Racism is a sin problem not a skin problem...

This week, we are beginning a journey through the month of February addressing the issue of racism. We talked about the reality that racism, simply put, is prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior. Racism is the belief that your race is the superior race, regardless of what race you are. Racism gives preferential treatment to a particular race based on the belief that a particular race is superior.

We then began looking at an event from history that is recorded for us in a section of an account of Jesus life in the Bible called the gospel of Luke. After arriving in His hometown of Nazareth, Jesus attended synagogue on the Sabbath. On this particular Sabbath, as Jesus volunteered to read during synagogue, one of the leaders handed Jesus a scroll that contained a letter that is recorded for us in the Old Testament of the Bible called the book of Isaiah. Jesus then opened the scroll to a section of the book of Isaiah that we know today as Isaiah 61.

After reading Isaiah 61:1-2, Jesus gave a one sentence sermon: "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." In other words, Jesus basically said to them “God’s promise of a Messiah has been fulfilled today as you hear Me speak. I am the Messiah. I am the Promised One who is anointed by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the good news of God’s rescue from selfishness, sin and rebellion that will usher in the beginning of God’s kingdom”.

The crowds in the synagogue responded to Jesus one sentence sermon with glowing approval. The crowds also recognized that Jesus was one of their own: "Is this not Joseph's son?" they said. You see, the crowds believed that because Jesus was one of their own, because Jesus was Jewish like they were Jewish, that the result would be that they would benefit from an extra dose of God’s favor because of their close connection with Jesus as Jews.

The crowds believed that they would receive some spiritual brownie points from God because, as Jewish people, they were insiders with Jesus when it came to God. And the crowds believed that their insider status as Jewish people would provide them with insider privileges when it came to their relationship with God and when it came to their relationship with the people and nations around them.

The Jewish people expected to experience “Jewish privilege” because after all, they were God’s chosen people. And as God’s chosen people, they must be superior people to the other races that were around them, otherwise God would not have chosen them. However, the crowd was not prepared for what Jesus had to say next, which Luke records for us in verse 23:

 And He said to them, "No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, 'Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.'"

Jesus, sensing the crowds glowing approval of Jesus and growing expectation of what they thought Jesus would do for them, responded by quoting a well known proverb of the day: “Physician heal yourself”. This proverb, if communicated in the language we use in our culture today, would have sounded something like this: “Do for you what you do for others.” This proverb basically says “you must not refuse to do for those who are close to you what you have done for those who were far from you”.

You see, the residents of Nazareth believed that Jesus would do the miraculous for them simply because they were fellow Jewish people who were insiders with God. The residents of Nazareth believed that because they were God’s chosen people who were insiders with Jesus, they should get the best from Jesus. As Jewish people, they believed that their “Jewish privilege” should result in Jesus focusing on meeting their needs first and foremost and then dealing with those who were outsiders. After quoting this well known proverb, Jesus changes the tone of the entire encounter in verse 24-27:

 And He said, "Truly I say to you, no prophet is welcome in his hometown. "But I say to you in truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the sky was shut up for three years and six months, when a great famine came over all the land; and yet Elijah was sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. "And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet; and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian."

Jesus confronts the crowds by making the claim that no prophet is welcome in his hometown. Jesus is claiming that no person who proclaims the truth about God to those who consider themselves insiders is met with approval by those who consider themselves insiders. And to back His claim, Jesus refers to two different events from the history of the Jewish people. First, Jesus reminds the crowds of an event in history that is recorded for us in a letter in the Old Testament of our Bible called the book of 1 Kings.

In 1 Kings 17, God sent the prophet Elijah to a widow in the land of Sidon during a time of severe drought that plagued the entire Middle East. The land of Sidon was a region of the Middle East that was dominated by the worship of false gods. In addition, the people of Sidon were looked down on by the Jewish people as being inferior and were considered outsiders who were far from God. Upon arriving in Sidon, Elijah miraculously provided food for the widow and her son during a time of extreme drought.

Jesus point is that while Jewish people considered themselves to be a superior race than the people of Sidon, God did not send Elijah to do the miraculous for the Jewish people. Instead, Elijah, as God’s messenger, was sent to do the miraculous to those who the Jewish people viewed as being inferior and as being outsiders who were far from God. Elijah was not sent to the Jewish people, who viewed themselves as being superior as a result of being “God’s chosen people”. Instead, Elijah was sent to those who were viewed by the Jewish people as an inferior race.

Jesus then reminds the crowds of an event in history that is recorded for us in a letter in the Old Testament of our Bible called the book of 2 Kings. In 2 Kings 5, the prophet Elisha was used by God to miraculously heal a military leader from what is now the nation of Syria from leprosy. This military leader was part of a nation that worshipped false gods and was the enemy of the Jewish people. This was a nation who was viewed by the Jewish people as being inferior, as being outsiders who were far from God.

Jesus point is that while Jewish people, who considered themselves to be superior to the races and nations around them, had many people who suffered from leprosy, God did not send Elisha to do the miraculous for the Jewish people. Instead, Elisha, as God’s messenger, was sent to those who were viewed by the Jewish people as an inferior race. You see, the Jewish people who viewed themselves as being the superior race had repeatedly rejected God and the word of God through His spokespersons the prophets. The Jewish people did not approve of the prophets or their message.

Those who considered themselves to be a superior race; those who were “God’s chosen people”; those who considered themselves deserving of preferential treatment by God and who had God’s predictions and promises in the Bible to point them to God had rejected God. Jesus is revealing the reality that these self righteous religious people who consider themselves superior to others would reject His message just as they rejected the prophet’s message.

And Jesus is revealing the reality that His message, the message of the gospel was not simply for one race. Instead, His message, the message of the gospel was for all of humanity. Jesus was sent not simply for the Jewish race. Instead, Jesus was sent to proclaim the message of the gospel to every race. Jesus was sent to proclaim the gospel to those of the Jewish race who were far from God and those of every race who were far from God. Luke then records for us how the crowds responded to Jesus claims in verse 28-30:

And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city had been built, in order to throw Him down the cliff. But passing through their midst, He went His way.

Upon hearing Jesus claims, Luke tells us that the crowds were filled with rage. They were filled with rage because they were offended by the idea that God would extend the opportunity for forgiveness and a relationship with Him to those who were not Jewish and who they viewed as being inferior outsiders. And in their rage, the crowds rose up from their seats, drove Jesus outside of town, and attempted to throw Him off the edge of the cliff that the town was built on. Jesus however, like a scene from a matrix movie passed through their midst and traveled back to Capernaum, which was His base of ministry.

And it is here, in this event from history that we discover a timeless answer to the question “Where does racism come from?” And that timeless answer is this: Racism is a sin problem not a skin problem. You see, this issue is not “White privilege”; the issue is selfish privilege. The issue is not “Black power”, it is the power of selfishness, sin and rebellion. The issue is not “We are superior because we are God’s chosen people”; the issue is “I am superior because I chose me as being better than other people.

Throughout human history, across continents and cultures, there has been the tendency to view one race as being superior to every other race.  Throughout human history, across continents and cultures, there has been the tendency to view our race as being superior to every other race. This tendency is due to the fact that we all have a temptation and a trajectory that leads us to selfishly believe that our race is better than every other race. Every human being on the planet from every race, throughout human history has had this tendency. The issue is not the color of one’s skin; the issue is the selfishness and rebellion that is within.

Now the big fancy church mumbo jumbo talk word for this reality is the word total depravity. Now total depravity does not mean that every person is as bad as they can be. What total depravity does mean is that no person is perfect in God’s sight. Total depravity also means that not only none has the perfection that one requires, no one is able to achieve that perfection; our selfishness, our rebellion, and our sin is universal and insurmountable in nature and scope. Every human being throughout history, regardless of race, is infected and affected by a selfish rebellion that chooses to love ourselves over God and over those who were created in God’s image.

And as a result, our natural selfish bent apart from Jesus is to view ourselves and those who are like us as being superior to those who are not like us racially. This morning no race is excluded; every member of every race is infected and affected. That is why racism is ridiculous when it is placed in the lens and prism of the gospel. Racism is ridiculous because every member of every race throughout history is equally separated from God and is equally in need of rescue. No race is above this selfishness and rebellion, no race is excluded from this selfishness and rebellion.

And that is why the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel alone provide the solution to racism. The claims of Christ and the message of the gospel provides the solution to racism because Jesus entered into humanity to put an end to the idea that any one ethnic group should be treated as superior or privileged. Jesus entered into humanity to live the life that we were created to  live but refused to live in community with every race so that He could willingly allow Himself to be treated as though He lives our selfish and sinful lives, so that God the Father could treat us as though  we lived Jesus perfect life.

Jesus, life, death, and resurrection provide the opportunity for every race to be rescued from the selfishness and rebellion that leads to racism so that we can experience life in communion with God and in community with others regardless of race….