Radical Reconciliation
by: T. Vaughn Walker - Nov 1, 2005 - comment
“From one man He has made every nation of men to live all over the earth. … ”
Acts 17:26
While Scripture is replete with accounts of reconciliation, the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ the Son that reconciles believers to God the Father is the ultimate example.
The Christian standard must be one that reflects the biblical standard. “What Would Jesus Do” (WWJD) is a somewhat overused but valuable slogan in Christian circles. As believers examine through Spirit-filled eyes the nature and patterns of Jesus’ actions and attitudes, we are compelled to acknowledge that His way was always the way of love, respect, affirmation, and ultimately reconciliation. In fact, Jesus would not accept the attitudes, beliefs, and practices of those who excluded, ignored, abused, or misused people simply because of race, class, or economic distinctions. Beggars and wealthy, Jew and Gentile, learned and unlearned, male and female, old and young, physically healthy and terminally ill, strong and weak, average citizen and royalty, publican (tax collector) and priest, Pharisee and Sadducee, fisherman and thief, leper and demon possessed, adulterer and widower, Samaritan and Corinthian, murderer and jailer—none was ignored, marginalized, overlooked, or considered not worthy for salvation in Jesus’ practice and the subsequent teaching of His disciples.
We must acknowledge that several of Jesus’ disciples had difficulties accepting and affirming those unlike themselves, but the Jesus way, the Christian way, demands a more excellent way. What is required is more than tolerance. Civilized people have been conditioned to tolerate almost anything. For several decades we have been bombarded with a secular philosophy of “let alone to get along.” For public order we are taught to accept others’ differences. The secular world has its own brand of tolerance for practically anything and everything, including sinfulness. This approach to life has resulted in a kind of tolerance for anything and everything much of which is detrimental to our people and surely at odds with the revealed word of God.
The Christian mandate is a much higher calling. We are not called to ignore that there are obvious differences among the Lord’s creation. In God, we are all of one blood. We all have the same parents, Adam and Eve. I have had individuals say to me with sincere intentions, “I don’t see any colors; all of us are the same”. Although I appreciate the spirit of the statement, I strongly disagree with it. When I see someone of another race, a part of what I observe is his or her racial distinction. To see the glorious handiwork of an awesome God is something about which we should marvel and offer praise. To affirm and understand that the Lord made no mistakes in creating the races is also to acknowledge that no one race is superior to another. The higher calling for the Christian is not to tolerate others from different races but to affirm the worth of all God’s creation.
Being truly in Christ means laying aside culturally learned and sinful biases and prejudices. The Apostle Paul was correct in writing to the Corinthian believers regarding controversy surrounding distinctions in the God-given spiritual gifts. Paul declared under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that there is a more excellent way, which also is the key to racial reconciliation issues. The key is only effective, however, when one has had a genuine conversion experience.
The Bible indicates that during Jesus’ earthly ministry many were very religious but showed no evidence of transformation of the heart. The Old Testament contains many accounts of religious people who were devoted to their beliefs but were not in tune with the ways and heart of Jehovah. We in our time recognize many who have been baptized in water, who have united with a local body of believers, who give financially to support the ministry, who actually serve their church in some capacity, but still hold onto prejudices and biases not in line with God’s Word. Only God, however, can judge who is authentically adopted into His family.
In First Corthinthians 13, Paul vividly describes the more excellent way:
“If I speak the languages of men and of angels, but do not have love, I am a sounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have [the gift of] prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so that I can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I donate all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient; love is kind. Love does not envy; is not boastful; is not conceited; does not act improperly; is not selfish; is not provoked; does not keep a record of wrongs; finds no joy in unrighteousness, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for languages, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when the perfect comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put aside childish things. For now we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, as I am fully known. Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
When asked by some Pharisees which commandment in the Law is the greatest, Jesus responded, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” He went on to say the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself ” (Matt. 22:37-39). These simple principles—loving God and loving your neighbor—are still the keys to authentic racial reconciliation.
T. Vaughn Walker is Professor of Black Church Studies at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.
Further Learning
Learn more about: Citizenship, Racial Reconciliation