Jesus' Take on Race Relations

Ryan Leak
Oct 3, 2020
7 min read

https://vimeo.com/462040338

Going There Week 2

September 25/27, 2020

Talking about race is tough.

In 2020.

Especially online.

Jesus’ Take on Race

September 25/27, 2020

Ryan Leak

The vocabulary of race emotionally triggers us in conversations.

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Black Lives Matter

All Lives Matter

Blue Lives Matter

White Privilege

White Supremacy

Anti-Racist

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My ancestry

DNA.

Going There Week 2

September 25/27, 2020

None of us are 100% anything.

The race narrative has been dominated by white people and black people, but

there’s a lot more colors in the room.

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Only 50% of the U.S. population under the age of 18 is Caucasian.

How did Jesus deal with race matters?

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Show & Tell

He showed his disciples some things.

He told them some things.

I don’t want to give my opinion on race matters in America. That’s what Facebook

is for. I want to look at some crucial Jesus moments I think we can learn and grow

from.

If it’s your first time at Chase Oaks, or a friend sent you this message, just so you

know, we think Jesus is a really big deal. He predicted his death, burial, and

resurrection and I’ve never heard of anyone else doing that. In fact, if you did that,

I would believe anything you said. His ways were counter-culture when He walked

the earth in human form, and His ways are counter-culture today. I’d argue, our

culture needs something different and I believe what Jesus showed and told his

disciples change everything for you and I.

First, let’s look at who’s on Jesus’ team who he taught the most.

Jesus had 12 disciples.

SLIDE______________________) Mark 3:16-19

Going There Week 2

September 25/27, 2020

“He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter); James the

son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name

Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder); Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and

Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and

Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.”

It's interesting that there were three sets of brothers among the disciples - Simon

Peter and Andrew, James and John (the sons of Zebedee), and the other James and

Thaddeus. Have you ever done business with family? And then James and John

momma got involved once.

SLIDE________________________) Mark 20:20-21

“Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to him with her sons, and

kneeling before him she asked him for something. And he said to her, “What do

you want?” She said to him, “Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at

your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.”

So, let’s do roll call for this crew:

Imagine you’re Jesus. You’re fully man, but you’re also fully God. Technically

speaking, you had a hand in making Peter and James’ momma. And she’s

approaching you for a spot in the kingdom. It’s kinda funny.

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3 Sets of brothers

Simon the Zealot

Matthew The Tax Collector

(Matthew was pretty good with money. How do you think he felt about Judas being

the treasurer?)

Going There Week 2

September 25/27, 2020

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Judas the Traitor

Thomas the Doubter

Peter the Loner

Bartholomew The Unknown

They had diverse backgrounds, but they were all presumably young and Jewish.

So, what’d Jesus do for this diverse group of Jewish zealots, fishermen, tax

collectors, and traitors to help them understand how the world works and what he

wanted to do in it?

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Field trips

Because what else would you do to show someone a world outside of their own?

What else would you do to show someone the world outside of their own skin?

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What Jesus did is equally important as where Jesus did it.

SLIDE_____________________) Mark 4:35

“On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the

other side.”

SLIDE_______________________) Mark 5:1

“They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes.”

Going There Week 2

September 25/27, 2020

Let go across to the other side… When Jesus says those simple words to his

disciples, they probably about had a heart attack. Jesus had been preaching on the

western bank of the Sea of Galilee, which meant, basically, that he was preaching

to people like himself and his disciples—his fellow Galileans, mostly poor

fishermen and their families, mostly Jewish, with a strong regional identity. And

suddenly Jesus is saying, Let’s go to the other side, by which he means, let’s cross

the Sea of Galilee, at its widest point, from west to east, and go to other side, which

in modern times we’d call the Nation of Jordan, and which back in those days was

a land filled with people completely different from Galileans. This was Gentile

territory, an area called the Decapolis, or the Ten Cities, populated by Arabs and

by people from every part of the Roman Empire, sophisticated types, people who

were proud Romans. Even the Jews who lived on the other side were completely

different from Galileans. Jews who lived in the Decapolis were comfortable with

compromises most Jews wouldn’t have made. They were willing to live among and

work among people that Jews considered unclean, maybe even engage in unclean

practices like eating pork. There were key Roman units garrisoned there. These

people didn’t like Galilean Jews and Galilean Jews didn't like them; and here’s

Jesus saying, let’s cross over to the other side and hang out with them! The other

side isn’t just any other side, it’s the dark side.

SLIDE________________________) Mark 5:20

“And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus

had done for him, and everyone marveled.”

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Field Trip #1 Lesson: The goal of going to the other side isn’t to be comfortable.

It’s to be effective.

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Unity Table.

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How are you processing 2020?

What’s it like to be you?

Going There Week 2

September 25/27, 2020

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We should embrace opportunities to engage with people who look different than

us, and when we do, we should take notes over giving lessons.

SLIDE_______________________) Mark 7:24

“And from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And he

entered a house and did not want anyone to know, yet he could not be hidden. But

immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and

came and fell down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, a Syrophoenician

by birth. And she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. And he said

to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread

and throw it to the dogs.” But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs

under the table eat the children's crumbs.” And he said to her, “For this statement

you may go your way; the demon has left your daughter.” And she went home and

found the child lying in bed and the demon gone.

Matthew called her a Canaanite woman as he was tailoring his gospel for the Jews.

Mark was writing for the benefit of the Romans. This woman lived in Phoenicia

(which, politically speaking, belonged to the province of Syria), but her ancestry is

Canaanite.

We never get her name, but we get her race because her race was important for this

story.

This woman is a Canaanite. This detail is important because it means she is a

descendant of one of Israel's oldest rivals and enemies. And now she is walking up

to a Jewish rabbi in need of a miracle. It should also be noted historians tell us it

was highly unlikely for Jesus to go to the region of Tyre and Sidon because

Tyrians had much ill will toward the Jews. Given the racial tension in the text, she

could reason Jesus may not want to heal her daughter simply because she was not a

Jew. Clearly, she had heard stories of what Jesus could do. Perhaps this woman

knew Jesus had healed Gentiles (non-Jews) before. We see evidence of this earlier

in the book of Matthew in previous chapters. Yet what made this encounter special

was Jesus performed those miracles as Gentiles came to Him on Jewish territory.

Here, Jesus was meeting this woman on her territory. And she gets a dog reference.

Going There Week 2

September 25/27, 2020

SLIDE____________________) Matthew 15:23

“But he did not answer her a word. And his disciples came and begged him,

saying, ‘Send her away, for she is crying out after us.’

They’re annoyed on this field trip. And this game is now 13 Jewish Men vs 1

Canaanite mom. But despite their rivalry, this mom had faith.

SLIDE_____________________) Mark 7:31

“Then he returned from the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of

Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.”

This was about 40 miles away from home, yet Jesus made the trip anyway for just

one Canaanite woman.

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Jesus walks.

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Field Trip #2 Lesson: Biases about whole groups deteriorate by experiencing the

stories of one.

All African-Americans… All Caucasians… All Hispanics… however you fill in

the blank… is rarely if ever a true story.

SLIDE_____________________________________) Mark 8:1

Going There Week 2

September 25/27, 2020

“In those days, when again a great crowd had gathered, and they had nothing to

eat, he called his disciples to him and said to them,I ' have compassion on the

crowd, because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat.

And he directed the crowd to sit down on the ground.’ And he took the seven

loaves, and having given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to

set before the people; and they set them before the crowd.”

“Compassion is knowing your darkness well enough that you can sit in the dark

with others.”

Look how Jesus is leading his disciples.

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Field Trip #3 Lesson: We know we’re becoming more like Jesus when we can

value another life enough to serve it.

We can tolerate each other.

We can get along with each other.

But serving each other values each other.

SLIDE_________________________) Philippians 2:3

“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value

others above yourselves.”

Conversations about race are hard, but they need to happen. How can we handle those talks—and our relationships, too—in a way that infuses them both with understanding and hope? Join us as Ryan Leak “goes there” and shares a fresh approach to this crucial topic.