The tragedy in Charleston once again gives us reason to pray for God’s Kingdom to come as we see in the Kingdom-Vision of Jesus that racism and bigotry will be one day be gone forever when the human race is unified around Jesus (see Revelation 5:9 and 7:9).
However, today we live in the “not yet” aspect of the Kingdom—left to mourn for the loss of life and ponder the evil that once again has risen from the human heart. But it is the Kingdom-Vision of Jesus that offers hope and a path forward.
The Kingdom-Vision of Jesus is more than individual salvation and includes racial reconciliation.
Jesus died to launch a community where the only race we see is the human race and what we share in Christ surpasses all our differences. This is the dream society Jesus created when He died and then commissioned His followers to help enact when He said to “make disciples of all ‘ethnic groups’” (Matthew 28:19-20).
Part of being His disciple is to live “a brand new kind of life that is continually learning more and more of what is right, and trying constantly to be more and more like Christ who created this new life within you. In this new life one’s nationality, race, education or social position is unimportant; such things mean nothing. Whether a person has Christ is what matters, and he is equally available to all” (Colossians 3:9-11, TLB). In other words, who we are in Christ means more than who we are by race, ethnicity, nationality or economic status.
We must realize that what Jesus did on the Cross was not merely about our individual salvation but also about a new community that is practicing intercultural and interracial reconciliation. This is where God is taking the human race and we co-labor with Him for that purpose. Therefore, we must be ashamed of racism in our past, repudiate it in our present, and work against it in the future we are moving toward in Christ.
In the Kingdom-Vision of Jesus, we must be committed to honor.
Christ-followers are committed to honoring one another ahead of and beyond ourselves. In fact, Paul calls us to “outdo” one another in showing honor (Romans 12:10).
Take for example, the issue of flying the Confederate flag. I understand the case for history and heritage but the biblically-informed response is that honor should trump both history and heritage. We, especially white Christians, must recognize how this flag dishonors our black brothers and sisters. Additionally, the history of this flag is at odds with the values of Jesus’ Kingdom-Vision. For more on the history of the Confederate flag from a Christian perspective, please read Russell Moore’s blog.
The Kingdom-Vision of Jesus starts with forgiveness.
When the family members of the slain entered the courtroom to forgive the murderer of their loved one, people across America were amazed and astounded. Christ-followers know that Jesus was present. Forgiveness is the starting point for any reconciliation. Where did the members of Charleston AME church get this capacity to forgive? They got it from the One who forgave them—Jesus Christ. As Martin Luther King, Jr said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
This is why the ultimate solution to racism is Jesus Christ crucified, buried, and raised from the dead. From in Christ we are given a new vision of what it means to be human and are taught a new way to live, to be, to relate and to respond to tragedy. The world saw a glimpse of this vision in the forgiveness given to a murderer, and the world was speechless, in awe of such amazing grace and such a radical response to evil. This is why we as Christians must be committed to being “salt and light”, allowing the light of Christ to shine from our churches and in our responses to the woes and tragedies of this world. This is why our prayers matter, our witness matters, our work for justice matters, and our presence in the world matters. This is why we pray, “Your will be done on earth as it in heaven” and why, while we are on earth, we co-labor with God through His Spirit to answer that very prayer.
