But we must also understand something else: who the real oppressor is. And this is very important, especially for those of us as black students - to come to grips with where real oppression ties. It was Dick Gregory who put me on to this (again, not noted to be an evangelical, but nevertheless a prophet). It was Dick Gregory who said, "We get angry at that policeman who busts our heads in the black community. But many of us never really understand that the policeman in the black community is the real nigger. Why? Because he, too, is oppressed. He's only taking orders."
So then when I find out who is oppressing that policeman, then I must find out who is oppressing the man who is oppressing the policeman. I keep going until I get on a higher plane. Then I begin to understand what Paul means when he says, "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of darkness, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
The difficulty for us to understand as Christians is who really runs this world; in whose hands the world really belongs. One of the reasons we have a problem with this is because of some of our hymnology-songs like "This Is My Father's World." When you read the Scriptures, you discover the Bible says that Satan is the prince and power of the air, he is the prince of this world and has not been removed from that position. That is why, when Satan took Jesus on a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and said, "I will deliver them to you if you will bow down and worship me," Jesus refused.
Many theologians say the reason Jesus refused was that he already had the kingdoms. That was not true. If Christ already owned the kingdoms of the world, then what Satan offered him would not have been a real temptation. The temptation lay in the fact that Satan did have the power to deliver to Jesus the kingdoms of this world. If, then, the kingdoms of this world belong to Satan, then at best, what you and I as evangelical Christians must become is infiltrators, fifth columnists in Satan's world for the purpose of preaching liberation to an oppressed people.
That is why, just as the Indian Christians had to renounce the British Empire, I as a black Christian have to renounce Americanism. I have to renounce any attempt to wed Jesus Christ off to the American system. I disassociate myself from any argument that says a vote for America is a vote for God. I disassociate myself from any argument that says God is on our side. I disassociate myself from any argument, which says that God sends troops to Asia, that God is a capitalist, that God is a militarist, that God is the worker behind our system.
The thing you must recognize is that Jesus Christ is no more a capitalist than he is a socialist or a communist. He is no more a Democrat than he is a Republican. He is no more the president of the New York Stock Exchange than he is the head of the Socialist Party. He is neither of that. He is the Lord of heaven and earth. And if you are going to respond to Jesus Christ, you must respond to him as Lord.
Let me conclude my thinking then. There is no possible way you can talk about preaching the gospel if you do not want to deal with the issues that bind people. If your gospel is an "either-or" gospel, I must reject it. Any gospel that does not talk about delivering to man a personal Savior who will free him from the personal bondage of sin and grant him eternal life and does not at the same time speak to the issue of enslavement, the issue of injustice, the issue of inequality - any gospel that does not want to go where people are hungry and poverty-stricken and set them free in the name of Jesus Christ is not the gospel.
Allow me to conclude with this illustration. The thing that turned me on to Jesus was the fact that in his day there was a system working just like today. The Romans were oppressing the Jews. And there arose in the hills of Jerusalem a fellow by the name of Barabbas. Barabbas said to his people, "There is only one way to get that Roman honky off your back, and that's to burn him out." And Barabbas went through the hills and suburbia burning those nice Roman suburban homes. The Romans finally caught up with Barabbas and arrested him and charged him with anarchy, insurrection and murder.
But out in those same hills was another radical. His name was Jesus. He had no guns, no tanks, no ammunition. And, of all the dumb things, he went around preaching a thing called the kingdom of God. But some things started happening. Blind people started seeing. Lame people started to getting up and walking. People started to get liberated mentally and physically. Homes started being put back together. And from miles around people came to sit at the feet of this man who had this strong rap, this tremendous taste for the kingdom of God.
He began to point out some things. And some people started to get themselves together. But people also began to get disturbed, because Jesus made the tragic mistake of hanging out with the wrong people. The accusation brought against Jesus was, "This man eats and drinks with sinners." If Jesus had chosen to walk the streets of our ghetto today, you could see him walking down Lenox Avenue and 125th Street. And there is a little short brother who can not see Jesus, so he climbs up on the fire escape to get a view. And just then Jesus spots him and says, "Hey, Zack, what're you doing up there? Come on down, because today I've got to abide in your house." And I can see those Bible-believing fundamentalist Christians standing in the background, saying: "But, Lord, you can't go to his house. You might lose your testimony."
But you see, Jesus lost his testimony every day because he rubbed shoulders with people. And I challenge you that if you are talking about evangelism and about missions, you have got to be talking about going into the world. And the world is where the action is. Get away from this business of "full-time Christian work" and recognize that every last one of us is called to a mission.
You may be called to be a business executive. Study, get your management principles down and infiltrate the business world for Jesus. You may be called to be an athlete. Get out on the field and become the kind of athlete that can cause you to have an effective witness in the sports world, for that is your mission field. If you are called to be a secretary, get it together, work your way up, become sharp secretaries to the top executives in this country. Secretaries influence executives. You can influence America from those offices. That is where the mission field is.
Some of you will be called to a life style of militancy. Get away from this business that to be militant is to be anti-God. I am a militant; make no bones about it. Jesus was militant. And some of us will be called to adopt the militant life style. But keep in mind that militancy and radicalism must be disciplined and controlled by the Word of God and by the Holy Spirit.
Let me hasten to conclude. Jesus was turning the whole thing upside-down. So they finally had to arrest him too. Because, you see, Jesus was dangerous. He was dangerous because he was changing the system. The whole Roman Empire was shaking. But no shots were being fired, no fire bombs were being thrown, but the whole Roman Empire was rocking. Because, you see, anybody who changes the system is dangerous.
Remember Chicago? Remember those 15,000 kids that went to Chicago for the Democratic Convention in '68? Why did people get disturbed because those kids went? Were they mad because they threw urine at the police? No. Were they mad because they cursed the police? No. Because they were lawless? No. They were mad because the kids went to change the system.
Now, I am not saying that I agree with what they did. What I am saying is that their motive was to change the system. Because you see, six weeks before the Democratic Convention, the Shriners met in Chicago. Thirty Thousand Shriners had their convention in Chicago. And it is a fact that when the Shriners met in Chicago more booze and prostitution flowed in the streets of Chicago than in any other given period in that city. Prostitutes were brought in from Illinois, Michigan, Indiana and from all around to meet the needs of those men. But you never read about it, because those Shriners did not come to Chicago to change anything. They came to buy something. And as long as you are buying and not changing, you are safe.
But Jesus came to change the system. And so they had to arrest him too. Now, Jesus would not have disagreed with Barabbas' diagnosis of the human system. Barabbas said, "The Roman system stinks, it's militaristic, it's oppressive." And Jesus would have agreed. The difference between Jesus and Barabbas was in their different solutions.
And so the Romans have two revolutionaries locked up. It is around festivity time. And Pilate stands out before the Jews with these two prisoners - potential radicals. And Pilate says, "You know, around this time of year, I get very gracious. I want you to know that I love all you dear Jewish people. Why, some of my best friends are Jews. Now, I'm going to release one of these men to you, and I want you to tell me which one you want. Over here I've got Jesus Barabbas (that was Barabbas' full name), and, here, just plain Jesus. So you've got two Jesuses on your hands." So it is not a question as to whether there is going to be a revolution. It is which revolution.
Pilate went on: "Over here I've got Barabbas. Barabbas has been burning the system down, killing people. Do you want him? And over here I've got Jesus, who claims to be the son of God. I've interrogated him, and I can't find anything wrong with him, other than the fact that some dead people are alive because of him, some blind people have seen, some deaf people are hearing and, by the way, lie did feed a few thousand people with a welfare give-away program, but other than that I can't find anything wrong with him. So which one do you want? Jesus or Barabbas?"
And with one voice they cried out, "Give us Barabbas!" The question is: Why Barabbas and not Jesus? Barabbas is the cat burning the system down, he is killing people. Why him instead of Jesus? Very simple. If you let Barabbas go, you can always stop him. The most Barabbas will do is go out, round up another bunch of guerrillas and start another riot. And you can always stop him by rolling your tanks into his neighborhood, bringing out the National Guard and putting down his riot. Find out where he is keeping his ammunition. Raid his apartment without a search warrant and shoot him while he is still asleep. You can stop Barabbas.
But how do you stop Jesus? They nailed him to a cross. But they did not realize that, in nailing Jesus to the cross, they were putting up on that cross the sinful nature of all humanity. Christ, nailed to the cross, was more than just a political radical dying; he was God's answer to the human dilemma. On that cross Christ was bearing my sins in his own body, and he was proclaiming my liberation on that cross. He shed his blood to cleanse me of all my sin, to set me free. Then they buried him, rolled a stone over his grave, wiped their hands and said, "There is one radical who will never disturb us again. We have gotten rid of him. We will never hear any more of his words of revolution."
Three days later Jesus Christ pulled off one of the greatest political coups of all time: He got up out of the grave. When he arose from the dead, the Bible now calls him the second man, the new man, the leader of a new creation. A Christ who has overthrown the existing order and established a new order that is not built on man. Keep in mind, my friend, with all your militancy and radicalism, that all the systems of men are doomed to destruction. All the systems of men will crumble and, finally, only God's kingdom and his righteousness will prevail. You will never be radical until you become part of that new order and then go into a world that is enslaved, a world that is filled with hunger and poverty and racism and all those things of the work of the devil.
Proclaim liberation to the captives, preach sight to the blind, set at liberty them that are bruised, go into the world and tell men that are bound mentally, spiritually and physically, "The liberator has come!"
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