I Can’t Breathe…

Let me state the obvious: I’m not a black man.  I’ve never been particularly worried about being stopped by the police.  I’ve never coached my son on how to act when an officer of the law gives an order, fearing that if he doesn’t give exactly the right responses, he would be shot.

My friends of color tell me there is a different reality.  They tell me they worry about their children every day being shot by law enforcement.  They tell me about shopping in stores and being followed by clerks, who profile them as potential thieves.  They tell me about being demeaned because of the color of their skin in the workplace and in the marketplace.

I never thought much about “white privilege.”  But I could not help but wonder: what if I was in Minneapolis and gave a store clerk a fake $20 bill?  What would happen?  The police might be called.  If they asked me where I got that bill, I would probably say “I don’t know.”  I would tell them I didn’t know it was fake.  The officers would probably believe me, just because I’m white.  That’s “white privilege.”

If I were arrested, I probably wouldn’t panic.  If the officers tried to put me in a police car and I said I was claustrophobic, they would probably let me stand outside until I was able to calm myself.  If they put me on the ground and I protested, “I can’t breathe,” they probably would have let me up and told me to stay still.  All because I’m white.

My friends in law enforcement tell me something was dreadfully wrong with what happened to George Floyd in Minneapolis.  The incident is an unfortunate reminder that even if 99% of law enforcement do their jobs and protect the rights of all, 1% is still too high a failure rate.  There are many good law enforcement officers out there.  But the incident with George Floyd is even more terrible than a police shooting of someone unarmed.  This is occurred while a man begged for mercy: “I can’t breathe.” 

I think about the Savior I follow.  He was not white.  He was not black.  He was a Mediterranean Jew, who probably had an olive complexion.  Jesus knew what it meant to be profiled.  The Roman authorities thought every Jew had rebellion on their mind.  The Romans believed in law and order.  They would flood areas of their empire with troops to suppress any activity that threatened their power.  Innocent people were often beaten, or imprisoned, or killed, just because of their race.

All four gospels make clear that Jesus was not strung up by a mob.  It was all very tidy, very legal.  He was condemned by a Jewish court, then condemned by Pilate, the supreme authority of Rome.  Though his death was part of God’s plan, it was still wrong, horribly wrong, for him to die.  But it was done legally, by all the law enforcement officials. 

The cross was a cruel instrument of death.  It was designed by the Romans to send a message: “Don’t mess with Rome.”  When preachers talked about the cross, we usually focus on the nailing of the hands and feet.  Nails piercing flesh result in intense pain.  But the body has a way of producing adrenaline to push the pain back.  The true great cruelty of the cross was asphyxiation.  The body was stretched out and a block of wood was placed above the buttocks.  To breathe, a person would have to lift their weight up, use their upper body and arm strength, pull their weight over the block of wood, and then gasp for air.  As the body tired, as strength left the muscles, the breaths became shallower and shallower.   Oxygen became scarce.  Finally, when strength left the body, the victim could no longer pull his body up to breathe and he died.  This is what happened to Jesus.  He died because he could not breathe.

This is something I need to remember.  My Savior knew exactly how George Floyd felt.  

There is a difference, however.  George Floyd died because he tried to pay with a fake $20 bill.  Jesus died for the sins of the world.  The unfathomable mystery of God is this:  Jesus died for George Floyd, so that whatever sins he committed could be forgiven. Jesus also died for Derek Chauvin, the former police officer who put his knee on George Floyd’s neck, so his sins could be forgiven as well.   That, my friends, is the depth of the grace of God. 

Do not Let the Weak Die…

I saw a video clip of a news reporter in Tennessee, giving details of a protest on the steps of the state capital. The protesters were clamoring for the Governor to reopen the state for business and let life return to normal, whatever that means in this COVID19 world. Behind the reporter was a young man in his twenties, holding a sign. It said, “Let the weak die, Open TN (Tennessee).”

This young man’s poster is an echo of other voices. The Lieutenant Governor of Texas said, “There are more important things than living, and that’s saving this country for my children and grandchildren and saving this country for all of us.”  I agree lives may need to be sacrificed to preserve our freedom, but is it right to sacrifice a life to make sure we can all live comfortably? I have a hunch if the Lieutenant Governor infected with Corona virus and hospitalized, he would not be saying, “Go ahead and let me die so the price of gas can go up.” 

Of course, it is easy to skewer politicians and protesters, but I have heard similar comments from everyday folks. “People are going to die from the flu anyway,” someone told me the other day. Isn’t funny how its easy to dismiss “people” but when it is my people, my grandmother, my dad, I think their life is precious.

Throughout history there is a vicious, ugly thought that rises: some people are worth more than others. In the Ancient World, the world of the Bible, that was the way most people thought. Foreigners were enemies. Kill them because their lives do not matter. Enslave them, all they are good for is hard labor. It was a brutal world, where survival of the fittest lead to might makes right.

In Jesus’ world, it was common for baby girls to be abandoned. Girls were not thought to be as valuable as boys. Sick relatives were often set out to die. No need trying to take care of the elderly; they could not work anymore. What value did they add?

Jesus, building on Jewish teaching, taught something radically different. He told a story about a shepherd leaving ninety-nine sheep to go search for the one lost sheep. Bad economics, great shepherding. In that one Bible verse most people know, it is clearly stated, “For God so loved the world…”  Not just certain kinds of people. Not just certain nations. Not just the young and health. The world. Regardless of gender, nationality, orientation, or age, God loves everyone who ever has or ever will exist.

Jesus followers in the first centuries after his resurrection put this into practice. They picked up the abandoned babies and loved them as their own children. They cared for the sick and the elderly. When persecuted for their faith, they were willing to die rather than adapt.

It is true that Jesus followers got a lot wrong as time went by. By the Dark Ages, people who called Jesus “Lord” would go to war in his name. They were not merciful. During the plagues that hit Europe, the sick was not always cared for. People reverted to practices of their ancestors and left the sick to die.

Still, it was the followers of Jesus who built orphanages and hospitals. Established on the teachings of their Lord, they cared for the “least of these.”  There is something about Jesus’ clear instructions that the church cannot shake.

Regimes sprout up to challenge this value of human life from time to time. Not so long ago, people with dark skin were thought to be less than human and were enslaved. Native Americans were torn from their land in the name of economic progress. Hitler touted the superiority of the Aryan race and killed 12 million people. Some were Jews, others deformed, still others were political dissidents.

The greatest flaw when someone protests and says, “Let the weak die” is their failure to see themselves as weak. We all start as weak babies, needing care and nurture. Most of us will at some time get sick and need tender nursing. Many of us will get older and in our final days, we will be weak. Someone will have to feed us and bathe us. We all either are weak, or we will be.

Jesus followers believe Jesus came not for the strong, not for those who can fend for themselves, but for the weak and the meek. He taught us in the greatest sermon ever that until we admit our poverty, our weakness, our need for God, we will never find the strength we truly need. It is the strength, as the Apostle Paul said, the makes all things possible.

If Jesus came to help the weak – everyone of us – do we dare turn to anyone and say, “Go ahead and die?”   Aren’t you glad God is better than that?