A Biblical View on “Black Lives Matter” and Immigration
There has recently been a resurgence of the idea of human dignity, specifically touching on the lives of African Americans, Hispanics, and foreign refugees. America has had a longstanding creed that all are created equal, and deserve equal and just treatment. This country also has a long history of reneging on the promise of equality and justice for all.
Let’s face it: all are not treated equally in this country, whether it is the disproportionate imprisonment of African Americans for nonviolent crimes, or people limiting the worth of our Hispanic brothers and sisters. In this article, I will attempt to show how the “Black Lives Matter” movement, and allowing immigrants in this country, whether Hispanic or Syrian, is Biblical.
Who Are the Harassed and Helpless?
Matthew 9:36 reads, “When he Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
Let’s break this verse down. First, it says Jesus had compassion on the crowd because they were harassed and helpless. If anyone has been harassed and helpless in this country, it would be the African-American community.
From slavery, to Jim Crow, to mass incarceration, to over-policing, the African-American community has been harassed, then helpless. When you put half of the black men in prison, flood the community with drugs, shut down schools and put in title loans, cash advance institutions, unhealthy grocery stores, and liquor stores, you are hurting it.
Then, when the only solution is government programming that is opposed to educational and financial empowerment, you’re putting kerosene on the fire. Then add the employment gap caused by poor educational resources and just pure institutional and systematic racism. If you don’t believe any of this, just spend three days in an inner-city, African-American community. I know the Hispanic community face some of the same problems.
Who Are the Sheep without a Shepherd?
Immigrants trying to enter the country face some of the same problems; they are in the category of sheep without shepherds. This means their leaders have failed them. Their leaders have thrown them to the wolves of life. When we look at Mexico or Syria (obviously, there are more immigrants from other countries, but these two people groups are the hot topics in 2015), we see a blatant failure in leadership.
On one hand, we have a country overrun by drug cartels and sex trafficking. On the other hand, we have a leader in Bashar al-Assad who kills his own people on television, with no apologies. Those are leaders who have failed their people.
How Should I respond As a Christian?
Here is where we come in as Christians. When Jesus saw these things in his day, he had compassion on the people. Today I see those who are supposed to be Christians either reacting by supporting a man who wants to build a wall to keep the Mexicans out and has vowed to send the Syrians back, or by just being completely silent on the issue. I see people reacting by saying that “all lives matter” in response to the “Black Lives Matter” movement.
Newsflash: Jesus would be saying, “Black lives matter.” How do I know? From the parable of the Good Samaritan and the interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well. In those passages, Jesus is telling Jewish people Samaritan lives matter. He had compassion on the harassed and helpless.
Jesus would let the immigrants in. How do I know? After Matthew 9:37-38, Jesus tells his disciples that he is the shepherd to every lost sheep. He seeks to lead those who have been left or mistreated by their leadership. Thus, he doesn’t wait for people to follow him (which was the traditional Jewish way of rabbi and student relationships) but instead says “Look, you need a Savior, so follow me.”
Follow and Imitate Jesus, Not The Politicians.
I don’t see compassion from the evangelical Christian community. Sadly, I see them being annoyed with ideas such as the “Black Lives Matter” movement, and the reality of immigration in the U.S. The worst part is some who are African-American and Hispanic in the evangelical Christian community feel like they have to “sell out” their own in order to assimilate into majority culture.
Jesus had compassion on the harassed, helpless, and those abandoned by their leaders. If we are truly followers of Jesus, we need to follow that example , not the opinions and ideologies of politicians, either conservative or liberal.
K.A.K.{¥} 2015
Regarding, “Black Lives Matter”…
I will never fully comprehend the depth of pain, experienced by generations of Africans in The World. I do know there’s a point and time, where a person must
Learn to grow and change, that which caused such great pain for their forefathers and themselves. If life doesn’t seem fair, learn how to change it without estranging others, education is one of a persons greatest strengths in this world.
Remember the saying, “Knowledge is Power”? As in all things, we must learn to change for the better, not the worse.
“Giving each other love, understanding, acceptance, forgiveness, dignity and respect matters more”
Gabriel
Spot on Bill!
As a young Black Reformed guy, I’m becoming more concerned about the direction of RAAN when it comes to these matters because this is not the first article in which questionable exegesis with a tendency towards liberation theology has appeared. I have many questions regarding the exegesis given here, but I wonder if this type of analysis could be used to defend cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith, such as justification, the trinity, and the hypostatic union.
As a whole, the recent news events regarding social justice has brought political/public theology to the forefront. Instead of doing short form articles like this, maybe RAAN can switch to long-form style journalism so that we can see the full scope of the cultural and historical exegesis that warrants such a novel interpretation of this text. More importantly, it would give time for the author to describe how his view of public theology is similar to and different than the public theology held by liberation theologians. Perhaps if this is done, then we can have a more substantive dialogue with appropriate critique.
If it is true that we should “do theology” from our unique cultural position, then we should willing to open ourselves up, as young Black Reformed men, to doing an exhaustive exposition on our public theology. After that, we can discuss the basis of statements like this:
“From slavery, to Jim Crow, to mass incarceration, to over-policing, the African-American community has been harassed, then helpless. When you put half of the black men in prison, flood the community with drugs, shut down schools and put in title loans, cash advance institutions, unhealthy grocery stores, and liquor stores, you are hurting it.”
G Jackson
I am a senior citizen of African descent, whose fore fathers were slaves in this country. By God’s amazing grace, I was saved in 1976 and have experienced and seen a lot.
I think I shall never cease to be amazed at the new and clever ways mankind can find to hang onto victim status, declare themselves damaged in so many ways, but can never use that same energy to overcome. And if anyone attempts to offer a way that might make any type of significant change, it’s like trying to save a drowning person who will not stop flailing their arms or kicking. Slavery was and is horrific to be sure. Not trying minimize it in any way or the affects of it.
Now we need to take the teachings of Jesus and make them relevant to our victimization in order to cause believers to embrace social justice issues that only the preaching of the gospel and the affirmative response to the gospel with a faith in Him who suffered and died to deliver us from our self-inflicted victimization by disobeying God, because of which, we were justly cursed and cast out. That curse placed man in the bondage of darkness, death, sin, and without repentance, hell.
What does the curse look like? Blindness, rebellion, idolatry, indifference, selfishness, selfcenteredness, lying, murder, bigotry, prejudice, etc..
Jesus was moved by the hold of the curse over His creation, the harrassment, the scattering & devouring, the hellish treatment that the devil was exercising everyday over His creation. He knew what He had to do to set them free. But He also knew that most would reject Him thereby remaining in bondage, and would try to work out ways to live, prosper and get into heaven, without Him.
In God’s heart all lives matter, equally valuable enough to sacrifice the life of His holy and perfect Son. Prejudice and bigotry?? All part of satan’s plan to divide “the house”. Jesus Is The Answer!
Tyshan
I like this. Im currently studying the book of Exodus and the law is so clear on how we should treat orphans, widows, sojourners and foreigners and I havent seen the body do a good job of it at all….maybe because we are ill informed and making decisions from personal preference instead of the Bible.
Bill Smith
http://justacurmudgeon.blogspot.com/2015/10/black-lives-dont-matter-to-jesus-that.html
Jeremy williams
Without going through a whole historical and cultural exegesis the passage is about having compassion on those were being mistreated void of leadership. Yes there is a spiritual component to that but there’s also a cultural responsibility that we have as Jesus followers to take up for those who are literally harassed helpless and without leadership. Jesus had a holistic ministry. We know this because of his interactions with those who were not only spirituality in need of help, but also those who were thought of as less than ( Samaritans money changers aka sinners). To say it’s only spiritual is to cop out on our social responsibility to those who are literally harassed, helpless, and mistreated by their leadership. If you can’t see the need for compassion on black lives matter and immigration then you miss the point. Lastly compassion is an action word. Don’t just feel sorry do something to change the situation as Jesus did with his disciples.
Bill Smiht
Matthew 9:36 reads, “When he Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”
Let’s break this verse down. First, it says Jesus had compassion on the crowd because they were harassed and helpless. If anyone has been harassed and helpless in this country, it would be the African-American community
Immigrants trying to enter the country face some of the same problems; they are in the category of sheep without shepherds. This means their leaders have failed them. Their leaders have thrown them to the wolves of life. When we look at Mexico or Syria (obviously, there are more immigrants from other countries, but these two people groups are the hot topics in 2015), we see a blatant failure in leadership.
I feel sure the author does not really embrace liberation theology, but the the view that Blacks and Immigrants are the harassed and helpless of which Jesus was thinking, is typical of liberation theology. More serious is that the text is not understood and therefore misused.
Jesus was watching the people and move with compassion for them because he saw their true spiritual condition. They were lost, Their scribes and priests and rabbis and synagogue leaders had failed to lead them to saving truth.
So what did he do? He put his disciples to prayer for God to send laborers into this spiritual harvest. And he commissioned and sent them out to be as it were the first wave of laborers.
This is not a case of “both and” interpretation. The text means something, and it does not mean what the author of the article says it means, This is a bogus kind of theology cut loose from sound contextual exegesis of the text. The text has not one thing to do with Black Lives Matter.