Who do you say Jesus is?

 

Matthew 16: 13-20
New Ark United Church of Christ, Newark, DE
August 27, 2023

Depictions of Jesus from different cultures and perspectives: Korean, Russian, Haitian, Native American, Hungarian, Mexican, Filipino, female, Croatian, Swedish, African American, Chinese, Mexican Indian, Japanese, West African, and European American.

When was the last time you thought about who Jesus is to you? For many of us, it’s not something we think about often but it’s still there. Even so, we may hold some thoughts in common but we also probably have very different ideas about who Jesus is to us and yet we are still the United Church of Christ. We do not have creeds but statements of faith. What would be your statement of faith about Jesus? Has it changed over the years? Has it changed you?



For instance, for most of my life, probably yours too, Jesus was White. Every picture, every illustration, every piece of art I saw depicted a White, Anglo-Saxon Jesus, instead of the Palestinian Jew that he was. Jesus identified with the people he came to liberate: the captive and the outcast, the incarcerated and the oppressed, those who had no vision or hope, the enslaved and even the land itself in the year of jubilee.



For this reason, I want to remind us once again who this Jesus is, not as creed, but as faith, faith that liberates even the dominant culture. Remember that we are repenting, turning away from centuries of racism, White supremacy, and imperialism. So then first and foremost, this Jesus is not White. This Jesus is Indigenous, Asian, Black, brown. This Jesus is fat. This Jesus is poor, this Jesus is disabled. This Jesus is a drug user. This Jesus is queer and trans. This Jesus is aging out of foster care. This Jesus is neurodivergent. This Jesus lives with mental illness. This Jesus is a refugee and an immigrant. This Jesus is unhoused. This Jesus is everything the dominant culture is not. For some of us, this Jesus is everything we are not.



It's important that we look at all of who Jesus is, just as we want to be fully known, loved, and accepted. For someone to be fully authentic, embody their whole selves, requires a moral obligation from us, a commitment to right relationships. How we treat other people has a direct impact on their well-being, and what Christians believe about who this Jesus is has an enormous influence.



Imagine a few centuries ago the moral morass of the slave master who was baptized alongside those he enslaved, attended church with them, heard the same scriptures, and one day would reside in the same heaven as them. Poet Wendell Berry, in his book The Hidden Wound, wrote, “How could he presume to own the body of a man whose soul he considered as worthy of salvation as his own?” To keep such earthly concerns separate from heavenly ones, a split mind developed, dividing body and soul, divorcing social justice, human Jesus from heavenly savior miraculous Jesus.



Salvation became more about believing in Jesus rather than following Jesus, more about life in heaven rather than life on earth. The body became bad, the soul in need of saving. Rather than a moral obligation to not only one’s neighbors but also one’s enemies, to live right by them, instead the church preached against an immorality of sin, such as drinking, sexual depravity, not attending church. By condemning such sin and yet tolerating it at the same time (love the sinner, hate the sin), this particular brand of Christianity insured its future, for where your treasure is, there your hardened heart can be also.



Christianity has become not only racism’s best tool but also its most effective weapon. The same can be said for empire and capitalism, patriarchy and ableism, everything Jesus preached against used Christianity as a weapon. The same evils that would eventually end his life.



Fast forward to reconstruction and vagrancy laws to the Great Depression and the New Deal that was more White than right, to World War II and the internment of Japanese Americans, to Jim Crow laws and ‘Segregation Forever’, to the assassinations of Malcolm X, Medgar Evers, and MLK Jr., to Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas, to the election and re-election of our first Black president, to the present day and what do we have now but a backlash of “anti-woke” rhetoric, continued violence against people of color, and a shift to legislate against queer and transgender Americans. With a multiple-indicted demagogue as their political champion.



This is why it is important for us to say who this Jesus is and say it LOUD. For too long the progressive White church has been soft-spoken to silent when confronted with bigotry and hate from other Christians. We have harmed people seeking safe harbor by not being clear about our commitment to this Jesus who sometimes leads us where we’d rather not go. And yet lives depend on making our witness bold. Let me say it again. For someone to be fully authentic, embody their whole selves, requires a moral obligation from us, a commitment to right relationships. How we treat other people has a direct impact on their well-being, and what Christians believe about who this Jesus is has an enormous influence.



Bigoted theology that separates Jesus from his color, his poverty, his Jewish faith, his Palestinian culture, his commitment to liberating the oppressed, and Christianity becomes a weapon of the oppressor. When a person or group of people is publicly demonized to the point of inciting violence against them, that is an act of terrorism.



Who is this Jesus? She was killed for flying a Pride flag outside of her clothing store.



Who is this Jesus? The 14 transgender and non-binary people who have been murdered in the U.S. this year.



Who is this Jesus? The 3 Black people killed in a Jacksonville, FL Dollar Store in a racially motivated shooting.



Who is this Jesus? It’s teachers speaking out against book bans and whitewashing history.



Who is this Jesus? A Christian musician drag queen named Flamy Grant who sings these words:



A good day to come back home
You sent me away, but I was never alone
You were afraid that there was not enough
But you can’t run out of love
So I’m here to stay and I’m dancing in the front row
‘Cause it’s a good day to come out of the shadow
God made me good in every way
So I’ll raise my voice to celebrate a good day



Who is this Jesus? It’s us when we’re finally ready to overthrow the power that benefits us.

Benediction – enfleshed.com


Beware, dear ones, of those too confident
in their definitions and doctrines of God
There are many blessings in the teachings of our faith
There are many dangers, too May we move humbly through our world
with love and righteousness as our guides
May a cosmos beyond our control and comprehension
draw our lives ever deeper into wonder and awe