The personal blog of Anderson T. Graves II. Education, Religion, Politics, Family, and TRUTH------ but not necessarily the truth you want to hear.
I still love ya' though.
The
other day for some reason my wife decided to teach our 12 year old son how to
walk cool. For some reason my 16 year
old daughter decided to help.
They
marched Anderson back and forth through the den.
“Pull
your shoulders back.”
“No
don’t lean so much.”
“Keep
your feet apart.”
“No.”
“Not
like that.”
“Oh,
my gosh, boy! Walk like a man!”
I
was at the kitchen counter with my laptop not saying a word. After several stressful and HILARIOUS
minutes, I pushed the barstool back, motioned for Anderson to come to me, and
put my arm around his shoulder.
Then
we silently walked across the room together.
My
wife looked at Anderson and said, “You walk fine when you’re walking with
Daddy.”
When
he’s walking with Daddy he walks just fine.
He walks like a man.
There’s
a certain way that a man is supposed to physically, financially, emotionally,
and spiritually walk through life. A
houseful of women can sometime with much effort, frustration, error, and
failure ultimately teach a boy how to walk through life like a man; but the
best, most effectively way is for him to just walk with Daddy.
When I was my father’s son, tender
and the only one in the sight of my mother, my father taught me, and said to me,
“Let your heart retain my words. Keep my commands, and live.” (Proverbs 4: 3-4)
---Anderson T. Graves
II is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry,
and rural leadership development.
Rev.
Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield,
Alabama; executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking
Organization (SAYNO); and director of
rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).
(Explosions at the tomb of the prophet Jonah, in Mosul, Iraq. Read the CNN report. )
In
July 2014, ISIS militants blew up the tomb of Jonah. Yes, that Jonah. The one from the Bible. The fish guy.
Jonah.
Don’t
feel bad. I didn’t know Jonah had a tomb
either.
Ancient
Jews, Christians, and Muslims (who haven’t agreed on much since) agreed that
the Old Testament prophet died and was buried in the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh. Today, we know Nineveh as the Iraqui city of
Mosul.
Centuries
after Jonah died, Muslims built a mosque around his tomb, and ISIS hates the
fact that there’s anything that Muslims, Jews, and Christians have in common,
so they strapped explosives to the mosque and killed it.
That
bit of current events matters because the book of Jonah ends without
closure.Jonah is last seen sitting
under a withered gourd vine griping to God about the redemption of Nineveh.
But
now, we know the rest of the story. Now
I understand why Jonah was so mad.
I
knew that the Ninevites were Israel’s ethnic, religious, and political enemies,
but every time I read Jonah chapter 4, it sounded like Jonah was taking the
whole thing way too personally. But I
get it now.
Jonah
was a prosperity prophet.
2
Kings 14: 25 says: King Jeroboam restored
the territory of Israel from the entrance of Hamath to the Sea of the
Arabah, according to the word of the Lord God of Israel,which the
Lord God had spoken through His servant Jonah the son of Amittai, the
prophet who was from Gath
Hepher.
Jonah
ministered in Israel to a prosperous people in a time that the national economy,
and especially the real estate sector, were expanding. Jonah’s name means “Dove.” Jonah’s father
name, Amittai, means “Truth.”
The
prophet would have been introduced as “The Son of Truth, the Dove of the Lord,
the Prophet of Increase--- Jonah of Galilee!”
When
God told Jonah to leave his prosperous ministry in Israel and go to Nineveh, it
was like God telling Creflo Dollar to leave the World Changers Church
International and go preach repentance to ISIS militants in Mosul.
The
prosperity preacher said, “I’d rather quit, cash in my stocks, move out of the
country, and retire inTarshish.” (Jonah 1: 1-3)
But
Jonah prophetic gift was genuine; so when the Lord told him to preach in Nineveh-Mosul,
Jonah understood that God wasn’t just calling him to speak at a conference and
then fly his private jet back home.
If
the pagan Ninevites accepted his message and turned to God, then they would
need more than a prophet. They would need
a PASTOR. And since Jonah was the only
qualified clergy in town, he’d be stuck in Nineveh, serving over 120,000 baby-believers
whose relationship to God was based on repentance and fasting --- not
prosperity. Jonah would be stuck there for the rest of his
life.
And
that is exactly what happened.
So he prayed to the Lord,
and said, “Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country?
Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish.” (Jonah 4: 2)
Here
are the two major lessons for you and me:
1.The thing you’re afraid God is going to ask you to do is quite possibly
the thing God is going to ask you to do.
And since you can’t stop God from asking you (and chasing you down with a
storm and a giant fish to get you to do it), then you might as well get over
being afraid.
2.There’s always closure. From the outside, in the now, we may only be able
to see what we’re losing. In the moment
others may only see you defeated by your fears.
But, if you persist in obedience, God will build for you a legacy that still
stands centuries later, a legacy that not even explosives can erase.
---Anderson T. Graves
II is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry,
and rural leadership development.
Rev.
Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield,
Alabama; executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking
Organization (SAYNO); and director of
rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).
Hospitality is important in the South. We take great pride in making other people
feel comfortable; but, strange as it sounds, the Bible actually speaks of
certain times when God wants us and others to be un-comfortable.
To understand the limits of Southern comfort and Christian hospitality,
take a new look at the familiar story of Jonah in a message that invites you to
COME ON IN & MAKE YOURSELF UN-COMFORTABLE.
---Anderson T. Graves
II is a
writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural
leadership development.
Rev.
Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in
Fairfield, Alabama; executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth
Networking Organization (SAYNO);
and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for
Human Development (NIHD).
The term purgatory comes out of Catholicism but the concept is older than
Christianity. Purgatory refers to a
state and/or place after death where souls who are not quite good enough for
Heaven (or not quite bad enough for Hell) can be purified, cleansed, and sanctified
through suffering. Once a soul has
suffered enough he/she is ready to ascend into the presence of God.
Methodists reject the Catholic doctrine
of purgatory. The editors of our
Articles of Religion called the concept a fond
thing. That’s fond in the Shakespearean sense, meaning “simple, unwise, foolish.”
Basically our church’s official stance
is: Purgatory is a stupid.
In the Screwtape Letters, C.S.
Lewis imagined a junior demon named Wormwood who, frustrated that his attempts
to corrupt his human charges were failing, sought advice from a senior demon named
Screwtape.
Poor little
Wormwood is all out of ideas. He says, “Screwtape, I give up. We can’t tell
them there is no God and we can’t tell then there is no hell. What lie should
we tell them?”
Screwtape
says, “My dear Wormwood, just tell them there is no hurry.”
The doctrine of purgatory tells us,
“There is no hurry.”
Which is an invitation to a mindset not
just a doctrine: the mindset of theological bulimia. Theological bulimia encourages us to binge on
unrighteousness in this life and purge through suffering immediately
after. Purge-atory.
And many of us, non-Catholics included,
have theological bulimia. We hate our
bodies, our lives, our material existence; but we love the taste of sin, its
texture and flavor. Yet, we don’t want
to carry the weight of its wages around for all eternity. (Heaven doesn’t make robes in that size.) So we binge, justifying our gluttony for
gluttony and the other sins with plans to crawl into the grave when we’re done
and painfully expel our ugliness.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t actually work
that way.
Remember that in the sacrificial system
under the Old Testament law, atonement for sin was made through blood. That is, through death.
And according
to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of
blood there is no remission. (Hebrews 9:22)
Animal sacrifices weren't tortured, they were
calmed and then killed because atonement for sin is comes through death, not
through suffering.
If Jesus had accepted the beatings, and
the whippings, and the insults, and the pain of crucifixion, but come down from
the cross before He actually died, the plan of salvation would have failed.
For the wages
of sin is DEATH---not suffering.
You can’t purge your sins by hurting
yourself or by letting others hurt you.
The wages of sin is death. So, the only way you could pay your way out
of eternal Hell would be to die for yourself for eternity. And eternal death is the definition of Hell (Matthew
10: 28; Revelations
20: 14, 15).
Purging doesn’t work.
Think.
If suffering and pain in themselves produced holiness, then the victims
of torture and atrocities on Earth would all be saints. But we know that trauma is more likely to
create demons than angels.
If there is a place in the afterlife
where souls are tormented under the pretense that one day they’ll go to Heaven
because they suffer, their hope is just another torment, and Purgatory is just
another name for Hell.
By one
offering He [Jesus] has perfected forever those
who are being sanctified. (Hebrew 10:14)
Jesus gave up His life. God who transcends time and eternity DIED a
death of eternal and infinite mass and thereby covered all of the sin-debts of
humanity past, present, and future.
And He
Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for
the whole world. (1 John 2:20)
We are saved from Hell and for Heaven
when we accept Jesus and truly submit ourselves under His Lordship. We don’t have to do any more to gain
redemption. We CAN’T do any more to gain
redemption.
Spiritual bulimia hides the true shape
of redemption from our eyes. We see only
how ugly we must be to God.
I’m too evil, too damaged. I deserve to suffer. I NEED TO suffer.
We can’t see the beauty of the fullness
and finality of Jesus’ sacrifice. We see
ourselves in the image of our sin, but God wants us to see that through the
cross we are remade in the image of Jesus (2 Corinthians 3: 18).
He is the
image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
(Colossians 1:15)
And we
all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are
being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the
Spirit of the Lord. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
You don’t have to keep hurting
yourself.
All you have to do is receive Jesus,
rest in Jesus, and reflect the image of Jesus.
Do that and you’ll stop
binging. Do that and you’ll stop
punishing yourself with every sin you can shove down your life. Do that and you break the cycle of
binge-atory and purge-atory.
Therefore, if
anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have
passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2 Corinthians 5: 16, 17)
You just need Jesus.
Anything else is, well let’s just call
it a fond thing.
---Anderson T. Graves II is a writer, community organizer
and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.
Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor
of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;
executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO); and director of rural
leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).
Prisoners
wear chains. Slaves wear chains. Prisoners work for nothing. So do slaves.
Prisoners receive the worst care and treatment as do slaves. Neither
prisoners nor slaves are free.
The
difference between prisoners and slaves is that if a wall comes down, most prisoners
will try to escape. Most slaves will start
repairing the wall.
We
think we are prisoners held back by an unjust system. But, when a wall falls and a way to advance
appears, do you rush for the opportunity; or do you stand around complaining
about the mess, waiting for the overseers of the system to give you the tools to
clean up by rebuilding the wall?
Are
you a prisoner of the system or a slave to it?
Opportunity
doesn’t free many slaves. So simply removing the obstacles to freedom won’t
help slaves because they still look to the system to provide for them, and when
they experience discomfort outside the system’s support they will return and
submit to the system’s supervision.
Prisoners
will suffer, starve, go without, and avoid areas of comfort just to stay free
from the system.
The
question isn’t “Who’s holding you back?”
The question is, “Whom do you expect to help you move forward?”
---Anderson T. Graves
II is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry,
and rural leadership development.
Rev.
Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield,
Alabama; executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking
Organization (SAYNO); and director of
rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).
John
1: 35-40 explains that soon after Jesus returned from His temptation in the
wilderness, John the Baptist saw Him walking, and looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God!”
The
two disciples that were with John at the time followed Jesus. Jesus turned, and seeing them following,
said to them, “What do you seek?”
What
do you seek?
A
friend posed this same question during our annual CME pastor’s conference. Rev. Rickdrekia Sanders asked: Are we working to be in the image of a
Jesus that doesn't understand our struggle, or are we trying to find a Jesus
that can relate to our personal struggles of life? Or, do we really feel that we need a Jesus?
In
other words: What do you seek?
The
answer depends on us.
We
understand becoming a born-again, redeemed, converted follower of Jesus Christ
(also known as “a disciple”) to mean starting a personal relationship with Jesus. People start personal relationships for
personal reasons. What we look for in
Jesus depends on what we are looking for in our individual personal journey.
Andrew,
brother of Simon Peter, was one of the Baptist disciples who followed Jesus
that day (John 1: 40). Andrew followed
Jesus because Andrew was looking for the fulfillment of his mentor John’s
prophesies. That’s how Andrew
introduced Jesus to his brother Peter.
Andrew first found his own
brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is
translated, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus. (John 1:41, 42)
Simon
Peter had several interactions with Jesus without coming to faith in Him as the
Messiah. Peter was looking for the
secret to success in their fishing business.
In
Luke 5, Jesus commandeered Peter’s boat as a floating pulpit and then told
Peter where to fish. But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master,
we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will
let down the net.” (Luke 5:5)
They
caught so many fish that even with 2 boats and 4 professional fisherman working
the nets, the quantity was more than they could handle. That was the Jesus Peter was looking for.
When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees,
saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” (Luke 5: 8)
And
that is when Peter finally accepted Jesus invitation to become a disciple. Jesus
said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men. (Luke 5:
10)
Saul,
the persecutor of Christians in the book of Acts, was looking for the purest
adherence to the Mosaic law. On the road
to Damascus, Saul encountered the original Author of the law.
Suddenly a light shone
around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice
saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”
And he said, “Who are You,
Lord?”
Then the Lord said, “I am
Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is
hard for you to kick against the goads.” (Acts 9: 4-5)
Even
Judas was looking for something personal. He was looking for a payday or perhaps a
scapegoat for the inaction of the Jews against Roman occupation. Judas found that Jesus. Jesus let Judas turn Him in for the
money. Jesus showed that he had the
power to lay down a mob of armed men with just a word.
When
Judas showed up in Gethsemane with a contingent of the Temple guard, Jesus went forward and said to them, “Whom are you
seeking?” Jesus had to ask twice
because when He responded “I am He,” they drew back and fell to the
ground. (John 18:3-8)
Are we working to be in
the image of a Jesus that doesn't understand our struggle or are we trying to
find a Jesus that can relate to our personal struggles of life?
We
are each trying to find the Jesus we think we need or want for whatever is our
personal place at the moment.
But,
check this out:
After Andrew found Jesus, Andrew no longer looked to John the Baptist for
answers.
After
Peter found Jesus, Peter abandoned the fishing business to be a Disciple.
After
Saul found Jesus, he became Paul and spent the rest of his life articulating
the doctrine of grace instead of the Law.
We
each come to Jesus because we are looking for something personal. But when we find Him, if we receive Him for
real, then we discover that He is so much more than what we were looking for
that what we were looking for no longer matters. All that matters is Jesus.
As
for the question: Do we really feel that we need a Jesus? Ask Judas that.
Without
Jesus, Judas had the money he wanted. He
had the public trial of a righteous Jewish Rabbi/Prophet he needed to justify a
revolt. Judas had all that he had
sought, but he no longer had Jesus. So, he threw down the pieces of silver in the
temple and departed, and went and hanged himself. (Matthew 27:5)
Yes,
however we may come to Him, we all need Jesus.
---Anderson T. Graves
II is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry,
and rural leadership development.
Rev.
Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield,
Alabama; executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking
Organization (SAYNO); and director of
rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).
The message for Missionary Day at Miles Chapel CME Church is a
challenge to reexamine what we think it means to be a missionary and become
something more than we have ever been.
The message is deep, but the title is simple: WHAT IS A
MISSIONARY?
---Anderson T. Graves
II is a
writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural
leadership development.
Rev.
Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama; executive director of the Substance Abuse
Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO); and
director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human
Development (NIHD).
Then one who was
demon-possessed, blind and mute was brought to Jesus; and He healed him, so
that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw. And all the multitudes were amazed and said,
“Could this be the Son of David?”
Now when the Pharisees heard it they said, “This fellow
does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.” (Matthew 12: 22-24)
Jesus
healed people of incurable illnesses. He
delivered people from spiritual and psychological affliction. He manifest the pure grace of merciful
God. So naturally they accused him of
being a devil-worshipper.
The
Pharisees proudly bragged to Jesus that “We
were not born of fornication; we have one Father—God.” (John 8:41)
And
Jesus replied, “You are of your
father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do.” (John 8: 44)
The
sons of satan accused the Son of God of being an agent of the devil. It would be funny if it wasn’t so familiar.
Crazy
people look at sane people like the sane people are crazy.
Dumb
folks ask, “Why you always doin’ stupid stuff like readin’?”
The
most gossiping, cheating, fighting, conflict-provoking people on the internet
constantly post their complaints about haters startin’ drama.
It’s
O.K. They can’t help it. They’re so deep in their dysfunction that wrong
feels normal to them. So when you come around
living like you’ve got good sense, it makes them un-comfortable. Your presence and lifestyle makes them feel
convicted. Your existence makes them
feel bad, so they call you bad.
They
are surprised that you do not join them in their reckless, wild living, and
they heap abuse on you. (1 Peter 4:4, NIV)
The
next time some fool(s) calls you fake because you don’t engage in regular acts
of stupid, don’t get upset with them and certainly don’t feel bad about living
your life wisely. Stop and ask yourself,
“What do they think ‘real’ looks like?”
You
see, if real to them is sin and
foolishness then when they call you fake they’re calling you righteous and wise.
Acknowledge
their position. Offer appreciation for their observation. And continue with your day. Say, “If what you
do is real then thank you for thinking I’m fake,” and walk away.
Nah. Don’t do that. That would be provoking. You don’t have to say anything because
anything you say can and will be used against you.
People
in the wrong accused Jesus of being wrong, and Jesus, who had the means and
right to perfectly justify His actions, faced their accusations with courageous
SILENCE.
And
while He was being accused by the chief priests and elders, He answered
nothing. Then Pilate said to Him, “Do
You not hear how many things they testify against You?” But He answered him not
one word.(Matthew 27: 12-14)
Face your insulters. Don’t fear them. But also don't let them provoke you into an emotional or unwise response. Remember that Jesus understands how you
feel. Take courage and calm in the fact that God is on your side.
Jesus said, “If they have
called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more will they call
those of his household! Therefore DO NOT FEAR THEM.” (Matthew 10: 25-26)
Don’t let the fools turn you
into one of them. Don’t get real in
their twisted way. Stay real in Jesus’
real way.
Better to be fake to them and
real to God than the other way around.
---Anderson T. Graves
II is a writer,
community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural
leadership development.
Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is
pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama; executive director
of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO); and director of rural leadership development
for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).
I recently saw and shared a Christian spoken word performance by artist Jackie Hill Perry. In the Bible-centered performance, the born-again Christian uses an ugly racial slur---- repeatedly. That made me think about Jesus.
In
Matthew chapter 15, Jesus used a racial slur. My Savior uttered an ugly ethnic epithet, and I couldn’t understand why.
Mark 7 confirms the same incident.
It happened in the region around Tyre and Sidon.
Jesus’
people had gotten on His last nerve. The
Jews in Galiliee, the Hellenized people in Decapolis on the far side of the Sea
of Galilee, the Jewish Pharisees and the Sadducees: they had all doubted Him, while demanding signs and blessings. They'd misconstrued His mission, and asked Him dumb questions. (Yes. There is such a thing.) Even His disciples seemed infected with the
spirit of stupid.
The
disciples had tried to get Jesus to modify His message to more politically
palatable language.
Then
His disciples came and said to Him, “Do You know that the Pharisees were
offended when they heard this saying?” (Matthew 15: 12)
Despite Jesus’ constant tutoring and personal
example, the Twelve held onto the same mentalities and mental blocks everybody else
in their culture seemed to have; until Jesus asked Peter and them, “Are ya’ll
stupid, too?”(Mark
7: 18, Anderson’s paraphrase)
Jesus needed a break and the disciples needed some
serious retraining. So, Jesus went out from there and departed to the region
of Tyre and Sidon. (Matthew 15:21)
Tyre
and Sidon are pagan cities on the Mediterranean coast, just northwest of
Israeli territory. Mark 7: 24 says that He entered a
house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden.
A
Canaanite woman native to that pagan area heard Jesus was hiding out in town. She found out where He was staying, fell at his feet and cried out to Him, saying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son
of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed.” (Matthew 15: 22)
Jesus
ignored her,and the disciples, who were
probably irritated that she had interrupted their leadership retreat,
urged Jesus to get rid of this doggone lady because she was getting on
their nerves. (Matthew 15:23) And that’s when Jesus used some very “non-inclusive language.”
But He answered and said, “I
was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matthew 15: 24)
So
if Jesus ONLY came for Israel, that means that He’s not going to even talk to
this non-Jewish woman, right? And
then, as if there had been any doubt about Jesus’ attitude toward her and
people like her, Jesus said to her, “Let the children be filled first, for it
is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little
dogs.” (Mark 7:27)
The
D-word was the 1st century Jewish equivalent of the N-word. It was a slur Jews used for Gentiles and other non-Jewish peoples.
In contemporary language, Jesus said,
“I help My people before I help niggas.”
To
which the mother of the spiritually and mentally oppressed child replied,
“Whatever I am, Jesus, only You can help me!”
And she answered and said to
Him, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the
children’s crumbs.” (Mark 7: 28)
And
now I’m confused.
Because
I want to say that the ugly word Jesus used wasn’t as ugly as it sounded. I want to say he meant it as a term of
endearment, you know the way ya’ll say it to each it other. But that’s garbage. It didn’t work that way then and it doesn’t
work that way now.
That’s
the interpretation we want so we can feel better about the times our hate
overflows our hearts and spills over the edge of our lips.
Peter
didn’t profess the inclusion of Gentiles in the gospel by saying, “Can anyone
forbid water, that these dogs should
not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” (Acts 10:47)
The
word Jesus used WAS a racial epithet.
You know a tree by its fruit. As
Jesus Himself had said to the disciples before taking this retreat to Typre and
Sidon, “It’s what comes out that defiles”(Mark
7: 18-23)
In
light of this word, what fruit had Jesus produced toward non-Jews?
In
the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus held up non-Jews as the epitome of
godly grace and mercy.
To
minister to the woman at the well, Jesus deliberately went into non-Jewish
Samaria to and developed rapport with the most troubled in those neighborhoods.
Jesus
spent time in the Hellenised Decapolis
healing the sick and casting out demons.
Jesus
healed the servant of a Roman centurion and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, I
have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!” (Matthew 8: 10)
Alongside
all the times Jesus rebuked the Jews and their leaders, Jesus said that many
Gentiles and non-Jews would join Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of
heaven while many Jews, aka “sons of the kingdom,” would be left out. (Matthew
8: 11, 12)
But that’s not hate.
That’s not discrimination. That’s
not what you expect from a Jewish rabbi who used that Word.
Maybe Jesus was selectively hateful. He just didn’t like the Tyre and Sidon folks. Some people love and accept everybody----
except “those people.” It’s time to be
honest about how Jesus treated “those people” in Tyre and Sidon.
When people from Tyre a Sidon came to Jesus in Luke
6:17, 18, Jesus healed their diseases and cast out their demons.
When
Jesus was around Jews like Himself and He talked about those people, Jesus said
that if those people in Tyre and Sidon
had been given equal opportunity to witness His works, the Tyre and Sidonese
would have done a 100% better than the Jews.
Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to
you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in
Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
But I say to you, it will be
more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.(Matthew 11: 20-22)
All of that is clearly evidence that Jesus DIDN’T HATE
non-Jews. Jesus wasn’t racist. Jesus saw, loved, healed, delivered, and applauded
genuine faith to all people, ethnicities, nationalities, genders, and
background.
And, after using the D-word in His conversation with the
Canaanite woman, Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, great is your
faith! Let it be to you as you desire.” And her daughter was healed from that
very hour! (Matthew 15:28)
That’s not crumbs.
That’s healing. That’s not a leftovers that accidentally fall off the table.That’s a big, warm, fluffy oversized loaf of demon-casting-out
deliverance.
Jesus said that it wasn’t right to give THE CHILDREN’S bread
to the D-words. And Jesus always did what was right.
Tyre, Sidon, Samaria, Decapolis on the far side of the Sea
of Galiliee and some of the other places
where Jesus travelled and ministered where not considered part of Jewish
territory. Some had long been in the hands
of other nations. Some had broken away
from the unified Jewish state under David and Solomon. Some regions like Tyre and Sidon were never
conquered during the Israelite invasion of Palestine way back under Joshua.
But, all of those lands,
including Tyre and Sidon were inside the boundaries of Israel that God had
marked for His people Israel. (Genesis
49:13; Joshua
13: 6; Joshua 19: 24-29).
The ethnic majority Jews didn’t
think so. The ethnic minority Gentiles
didn’t think so. The ethnicity of political
power, the Romans, didn’t think so; but as far as God was concerned, they were
all Israel!
All of them were His
children!
That’s why Jesus healed the
Canaanite woman’s daughter. She wasn’t a
dog. She was a child of God.
Jesus confronted her with the
word they called her. Jesus used the
word they called themselves (Don’t think that’s something Black people just
made up in America.) Jesus used that
ugly racial epithet and his beautiful Divine power in the same conversation so that
she, and the watching disciples, and you and I would understand.
Despite what they call you, despite
what we call ourselves, you’re not a dog, you’re not a nigger, or a nigga, you’re not a
whatever the current epithet is.
You are a child of God.
Don’t let history or current
event convince you otherwise. Take your
seat at your Father’s table.
And enjoy. Here is the spoken word performance that inspired this post.
---Anderson T. Graves
II is a writer,
community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural
leadership development.
Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is
pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama; executive director
of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO); and director of rural leadership development
for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).
