In my last installment, we
discussed the need for low Christology. As
a review Christology is the study of who Jesus is and what he does. Low
Christology emphasizes Jesus’ humanity and his connection with the here and
now. This emphasis does not mean completely abandoning High Christology, which
emphasizes his divinity. Reformed culture goes from Jesus’ divinity and then
his humanity. Yet, we must reverse this progression. We must start with his humanity, then bridge to his divinity. Daniel White Hodge labels the Jesus of
low Christology “Black Jesuz”. In describing him, Hodge says: “The Black
Jesuz opts for a “low Christology” (that is, a Christ who walked among the
people) emphasizing his humanity, over against the “high view” that emphasizes
Jesus’ divinity.”[1]
A Christology that will connect with the urban context focuses on Jesus’
humanity, which leads to his divinity. We
will focus on two practical ways to
present low Christology in the urban context in this blog: Jesus’ multiracial
background and Jesus’ impoverished background.
Firstly, Jesus’ multiracial
background can connect with people from the urban context. Jesus genealogy shows that he was related to
Ruth, who was in the royal line. Ruth was not a Jew, she was a Gentile from Moab. Jesus was not a blond-haired, blue-eyed dude,
but he was a Jew with mixed ancestry. This fact about Jesus can have power in
black neighborhoods, because Jesus did not come in the form of a white male,
but a minority male. Although we Presbyterians like to overlook history,
history teaches us that most minority cultures have had the dominant culture
(white culture) oppress them in implicit and explicit ways. Donald Macleod
says, concerning his connection with oppressed minorities:“As the true biological son of his
mother Jesus is particularized as a well-connected first-century Jew, born in
humble circumstances and sharing the poverty and harassment of an oppressed
under-class.”[2] We tend to overlook the fact that Jesus
grew up as a minority in his land and he experienced being a refugee at the age
of two. Jesus connects with minority cultures more than we have emphasized in
Reformed theology, because Reformed theology has had white males set the tone.
In addressing this issue, Daniel Hodge says: "Hip Hop as a culture is composed of many different
ethnicities. If you ask many U.S. Christians today what they think Jesus looks
and talks like, they would characterize him as White, with long wavy hair and a
beard, and a British accent. By contrast, the Hip Hop Jesuz is multiethnic"[3]Consequently, we in the Reformed culture have made a
minority culture Jesus into a deity that mostly identities with middle class to
upper middle class white culture values and mores. Our LORD in a lot of ways had more connection
with growing up a minority without power and access` in his land than he did as
a person with political, social, and economic power.
People in the urban
context need to see this aspect of Jesus’ humanity and it will help them build
a bridge to his divinity, because they live in the same political, social, and
economic context as our LORD. I think once people can connect to these aspects
of our LORD, then the cross can look beautiful.
You may ask how do we build this bridge? We have to make him
look beautiful. Our job is not to get people converted, but our job is to make
the Jesus of scripture look beautiful. The Holy Spirit does the converting. Jesus lived as an oppressed minority, but the
oppression he faced was not the end of his story. Jesus faced so much oppression
that he died because of it. He suffered
as an ethnic minority with no power. In other words, Jesus did not suffer as a white savior, but he
suffered as Leroy down the street.
Isaiah 53 says about him:
For he grew up before
him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or
majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He
was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him
not. [4]
We can all agree that no one man can eliminate the problems
that come along with being a minority by just empathizing the problems that come with being a minority.
On the contrary, if Jesus merely empathizes with our problems, but cannot do anything to take them away, he
is not any good to anyone. Yet, what
makes Jesus different is that though oppression caused his death, it was not
the end of the story. God raised Jesus
from the dead, although oppression killed him. His resurrection struck the
final blow to all oppression on the face of the earth. Jesus’ death and
resurrection was a preview to what all Christians will see in the future and
get to be a part of: the overthrowing of oppressive structures in this world. This
gives us hope that whatever oppression that we face in our lives right now will not have the final say
over us. The only way to truly receive
victory over oppression is to embrace the rule and reign of the risen Jesus
that lives forever, because he is also God.
In addition, Jesus understood the
plight of growing up in the inner city. Our High Christology underemphasizes
Jesus’ impoverished background. If history proves true during the ancient times
there were two classes of people the “haves” and the “have nots.” Our LORD most
likely was from the “have nots” class. There is a reason why they said, “Can
anything good come from Nazareth?”[5]
It’s ironic that our LORD came from the other side of the tracks, but we have
made him seem like he’s a suburbanite teacher who was a radical. Jesus was more
Compton, than Beverly Hills. Jesus was
poor, because his momma and daddy were poor. His friends were poor and outcast,
because he was poor and outcast in some ways himself. Jesus grew up in the urban
contexts of Rome and not in the “gated” communities of the Roman Empire. Why
else would people in his day be looking for him to restore the nation of Israel?
Jesus’ impoverished background
means that our LORD probably did not have access to the best jobs in the city.
He probably did not have access to the best education in the city. It means he
probably experienced oppression and harassment from the Roman law enforcement.
It means that he knew what it meant to live pay check to pay check. It meant he
knew what it meant to see his parents work only to just make the rent. He probably battled the demons of low
expectations. “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”[6]These
facts will connect will people in the inner-city and help build bridges to the
divinity of Christ, because people in the inner-city have experienced all these
things and more that I have not listed here.
You may ask how does one bridge his
divinity? Again we make the gospel beautiful. . Jesus experienced all the
consequences of growing up poor and coming from the wrong side of the tracks. We
already know the he is able to empathize with the plight of the inner city.
Jesus never denied where he was from, because where he was from was the very
means of our redemption. He could not accomplish his mission without being from
the ‘hoods of Rome. Hebrews 2 said he had to sympathize with humanity in every
way in order to accomplish the forgiveness of sins. It says:
14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he
too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of
him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free
those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16
For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For
this reason he had to be made like them,[k] fully human in every way, in order
that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and
that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. [7]
The beauty of Christianity that main line evangelicals miss
sometimes is that we are not saved by a Harvard grad, but we are saved by a sinless ‘hood dude. It’s like being saved by Jay-Z rather, than Mister Rogers.
Therefore, Jesus knows Ray Ray's rough spots, but he does not send him away. On
the contrary, he gives him an invitation to join him. He’s worth joining, because
not only is he a ‘hood dude, he has the power to change everything. He has this
power, because he was God incarnate. God incarnate is more ‘hood, than we
believers want to realize. That’s a savior we should follow.
Next time we will focus on Jesus’ fellowship
with sinners and his bucking of religious authority of the day.
[1] Hodge, Daniel White. The Soul of Hip Hop. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2010. (127)Link to this book
[2]
Macleod, Donald. The Person of Christ.
Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1998. Print.(162)Link to this book
[3]
Hodge,136
[4]
ESV, Isa 53:2-3
[5]
ESV, John 1:46
[6]
ESV, John 1:46
[7]
NIV, Hebrews 2:14-17 http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews+2
accessed 10/30/2013
