{"id":241,"date":"2020-06-25T15:05:48","date_gmt":"2020-06-25T15:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/?p=241"},"modified":"2020-06-25T15:21:17","modified_gmt":"2020-06-25T15:21:17","slug":"how-jesus-responded-to-racism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/?p=241","title":{"rendered":"How Jesus Responded to Racism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Jesus went out of His way to break down racial barriers. The racism He confronted was between Jews, Samaritans, and Gentiles. There was even a racial rivalry among the Jews (Judeans derided Galileans and Galileans disdained Nazarenes). This is evident by how Nathaniel stereotyped Jesus, <em>\u201cCan anything good come out of <strong>Nazareth<\/strong>?\u201d<\/em> (Jn. 1:46). He prejudged Jesus before he even met him based on his bias against Nazarenes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Racism boils down to PRIDE\u2014the ugly self-deception that \u201cWE are better than YOU.\u201d Racism assumes that different means wrong. Remember, we are all made from dirt, plus our bodies consist of about 60% water (dirt + water = Mud!). Paul wrote, <em>\u201cWe have this treasure in <strong>jars of clay<\/strong>\u201d <\/em>(2 Cor. 4:7). It not the container that is so valuable to God, but the contents He has placed in it. The ground is level at the cross. We are all equally loved by God and equally in need of His grace. Hatred has no place in the heart of any Christian.God\u2019s view on racecan be summarized in this simple song: \u201cJesus loves the little children, ALL the children of the world, red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world!\u201d To be precious means \u201cvery valuable, dear, beloved, important, cherished, treasured, prized, priceless.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus\ndealt with racism among His own Disciples and rebuked them for it. James and\nJohn, at first, werehate-filled, cold-hearted, hot-headed\ntroublemakers. Jesus even gave them a negative nickname\u2014\u201cBoanerges,\u201d which\nmeans \u201csons of thunder.\u201d Thunder makes a lot of noise. These brothers were\nloud, opinionated, argumentative, and full of hot air. On one occasion, they were\nangry that some Samaritans turned Christ away from their village and wanted to\ncall fire down from heaven to burn them up. <em>\u201cBut He turned and rebuked them,\nand said, \u2018<strong>You do not know what manner of spirit you are of<\/strong>. For the Son\nof Man did not come to destroy men\u2019s lives but to save them\u2019\u201d<\/em> (Lk.\n9:55-56). If we harbor hatred in our hearts and want to hurt or kill people, we\nhave the wrong spirit. That is not the Spirit of Christ; it\u2019s the spirit of Antichrist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After\nseeing true love modeled by Jesus, the disciples radically changed. Later, Peter\nand John returned to Samaria to pray for them to receive the Holy Spirit in Acts\n8:12-17. Instead of praying the fire of judgment down on them to curse them, they\nprayed the fire of the Holy Spirit down to bless them. Once consumed with hate,\nJohn later became known as \u201cthe Apostle of Love.\u201d In fact, in his writings he\nused some form of the word \u201clove\u201d over 100 times. His words still soothe the\nsouls of millions today\u2014\u201cBeloved, let us love one another, for love is of God;\nand everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does\nnot know God, for God is love\u201d (1 Jn. 4:7-8). We need a fresh baptism of love\nin our society. If we harbor bigotry, we must repent of it, renounce it, and\nask God to remove it from our hearts.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus broke\ndown the barriers between Jews and Gentiles (Eph. 2:11-19). The Gospel is\ninclusive not exclusive (Jn. 3:16; 12:32, Rev. 22:17). Heaven will be\nintegrated not segregated (Rev. 5:9). Paul preached\nthat we are all ONE in Christ\u2014there is neither Jew nor Gentile, male nor\nfemale, black nor white, bond or free (Gal. 3:28). Racial barriers all fall at\nthe foot of the cross and the color line is washed away in the blood of Jesus! Notice How Jesus broke down racial barriers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>\u2022<\/strong><strong> Jesus went to Samaria to save the Woman at the Well.<\/strong> Most Jews went the long way around Samaria just to avoid \u201cthose people.\u201d\nThere was total segregation between Jews and Samaritans in Bible times, and they\neven worshipped in separate temples (Jn. 4:9, 20). But Jesus had a divine\nappointment with a broken woman who desperately needed His help. The disciples\nwere shocked that Jesus even spoke to her (Jn. 4:27), yet He took the time to reveal His Messiahship to her (Jn. 4:25-26). She\nwas a five-time divorcee with a live-in lover, then she met the 7th man\u2014the one\nshe\u2019d been looking for all along. As a result, a two-day revival broke out in\nSamaria (Jn. 4:39-42).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2022 <strong>Jesus healed a Roman Centurion\u2019s servant<\/strong> (Mt. 8:5-13). We skim over this story without realizing the racial\ntension between Jews and Romans. The Jews despised them for occupying their\nland, controlling their lives, and overtaxing them. Jesus was willing to go to\nthe Centurion\u2019s house. To us, that\u2019s no big deal, but most Jews then wouldn\u2019t\neven consider going near the house of an \u201cunclean\u201d Gentile. The Centurion said Jesus\ncould just speak the word only. He knew how the chain of command worked (his\nboss gave him orders and he gave his soldiers orders). Then Jesus commended his\nfaith and healed his servant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2022<strong>Jesus delivered the Syrophoenician woman\u2019s daughter<\/strong> (Mt. 15:21-28). Jesus ventured beyond the borders of Israel to meet this\nGreek lady (Mk. 7:26). At first, He ignored her (Mt. 15:23). Then, He excluded\nher\u2014<em>\u201cI was not sent except to the lost\nsheep of the house of Israel\u201d<\/em> (Mt. 15:24). Next, it seems, He insulted her<em>\u2014\u201cIt is not\ngood to take the children\u2019s bread and throw it to the little dogs\u201d<\/em> (Mt\n15:26). (Jews often referred to Gentiles as dogs.) She must have been a bulldog\nbecause she refused to take no for an answer, <em>\u201cYes, Lord, yet even the\nlittle dogs eat the crumbs which fall from their masters\u2019 table\u201d <\/em>(Mt.\n15:27). Jesus tested her but was so impressed by her faith that He delivered\nher daughter from demons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2022\n<strong>Jesus healed a Samaritan leper<\/strong> (Lk. 17:11-19). When Jesus cleansed\nthe ten lepers near Samaria, only one returned to give thanks. Luke, the only\nGentile Bible author, identified him as a Samaritan. Jesus was amazed, <em>\u201cWere\nthere not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? Were there not any found who\nreturned to give glory to God <strong>except this foreigner<\/strong>?\u201d<\/em> (Lk 17:17-18).\nNine Jewish lepers were healed, the grateful Samaritan was made completely\nwhole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2022 <strong>Jesus told the Parable of the\nGood Samaritan<\/strong> (Lk. 10:30-37). Samaritans were the \u201cbad guys\u201d to the Jews,\nbut Jesus deliberately made a Samaritan the hero of his story to show there is\ngood in people we may not like. Notice the priest and the Levite (two \u201cgood\nguys\u201d) did nothing to help the victim. Jesus redefined who our neighbor is\u2014not\njust someone who lives on the same street, but any person of any race who is in\nneed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jesus included the Gentiles and removed\nracial barriers. It caused a backlash from His own people and eventually led to\nHis crucifixion. After all, He wasn\u2019t just the King of the Jews, as the\nSamaritans testified, <em>\u201cWe know that this is indeed the Christ, the <strong>Savior\nof the WORLD<\/strong>\u201d<\/em> (Jn. 4:42). In God\u2019s eyes, there is only one race\u2014the\nhuman race!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jesus went out of His way to break down racial barriers. The racism He confronted was between Jews, Samaritans, and Gentiles. There was even a racial rivalry among the Jews (Judeans derided Galileans and Galileans disdained Nazarenes). This is evident by how Nathaniel stereotyped Jesus, \u201cCan anything good come out of Nazareth?\u201d (Jn. 1:46). He [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":244,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=241"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":242,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241\/revisions\/242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goodspringsfgc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}