During Jesus day and in most of the world today, except for America, people are classified by where they come from and who they belong to. For example if you are from France, regardless of if you are black or white, you are French. They, your ancestors, may belong to Cameroon or the Ivory Coast but you are a French citizen and therefore French.
It's not that easy in America where the whole point of slavery was to purposely steal, conceal and rob people of that very thing. Taking children from there mother's and selling them away so they never truly know where they come from and to whom 'they belong.
]Histories lost. Identify destroyed. It was purposeful.
Doesn't that sounds familiar? History is now repeating itself as this administration steals children from their parents. The purpose is to strip them of where they come from and who they belong to.
Nowhere in the Bible does it talk about color. That's because in God's Economy it doesn't matter. The concept of White Jesus and Black Jesus have always puzzled me. Because both are fake news.
First, black and white didn't exist during Jesus day. So we are trying to force onto the Bible an idea that was not designed by God and has no place in His kingdom. Man cares about the color of ones skin. In God's Economy there was only one distinction that mattered. Jew and Gentile.
Color had nothing to do with this distinction. It had everything to do with where you came from and who you belonged to. Which means that us Americans are all Gentiles. unless you can trace your family tree back to the line of Abraham you in the same category as this Caribbean American black girl. No one color was superior.
Second, We don't own Jesus. He wasn't a white guy and he wasn't a black guy. He was some color in the middle. But that doesn't even matter. What mattered is where he came from and who he belonged to. That's what made Him important. That's what made Him special. That's what made Him the Messiah.
Family line is what matters in the Bible. Whom you belong to and where you are from. There are whole passages of scripture dedicated to just list who begat who. Jesus himself came from the line of David. He was from Nazareth. He was sent by God. He was born of a virgin. He belongs to the Jews. He belongs to God.
All of this is important because it fulfilled the prophecy. Nowhere does it say this one with caramel skin and this one with white skin or blue or purple because it wasn't important.
Third, Jesus died for all of us anyhow. After the Jews rejected Him He went to tell all the Gentiles or non-Jews about Salvation. When He died he did it for all of us not just some of us. Color has no bearing on your Salvation. If you accept the gift Of Christ you're saved.
I get it through. We all want Jesus to look like us so that we can say we are in the club or have a place to find belonging. And I understand the need to try to erase the whitewashed Jesus presented to slaves years ago so that we can say that Jesus is ours. But the truth is He is yours and He does look like you. He has two eyes, a nose, a mouth, hair, two hands, two feet. He has been angry. He has been sad. He has loved. He has experienced disappointment. He has walked in our shoes and lived this life. He represents all of us.
We need to change our mindset. We are all part of the family of God. You belong to God. Regardless of color and that's all that matters.
The Unlikely Missionary
DHW
