One In Christ: The Gospel and Prejudice

One in Christ: The Gospel and Prejudice

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. - Galatians 3:28

 
Brothers and sisters: I, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace; one Body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call; one Lord, one faith, one baptism;one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. - Ephesians 4:1-6

 
The Scriptures are clear in their proclamation of the necessity for unity among the followers of Christ.  In the Garden of Gethsemane as he is about to fulfill his ministry of High Priest of a new and eternal covenant, Jesus says, “…that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me” (John 17:21).  It is interesting to observe here that Our Lord not only prays for our unity, but he adds, “that the world may believe that You sent Me”; as if to say, the Truth will not be embraced by the world, if his disciples do not find unity among themselves.  Christian evangelization, which proclaims a God of love and forgiveness, will fall on deaf ears and closed hearts, if those who proclaim find no love and unity amongst themselves.  

Genetically we all belong to the same human race.  We may have different climate adaptations, different skin complexions, some are tall, some are short, curly hair, and straight hair, blondes, brunettes, and red heads; yet we are all children of the same creator, and we all stand before God, seeking self-understanding, love, forgiveness, and ultimately the grace of salvation, won for us by the God-Man, Jesus Christ.  As Genesis 1:26-27 instructs us, “Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness;’…So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them”. 

In the Book of Revelation we are offered a glimpse of the eternity we will spend together in the Kingdom of Heaven; “After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands.” (Rev. 7:9) If we cannot embrace each other as brother and sister on earth, how can we in heaven; if we reject “the other” for being “different” or not from “our tribe” - do we not stand the risk of losing our invitation to the eternal banquet, that celebrates rather than denigrates our God given uniquenesses.  We must always remember that,  “All forms of racism, prejudice, and discrimination are affronts to the work of Christ on the Cross. Jesus Christ died that all might be saved,…”(Abbot Tryphon, Racism has no place in the life of a Christian, 2016).

Possibly the most poignant examples given by Our Lord concerning prejudice,  are the stories in Luke 10 and John 4, the Parable of the Good Samaritan and the Samaritan woman at the well.  Samaritans were so rejected by the Jews of Judea, that most would take the long route around, crossing the Jordan River if they needed, to go north of Samaria, rather than even cross Samaritan land.  For the Jews at the time of Jesus the Samaritans were rejected for being religious heretics and for having married and had children with pagans, when they had been under Assyrian rule. So they were banished on religious and ethnic grounds by their neighbors.  Jesus turns the prevailing ideas of his day upside down in his words concerning the Samaritans.  He shows us that religious purity is empty if it lacks compassion and concern for the other.   He says to the  Samaritan woman, “ But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23-24)     

Just as Christianity sowed the seeds that eventually lead to the abolition of slavery among Christians (see Paul’s Letter to Philemon), so too it has prepared the ground for a fertile harvest of all men and women, of every race and tongue, and the scourge of discrimination, prejudice, and racism will be seen as repugnant and against the values of the Gospel as we now hold slavery to be.  Someday Sunday will not be the most segregated day in our country, but the day we embrace each other as One In Christ.