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 There is a Southern story that used to be told back during the Civil Rights movement. Some of you may have already heard it, but I believe that it is a good story that can help us better understand the relevancy of today’s gospel reading from Luke. So if you have already heard it, then please be patient with me.
The story goes like this: There was a black preacher who was famous for his preaching on the radio. He was known for helping folks get excited about Jesus so he was also much in demand as a visiting preacher. This of course meant that he would sometimes travel great distances to help spread the gospel.
It was on one such occasion of which this story is told. When the preacher arrived, the church doors were unlocked. So the preacher went inside. Immediately, one of the church leaders went up to him and told the preacher that he had to leave, because this was an all white church and ‘no coloreds’ were allowed. The preacher told the church leader who he was, but by then several of the church leaders had come over to him. They insisted that the preacher could not stay. The church was an all white church in the Deep South. No black people and, especially, no black preachers were allowed. The church leaders apologized to the preacher for their mistake, but pointed out they had not known he was black until now. They then told him he had to leave.
Discouraged, the black preacher went outside and sat down on the front steps of the church. He watched sadly as the white people went inside the church building that he was not allowed to enter, because of the color of his skin. As for the white people, some of them wondered out loud - rather rudely, I may add- as to why a black man was sitting on the front steps of their church. A few dropped some coins beside him, but most of them, upon seeing the black preacher, hurried on past him to quickly get inside. Finally, the church doors were closed and the service began without him.
As the black preacher was sitting on the front steps, listening to the people sing praises to God, the Holy Spirit showed up and sat down beside him. With a heavy heart, the preacher told the Holy Spirit what had happened to him. How the leaders of this church had called him to travel a great distance to come and preach for them. Then how they had shown him the door when they saw he was black.
At first the Holy Spirit didn’t say anything. He just looked quietly up at the sky. Then the Holy Spirit turned to the preacher and said, “At least you got through the front door. I haven’t even been able to get that far and I’ve been trying for years.”
The story I just shared with you was told by preachers in the sixties and seventies to combat the racial divide in America. While it is most tempting to speak on the evils of racism, especially today being the last Sunday and day in the month of February, which has been designated by Congress to be Black History Month; I believe that racism is one of many symptoms that plague the Body of Christ. This is because the members in the Body of Christ are sinners saved by grace. We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. We all need a Savior to redeem us; not only from the fallen state of humanity, which we inherited from Adam and Eve, but from our self-centered human nature.
In the gospel reading for today from Luke, Jesus was warned by some of the religious leaders of His time concerning King Herod’s desire to have Jesus killed. Apparently, Herod believed that his throne was threatened by this popular carpenter from Nazareth. Jesus refused to follow the wishes of these concerned Pharisees who sincerely believed they had Jesus’ best interests in mind. After all, how could Jesus continue to encourage the poor and heal the sick by dying in Jerusalem? They had seen the end of John the Baptist’s ministry after Herod had the prophet beheaded. In their minds, Jesus was another prophet like the Baptist. They wanted to protect Jesus’ ministry from coming to an end.
This trend of wanting to protect the status quo by well meaning followers of Christ continues even today. In fact, it has probably limited the furtherance of the Kingdom of God in ways we cannot grasp within our finite minds. If Jesus had followed His well wishers’ advice, then God’s plan of salvation would not have happened. We would have remained lost in our sinful state. The carpenter of Nazareth would not have even been a footnote in the pages of history.
Thankfully, Jesus ignored the advice of the Pharisees. Jesus chose to stick to the mission God had sent Him to earth to do. He chose to stay the course in spite of the personal harm in which His journey would end. Because of Jesus’ selfless choice, the bondage of sin was broken and our redemption was paid in full.
Today, the Church continues to reach out to the poor, the lonely, and the sick. Yet, in our eagerness to do good works; many of us have forgotten the reason behind these good deeds. Instead of doing these good works for the glory of God, some of us seek to do them for our own glory. As the scriptures warn us, we have gone astray from God’s ways to follow our own paths.
In Jesus’ time, the Pharisees were known for their good works, their acts of charity and their carefulness in following God’s laws. Yet, Jesus condemned them as hypocrites. Jesus warned them, “See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.’” In other words, the Pharisees were left with only the shell of their original faith. Like the church leaders, who committed the sin of racism by sending the black preacher away; the Pharisees no longer allowed the Spirit of God to lead them. They placed their own human wisdom above the Lord’s. May we heed our Master’s warning to the Pharisees, by embracing the path that leads us to the glory of God through Jesus the Christ.
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