The Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.: Justice, Non-Violence, and Reconciliation

The third Monday of January is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This isn't a church year holiday, but Martin Luther King Jr. was a reverend and he remains one of my heroes of the faith, so we are going to look at his legacy today. We could focus on many different aspects of Reverend King and his work, but today we will look at three areas: justice, non-violence, and reconciliation.

Justice is central to the late Reverend King, but what is "justice"? It is righteousness and moral rightness. It is acting with just behavior. It is doling out a deserved reward or punishment. When a person is just, they are guided by truth and fairness. Justice is proper and following a true principle. It is what is right and correct. While justice is always in line with God's law, man's laws can be unjust and therefore the Christian is morally obligated to follow God's law instead of man's. We need to note that justice is not revenge, but man's laws often are revenge-centered.

Reverend King preached and practiced non-violence, even when he was beaten, stabbed, and arrested. He wasn't a blinded optimist convinced that non-violence resistance by the oppressed would automatically generate reciprocal non-violence on the part of the oppressors. He realized that to step out in non-violence was to accept the beatings and violence done against you without retaliating. Now for those thinking, "But the left/right has been violent too", the "other side" will have to give an account before God for their actions one day, but we are judged on our obedience to Christ's commands to love our enemy, pray for our persecutors, and turn the other cheek. We need to focus on our own plank before we look to the speck of dust in their eye. It's easy to condemn the violence in our opponents. It's harder to condemn it in ourselves and our allies. Non-violence is not just physical non-violence, but also spiritual. If we don't hit someone, but we allow our hearts to hate them, then we are still violent in our souls. 

Reconciliation is the third aspect of Reverend King's teaching that we will look at. His protests and marches did not invent tension, but brought the undercurrent of tension to the surface. Only once both the oppressor and oppressed acknowledge the division, hate, and injustice can reconciliation occur. And we must be willing to reconcile. Our goal is not permanently punishing or destroying our opponents; we should want to reconcile with them, once confession and repentance of sins occur. Once someone seeks forgiveness and wants to be healed, God steps in with His mercy (not giving them the punishment that they deserve) and grace (giving them a gift they can never earn). The unrepentant do not receive these gifts, but God offers them to all who repent of their sins and turn to Him. 

I challenge us to go beyond the one-snippet sentences shared on social media, especially those used to condemn the other side for their behavior. While Martin Luther King Jr. is a well-loved figure today, we haven't taken the time to understand his message. We take a sentence, out-of-context, and share it to spread warm fuzzies or put our opponent in their place. Reverend King's messages have a plethora of hard truths to swallow. In order to reconcile, we must work through the injustices around us together. We won't reach our capacity for love or growth while we don't bother to study and learn from the parts of his work that make us uncomfortable and uneasy. We, as a society, have been trained to avoid tension, to cover it up rather than face it squarely head on, but Reverend  King knew that only in working through tension will we arrive a true justice and peace.

Action Steps to Take: 

There are so many books that I could recommend that you read. You can read books about Reverend King, or even books by him. While I do encourage you to read books about Reverend King since it does help us to get a big picture of who he was and what his message was, we should also be sure to prioritize reading his writings directly. We have transcripts of his speeches, records of his articles, and copies of his books, so let us read his own words. 

We can also listen to him. If we just search online, we can find many recordings of his sermons. While many of us are worshipping online this year, let us listen with Reverend King's church and learn from his sermons. 

A Baptism of Repentance

On this day in the church year, we remember Jesus' baptism by John, as recorded in Matthew 3:13-17, Mark 1:9-11, and Luke 3:21-22. 

The baptism John preached and practiced was a baptism of repentance. At Pentecost (later this year), we'll celebrate the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but for now, we will focus on this baptism that Jesus received. 

Repentance occurs when we experience deep sorrow or regret over our actions. It brings us to a place where we are willing to consider change: changing our attitudes, changing our hearts, changing our actions. 

It seems simple enough, but a crucial part of repentance is acknowledging the past sins and wrongs we have done or not stopped from happening. We can't repent of something that we deny is a problem. 

American culture is very individualistic, yet Jewish culture throughout Scripture is very collectivist. Acknowledging and repenting of personal sins (the bad things we have done and the good things we have neglected to do) is important, but we don't often delve into corporate acknowledgment and repentance of sin. That is corporate as in a collection of individuals in a group such as a church or a religion, not corporate as in a business. 

What is there to repent of corporately in our culture and lives? 

-We repent of dehumanizing people, based on their wealth, ethnicity, religion, or nationality. We have treated people as less valuable because they were poor, a different color, praying to a different god, or from another country. 

-We repent of disobeying clear commands in Scripture: to share the Good News with those we encounter, to visit prisoners, to welcome the stranger, to defend those who are oppressed. 

-We repent of neglecting to learn the ugly stories of American history. We have glossed over and ignored the stories of the rapes, lynchings, torture, and oppression that those in power did to those under their control. We have valued our comfort level more than seeking reconciliation by acknowledging this part of our history.

-We repent of our complicity in the sins of our country and world. We buy products produced through underpaying their workers, which makes us guilty of underpaying these workers as well. 

-We repent of judging and condemning those we view as wrong instead of showing them the love, mercy, and grace God offered to us.

-We repent of failing to take good care of our bodies. We eat cheap junk. We overeat. We suffer from diseases brought on by our poor diets. 

-We repent of wasting the time God has given us with things that don't matter. 

-We repent of seeking to safeguard our rights more than we have sought to defend the oppressed. We have looked to our own interests in explicit disregard to the Bible's commands to look out for others, especially those who are oppressed.

Challenge: Consider what things you have to repent of in your life. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you what changes you need to start making in your life. Ask to be shown what amends and reparations you should start to make. Ask to be shown how to reconcile with those you have hurt.