(ThyBlackMan.com) Today, as the nation pauses to honor the late humanitarian and civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I am forced to return to the life and legacy of Jesus Christ, whose struggle for peace and justice was not unlike that of Dr. King in the twentieth century.
Indeed, there are more similarities than not between the times in which both lived: a disparate political system bent on subjugating the least; an inexorable “government shutdown” that saw people relegated to the bottom rungs of society; a caste system which pitted the haves against the have-nots. Yet perhaps the most troubling of realities present then – and now – was the religious institutions that remained aloof and distant from the needs of the disinherited.
That Jesus was opposed to the deafening silence of what constituted the religious authority to the plight of the poor (as there was no organized “church” in that time) and that there was a palpable absence of advocacy is evident in the words He spoke in announcing his public ministry:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim good news for the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to set the oppressed free. (Luke 4: 18, NIV)
This declaration is as striking as it is self-evident; and this is what Jesus and Dr. King stood, and ultimately died, for.
It is unfortunate that their mission and method has been, in a sense, “sanitized” or watered down to neutralize its radical aspect.
In almost every commercial endorsement of Dr. King’s legacy, we hear only of his “I Have a Dream” speech; filling the airwaves and social media from entrenched positions both on the left and right of the American body politic.
Dr. King was much deeper than a dream.
Indeed, in the year before his assassination, Dr. King often deplored the travesty of a political system that kept not just blacks, but Mexicans, poor Whites, Native Americans and others at the bottom of the social order. In fact, Dr. King was preparing to launch the “Poor Peoples” Campaign as a way of calling for a radical redistribution of America’s wealth.
Being born into the wrenching and life-draining poverty of his day, Jesus Christ saw up close and personal the misery his people suffered at the hands of the institutions that governed them. He often railed against the injustices and even dared to confront merchants in the Temple whom he saw as the caretakers of institututionalized injustice.
Both Dr. King and Jesus Christ stood in the prophetic tradition, railing against inequities as they were and demanding, like Amos, that “justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. (Amos 5:24, NIV).
Both of their messages were radical, and both messengers were visionary, transformative and action-oriented. Ultimately, their ideas were intended to uproot injustice and make change happen.
We must wonder if the change Dr. King and Jesus demanded has come and gone. We must wonder if the instititutions or movements they led have become silent co-conspirators of the carnage it was intended to eviscerate.
“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, What are you doing for others?” King once said to an audience in Montgomery, Alabama in 1957.
Jesus said, “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me…(Matthew 25: 31, NIV)
If Jesus were King, we would not turn a deaf ear to things as they are and would act to bring about the beloved community both stood for.
Staff Writer; W. Eric Croomes
This talented brother is a holistic lifestyle exercise expert and founder and executive coach of Infinite Strategies LLC, a multi-level coaching firm that develops and executes strategies for fitness training, youth achievement and lifestyle management. Eric is an author, fitness professional, holistic life coach and motivational speaker.
In October 2015, Eric released Life’s A Gym: Seven Fitness Principles to Get the Best of Both, which shows readers how to use exercise to attract a feeling of wellness, success and freedom (Infinite Strategies Coaching LLC, 2015) – http://www.infinitestrategiescoaching.com.
