ethnicity were either voices lauding stereotypes and racist views or complicit and silent voices not speaking up or not educated on the topic.
In the church I attended growing up, I never heard about racial disparity because we didn’t deal with it. I never questioned the blonde-hair, blue-eyed baby Jesus in the Nativity. I saw paintings of an Anglo-Saxon rendition of Christ on the cross and never thought otherwise. The first time I heard Gospel music was while watching Any Given Sunday in which Kirk Franklin and his choir serenaded my soul with worship that I desperately needed and to this day still love to sing and dance to! I’ve always loved poetry, especially spoken word, but had no idea that this came from the Harlem Renaissance period and was deeply tied to the voices of black brothers and sisters prophetically proclaiming freedom and hope in poetry. I just thought it was what the cool white kids at church camp did to impress people.
Going through undergraduate studies and seminary education, I always thought theologians like Saint Augustine or Athanasius were white guys even though both were from North Africa. I didn’t look at authors’ names for required books until they didn’t match the regular names on the list. And I didn’t even know there were theological fields of study such as Latino liberation theology, womanist theology, or Asian and African hermeneutics.
All of this to say, as a white male, observing things such as Black History Month reminds me that my views and the views of the dominant culture, although important and necessary, are not the only perspectives. Black historians, theologians, and voices, as well as other voices of people of color, awaken me from the unsettling aspects of only seeing Black history tied to slavery, or Native American history tied to ‘savagery’ and Thanksgiving, or having very little information about Latin American history in general. Black History Month and the voices of color around me remind me that there’s much for me to learn, there’s much for me to lament, and there’s much for me to live into as the Lord enlarges my capacity to love my neighbor as myself.
As I have jumped into more education, experienced a growing empathy for the people around me, and made efforts toward seeing the Church look like the one described in Revelation 7:9 (from every tribe, people, nation, and language), I have been encouraged by events like Black History Month to see Jesus and others better.
I am reminded that the God who took on flesh for all humanity took on flesh in the Middle East. In fact, I would go as far to say that the Jesus of the Scriptures was a brown, homeless man. And, I unapologetically declare today that I love and worship this Jesus! I don’t love Him simply based on His skin color or housing status, but I love the whole truth of Him that includes those attributes in His humanity and expands my heart to see His image in others and His love for others that don’t look like me.
I am reminded that if Jesus were to have come to earth throughout various points in history, I may or may not have been part of the groups that followed Him, heard His teachings, or witnessed His miraculous works. If He came in the civil rights era in the US, He might not have been baptized at the same location that I was allowed into based on skin color. If He asked for a drink of water, I’ve got to ask what drinking fountain would we have been at? If He came when Europeans crossed the Atlantic to seek religious freedom, would He have been invited to preach at their church?
I am reminded that the things I was taught about from other people like me might not always point to the full truth. Baby Jesus wasn’t blonde. The early Church and many important theologians throughout our history were people of color. I am reminded that the Kingdom of God looks far different than most of our churches and that should challenge us on how we love each other and invite each other deeper into connection with the Lord.
For me, Black History Month reminds me that each person is created in the image of God and because we are all image-bearers, we all carry incalculable value. That value has been revealed most thoroughly through the Gospel of Jesus. The Gospel states that God created everything good, humanity fell from this goodness in sin, and that Jesus of Nazareth, who is both God and man, died for this sin, was buried in accordance with its effects, and rose from the grave with resurrection power and the offer of eternal life and restored relationship for all who would call upon His name with faith (Gen. 1-3; 1 Cor. 15:1-6; Rms. 10:13; Jn. 3:16-17, 17:3).
In other words, by God’s grace, Black History Month and the voices of color around me teach me to see how the Gospel of Jesus has reached into even the most divisive of issues and calls me to receive and participate in His reconciling, Kingdom work on the earth. And this is the beauty of our Lord, that He would take the things that are so difficult for many to talk about and invite us into the artwork of His redemption through it.
Maybe it’s the snowfall, the season of Lent, or another hot topic issue in the world for you. Maybe it’s Black History Month and the conversation about race, ethnicity, and racism in the world. No matter what it is, I believe the Lord is inviting us to drop our lenses and perspectives and look through His viewpoint, Word, and opinion. I think as we do, we will see a more colorful outlook and be rooted more deeply in His Kingdom call. After all, His Word and vision is truth, and that truth will set us free (Jn. 8). In hopes of that freedom, the redemptive work of the Gospel, and of the Kingdom that is made up of every tribe, tongue, nation, and language, I write and pray. Amen.
