GOD

of the
OPPRESSED

James H. Cone
Revised Edition

ORBIS Q BOOKS
Maryknoll, New York 10545

,/
98 BLACK THEOLOGY AND IDEOLOGY

CHAPTER 6

Who Is Jesus Christ for Us Today?

To say that Jesus Christ is the truth of the Christian story calls for
further examination. It is one thing to assert that the New Testament
describes Jesus as the Oppressed One who came to liberate the poor
and the weak (Chap. 4); but it is quite another to ask, Who is Jesus
Christ for us today? If twentieth-century Christians are to speak the
truth for their sociohistorical situation, they cannot merely repeat the
story of what Jesus did and said in Palestine, as if it were self­
interpreting for us today. Truth is more than the retelling of the biblical
story. Truth is the divine happening that invades our contemporary
situation, revealing the meaning of the past for the present so that we
are made new creatures for the future. It is therefore our commitment
to the divine truth, as witnessed to in the biblical story, that requires us
to investigate the connection between Jesus' words and deeds in first­
century Palestine and our existence today. This is the crux of the
christological issue that no Christian theology can avoid.

SOCIAL CONTEXT, SCRIPTURE, AND TRADITION

The interplay of social context with Scripture and tradition is the

starting point for an investigation of Jesus Christ's meaning for today.
The focus on social context means that we cannot separate our
questions about Jesus from the concreteness of everyday life. We ask,
"Who is Jesus Christ for us today?" because we believe that the story
of his life and death is the answer to the human story of oppression and
suffering. If our existence were not at stake, if we did not experience
the pain and the contradictions of life, then the christological question
would be no more than an intellectual exercise for professional
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100 WHO IS JESUS CHRIST FOR US TODAY? WHO IS JESUS CHRIST FOR US TODAY? 101

theologians. But for Christians who have experienced the extreme context. There is an otherness which we experience in the encounter
absurdities of life, the christological question is not primarily with Christ that forces us to look beyond our immediate experience to
theoretical but practical. It arises from the encounter of Christ in the other witnesses. One such witness is Scripture. The Bible, it is
struggle of freedom. important to note, does not consist of units of infallible truth about
The question, "Who is Christ?" is not prior to faith, as if the answer God or Jesus. Rather, it tells the story of God's will to redeem
to the christological question is the precondition of faith. Rather, our humankind from sin, death, and Satan. According to the New
question about Christ is derived from Christ himself as he breaks into Testament witnesses, God's decisive act against these powers
our social existence, establishing the truth of freedom in our midst. happened in Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. According to Luke's
This divine event of liberation places us in a new sociopolitical account in Acts, Peter told the story in this manner:
context wherein we are given the gift of faith for the creation of a new
future for ourselves and for humanity. It is because we have en­ You know about Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed him with
countered Christ in our historical situation and have been given the the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and
faith to struggle for truth that we are forced to inquire about the healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with
meaning of this truth for the totality of human existence. The people him. And we can bear witness to all that he did in the Jewish
of Macedonia A.M.E. Church bore witness with songs of praise and country-side and in Jerusalem. He was put to death by hanging
joy to Jesus' power to make the crooked straight and the rough places on a gibbet; but God raised him to life on the third day, and
plain. With Jesus' coming, they contended, Isaiah's prophecy was allowed him to appear, not to the whole people, but to witnesses
being fulfilled. "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain whom God had chosen in advance-to us, who ate and drank
and hill shall be made low. And the glory of the Lord shall be with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to
revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord proclaim him to the people, and affirm that he is the one who
hath spoken it" (Isa. 40:4-5 KJV). Because the people believed that has been designated by God as judge of the living and the dead.
Jesus could conquer sorrow and wipe away the tears of pain and It is to him that all prophets testify, declaring that everyone who
suffering, they expressed their faith in song: trusts in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.
(Acts 10:38-43 NEB)
When rrty way grows drear,
Precious Lord, linger near. This passage is one of several succinct accounts of the early apostles'
When my life is almost gone, witness to the revelatory significance of Jesus of Nazareth. The variety
Hear my cry, hear my call, of these testimonies enriches our perception of Christ while reminding
Hold my hand lest I fall. us that words cannot capture him. The Gospel of Mark speaks of him as
Take my hand, Precious Lord, the Son of God, while John's Gospel says that he is "the offspring of
Lead me home. God himself," "the Word [that] became flesh to dwell among us"
(1:13-14 NEB). For the writer of I Timothy, Jesus was
It is therefore the people's experience of the freedom of Christ in the
context of injustice and oppression that makes them want to know He who was manifested in the body,
more about him. Who is this Christ who lightens our burdens and vindicated in the spirit,
eases our pain? It is our faith in him, born of our deliverance by him seen by angels;
here and now, that leads us to the christological question. who was proclaimed among the nations,
On the other hand, the truth of Jesus Christ, whom we meet in our believed in throughout the world,
social existence, is not exhausted by the questions we ask. The glorified in high heaven.
meaning of Christ is not derived from nor dependent upon our social (I Timothy 3: 16 NEB)

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In contrast to I Timothy's emphasis on Jesus as a manifestation of the to break the barriers of time and space as they walk and talk with
divine glory (with no stress on his pre-existence), the apostle Paul Jesus in Palestine along with Peter, James, and John. They can hear
declared that the divine glory is not revealed, but hidden in the form his cry of pain and experience the suffering as he is nailed on the cross
of.a slave. "For the divine nature was his from the first; yet he did not and pierced in the side.
think to snatch at equality with God, but made himself nothing,
assuming the nature of a slave, ... and in obedience accepted even They nail my Jesus down
death-death on a cross" (Phil.2:6, 8 NEB). They put on him the crown of thorns,
The New Testament is the early Church's response to the history 0 see my Jesus hangin' high!
of Jesus Christ. That response is important for our christological He look so pale an' bleed so free:
reflections, because the Bible is our primary source of information 0 don't you think it was a shame,
about the Jesus we encounter in our social existence.Black people in He hung three hours in dreadful pain?
America had great confidence in the holy Book. This confidence has
not been shaken by the rise of historical criticism and its impact on They also can experience the divine victory of Jesus' resurrection.
the Bible as reflected in theological writings from Rudolf
Bultmann's "New Testament and Mythology"' to James Barr's The Weep no more, Marta,
Bible in the Modern World.2 This does not mean that black people Weep no more, Mary,
are fundamentalists in the strict sense of the term. They have not Jesus rise from the dead,
been preoccupied with definitions of inspiration and infallibility. Happy Morning.
Accordingly, their confidence in the Book has not been so brittle or
contentious as that of white conservatives. It is as if blacks have When the people are thrown back into their present social context,
intuitively drawn the all-important distinction between infallibility they bring with them this sense of having been a witness to Jesus' life,
and reliability. They have not contended for a fully explicit death, and resurrection. Through the experience of moving back and
infallibility, feeling perhaps that there is mystery in the Book, as forth between the first and the twentieth centuries, the Bible is
there is in the Christ. What they have testified to is the Book's transformed from just a report of what the disciples believed about
reliability: how it is the true and basic source for discovering the Jesus to black people's personal story of God's will to liberate the
truth of Jesus Christ. For this reason there has been no crisis of oppressed in their contemporary context. They can now testify with
biblical authority in the black community. The Jesus of black the apostle Paul: "For I am not ashamed of the Gospel.It is the saving
experience is the Christ of Scripture, the One who was born in power of God for everyone who has faith ...because here is revealed
Bethlehem, grew up in Nazareth, taught in Galilee, and died and was God's way of righting wrong, a way that starts from faith and ends in
resurrected in Jerusalem. faith" (Rom.1:16-17 NEB).
The authority of the Bible for Christology, therefore, does not lie in Who Jesus is for us today is not decided by focusing our attention
its objective status as the literal Word of God. Rather, it is found in its exclusively on either the social context alone or the Bible alone but by
power to point to the One whom the people have met in the historical seeing them in dialectical relation. The true interpretation of one is
struggle of freedom. Through the reading of Scripture, the people dependent upon viewing it in the light of the other. We must say
hear other stories about Jesus that enable them to move beyond the unequivocally that who Jesus Christ is for black people today is found
privateness of their own story; through faith because of divine grace, through an encounter with him in the social context of black existence.
they are taken from the present to the past and then thrust back into But as soon as that point is made, the other side of this paradox must
their contemporary history with divine power to transform the be affirmed; otherwise the truth of the black experience is distorted.
sociopolitical context. This event of transcendence enables the people The Jesus of the black experience is the Jesus of Scripture. The

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dialectic relationship of the black experience and Scripture is the point the Jesus story that violated their will for freedom. The passive Christ
of departure of Black Theology's Christology. of white Christianity when combined with African culture became
Serving as an authority, in addition to Scripture, is the tradition of the Liberator of the oppressed from sociopolitical oppression. Under
the Church. Tradition is important because it is the bridge that the influence of this Christ, Richard Allen and James Varick led
connects Scripture with our contemporary situation. While tradition black people to separate themselves from the white Methodist
does not carry the same weight of authority as Scripture, our under­ Church. At another time, Nat Turner saw Jesus as the spirit of violent
standing of the meaning of Jesus Christ in the latter is mediated revolution against the structures of slavery. Again this Christ takes
through the former. Tradition then represents the Church's affir­ the black believer out of history entirely and places him in a new
mation of faith in Jesus Christ at different periods of its history. By heaven where the streets are gold and the gates are pearl. But in every
looking at the meaning of Jesus Christ in different church traditions, case, Christ is the otherness in the black experience that makes
we are given clues to ways of understanding him today. Tradition, possible the affirmation of black humanity in an inhumane situation.
like Scripture, opens our story of Christ to other stories in the past and We must tum to this tradition of black Christology for a perspective
thus forces us to move outside of the subjectivity of our present. on Jesus Christ that will enable us to address the right questions to the
Tradition requires that we ask, What has my experience of Christ "classical" tradition and also locate the Christ of Scripture in our
today to do with the Christ of Nestorius of Constantinople and Cyril contemporary situation.
of Alexandria? By focusing on the black tradition, we not only receive a check
However, we must not forget that what is usually called "tradi­ against the inordinate influence of the "classical" tradition but also
tion" represents the Church's theological justification of its exis­ gain a fresh perspective for interpreting Scripture in the light of
tence on the basis of its support of the state in the oppression of the Christ. The black tradition breaks down the false distinctions between
poor. What are we to make of a tradition that investigated the mean­ the sacred and the secular and invites us to look for Christ's meaning
ing of Jesus' relation to God and the divine and human natures in his in the spirituals and the blues, folklore and sermon. Christ's meaning
person, but failed to relate these christological issues to the libera­ is not only expressed in formal church doctrine but also in the rhythm,
tion of the slave and the poor in the society? We must not only ask the beat, and the swing of life, as the people respond to the vision that
about the social context of the tradition that made it possible for the stamps dignity upon their personhood. It does not matter whether the
Church to treat Christ's relations to the slave as peripheral to its vision is received on Saturday night or Sunday morning or whether
proclamation of the gospel, but we also must press the question to the interpreter of the vision is bluesman B. B. King or the Rev. C. L.
its logical conclusion: In the absence of the theme of freedom or the Franklin. Some people will be able to participate in both expressions
liberation of the slave, did the Church lose the very essence of the without experiencing any contradiction. Others will feel at home with
gospel of Jesus Christ? only one, whether blues or spiritual. But the crucial point is that both
Whether we answer the foregoing question negatively or expressions represent the people's attempt to transcend, to "step
positively, it is no less true that American black people have a over,"3 the limitations placed on them by white society. This is the
tradition of their own that stretches back to Africa and its traditional context for a black analysis of Christ's meaning for today.
religions. We are an African people, at least to the degree that our To summarize: the dialectic between the social situation of the
grandparents came from Africa and not from Europe. They brought believer and Scripture and the traditions of the Church is the place to
with them their stories and combined them with the Christian story, begin the investigation of the question, Who is Jesus Christ for us
thereby creating a black religious tradition unique to North America. today? Social context, Scripture, and tradition operate together to
African culture informed black people's perspective on Christianity enable the people of God to move actively and reflectively with
and made it impossible for many slaves to accept an interpretation of Christ in the struggle of freedom.

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106 WHO IS JESUS CHRIST FOR US TODAY? WHO IS JESUS CHRIST FOR US TODAY? 107

soteriology determined Christology. Who Christ is was controlled by

JESUS IS WHO HE WAS the Greek view of what God had to do to save humanity. Few, if any,
of the early Church Fathers grounded their christological arguments in
The dialectic of Scripture and tradition in relation to our the concrete history of Jesus of Nazareth. Consequently, little is said
contemporary social context forces us to affirm that there is no about the significance of his ministry to the poor as a definition of his
knowledge of Jesus Christ today that contradicts who he was yesterday, person. The Nicene Fathers showed little interest in the christological
i.e., his historical appearance in first-century Palestine. Jesus' past is significance of Jesus' deeds for the humiliated, because most of the
the clue to his present activity in the sense that his past is the medium discussion took place in the social context of the Church's position as
through which he is made accessible to us today. The historical Jesus is the favored religion of the Roman State. It therefore became easy to
indispensable for a knowledge of the Risen Christ. If it can be shown define Jesus as the divinizer (the modem counterpart is "spiritualizer")
that the New Testament contains no reliable historical information of humanity. When this happens Christology is removed from history,
about Jesus of Nazareth or that the kerygma (early Christian preaching) and salvation becomes only peripherally related to this world.
bears no relation to the historical Jesus, then Christian theology is an This tendency continued through the Middle Ages and, as
impossible enterprise. Schweitzer demonstrated, into the modem German tradition. 8 The
In this sense W oltbart Pannenberg is correct in his insistence that historical Jesus was separated from the Christ of faith, and the result
Christology must begin "from below" with the historical Jesus and was docetism. The historical component of the New Testament
not "from above" with the divine Logos separated from the Jesus of witness was subordinated or discredited, leaving Christ's humanity
history. "Jesus possesses significance 'for us,' " writes Pannenberg, without support. This was the danger of Kierkegaard's contention that
"only to the extent that this significance is inherent in himself, in his "from history one can learn nothing about Christ"9 and of Bultmann's
history, and in his person constituted by this history. Only when this program of demythologization. If the historical Jesus is unimportant,
can be shown may we be sure that we are not merely attaching our then the true humanity of Christ is relegated to the periphery of
questions, wishes, and thoughts to his figure."4 If we do not take the christological analysis. At best Christ's humanity is merely verbalized
historical Jesus seriously as the key to locating the meaning of for the purpose of focusing on his divinity.
Christ's presel!ce today, there is no way to avoid the charge of This error was evident in the early developments of "dialectical the­
subjectivism., the identification of Christ today with a momentary ology" as represented in Emil Brunner's The Mediatorio and in Karl
political persuasion. Although we cannot "prove," by historical study Barth's emphasis on Christ as the Revealed Word. Barth's stress on
alone, that Jesus is the Christ, the historical record provides the Christ as the Word of God who stands in judgment on the human word
essential datum without which faith in Christ is impossible.5 led him to subordinate the historical Jesus in his analysis of the
The error of separating the historical Jesus from the Christ of faith Christian gospel. For example, he admitted in the "Preface to the
has a long history. The Church Fathers, including the great theologian Second Edition" of The Epistle to the Romans (1921) that his system is
Athanasius, tended to make Jesus' divinity the point of departure for "limited to a recognition of what Kierkegaard called the 'infinite quali­
an understanding of his humanity. Therefore, whatever else may be tative distinction' between time and eternity." 11 And since the historical
said about the limitations of Harnack's perspective on the History of Jesus lived in time, Barth's avowed concern to hear God's eternal Word
Dogma, he was not too far wrong in his contention that "no single caused him to play down the human side of Christ's presence. To be
outstanding church teacher really accepted the humanity [of Jesus] in sure, the 1920s and the 1930s needed that emphasis, and later Barth
a perfectly unqualified way."6 For example, Athanasius stressed the corrected much of this one-sided view in The Humanity of God
humanity of Jesus because without becoming human, Christ could not ( 1956). 12 But he never really recovered from the early theme of God's
have divinized us. "For he was made man," writes Athanasius, "that absolute transcendence and thus did not achieve the proper dialectical
we might be made God. "7 Here, as with other church teachers, relationship between the historical Jesus and the Christ of faith.

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Contemporary theologians have attempted to correct the one­ My assertion that "Jesus is who he was" not only affirms the
sidedness of the early Church and the implied docetism of dialectical importance of Scripture as the basis of Christology. It also stresses the
theologians. Pannenberg is a case in point: "Where the statement that biblical emphasis on Jesus' humanity in history as the starting point
Jesus is God would contradict his real humanity, one would probably of christological analysis. For without the historical Jesus, theology is
rather surrender the confession of his divinity than to doubt that he left with a docetic Christ who is said to be human but is actually
was really a man." 13 In my perspective, this means that Christology nothing but an idea-principle in a theological system. We cannot have
must begin with an affirmation of who Jesus was in his true humanity a human Jesus unless we have a historical Jesus, that is, unless we
in history, using that point as the clue to who Jesus is for us today. know his history. That is why the writers of the four Gospels tell the
The docetic error crossed the Atlantic to North America in the good news in the form of the story of Jesus' life. The events described
seventeenth century. Particularly during the nineteenth century, it are not intended as fiction but as God's way of changing the course of
displayed special "made in U.S.A" features, as white theologians and history in a human person.
preachers contended that slavery was consistent with the gospel of The historical Jesus emphasizes the social context of Christology
Jesus. Like their German contemporaries whom Schweitzer criticized and thereby establishes the importance of Jesus' racial identity. Jesus
for allowing subjective interests to determine their analyses of the was a Jew! The particularity of Jesus' person as disclosed in his
historical Jesus, the white American Church's analysis of Christ was Jewishness is indispensable for christological analysis. On the one
defined by white people's political and economic interests, and not by hand, Jesus' Jewishness pinpoints the importance of his humanity for
the biblical witness. faith, and on the other, it connects God's salvation drama in Jesus
Black slaves, on the other hand, contended that slavery contradicts with the Exodus-Sinai event. Through the divine election of Jesus the
the New Testament Jesus. They claimed to know about a Jesus who Jew as the means of human salvation, Yahweh makes real the divine
came to give freedom and dignity to the oppressed and humiliated. promise that through Abraham "all the families of the earth shall bless
Through sermon, prayer, and song, black slaves bore witness to the themselves" (Gen. 12:3 RSV). In order to keep the divine promise to
little baby that was born of "Sister Mary" in Bethlehem and make Israel "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation" (Exod. 19:6
"everytime the baby cried, she'd a-rocked Him in the weary land." RSV), Yahweh became a Jew in Jesus of Nazareth, thereby making
He is the One who lived with the poor and died on the cross so that possible the reconciliation of the world to God (I Cor. 5: 19). Jesus'
they might have a new life. The white minister preached to black Jewishness therefore was essential to his person. He was not a
people about the joys of heaven from a white viewpoint, saying: "universal" man but a particular Jew who came to fulfill God's will to
"Now you darkies need not worry, for God has some mighty good liberate the oppressed. His Jewishness establishes the concreteness of
asphalt streets and cement streets for you to walk on." But Uncle his existence in history, without which Christology inevitably moves
Jim's prayerful response to the white minister put the situation quite in the direction of docetism.
differently: "Lawd, I knows dat I's your child and when I gets to The humanity of Jesus was the emphasis of black slaves when they
heaven I's gonna walk any damn where I please." 14 Now if there is sang about his suffering and pain during the crucifixion.
no real basis for Uncle Jim's faith in the historical Jesus, then the
distinction between the white minister's and Uncle Jim's claims Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
about God is limited to a difference in their social contexts. The were you there when they crucified my Lord?
same is true of contemporary white theology and Black Theology. Oh! sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble;
Unless the latter takes seriously who Jesus was as the key to who he were you there when they crucified my Lord?
is today, then black theologians have no reason to complain about
white people using Jesus for the advancement of the present system With deep passion and a transcendent leap back into first-century
of oppression. Jerusalem, black people described the details of Jesus' suffering on the
110 WHO IS JESUS CHRIST FOR US TODAY? WHO IS JESUS CHRIST FOR US TODAY? 111

cross: "Dey whupped him up de hill," "dey crowned him wid a thorny sole criterion for Christology, I contend that our interest in Jesus'
crown," "dey nailed him to de cross," "dey pierced him in de side," past cannot be separated from one's encounter with his presence in
"de blood came twinklin' down, an' he never said a mumbalin' word, our contemporary existence. To be sure, Pannenberg is correct in his
he jes hung his head an' he died." Unless the biblical story is insistence that soteriology should not determine Christo logy. Our
historically right in its picture of the humanity of Jesus, then there is subjectivity must not be the starting point for the definition of Jesus'
no reason to believe that he shared our suffering and pain. person. But unlike Pannenberg, I contend that Jesus' historicity
The authenticity of the New Testament Jesus guarantees the alone is insufficient christologically. In his effort to correct the
integrity of his human presence with the poor and the �retched in the soteriologically determined Christologies of the existentialist school,
struggle of freedom. In Jesus' presence with the poor in Palestine, he especially Rudolf Bultmann, Pannenberg overreacted in the opposite
disclosed who they were and what they were created to be (Heb. 2: direction. We do not have to choose between a Christology either
17-18). Likewise, we today can lay claim on the same humanity that "from below" or "from above." Instead we should keep both in
was liberated through Jesus' cross and resurrection. Because Jesus dialectical relation, recognizing that Christ's meaning for us today is
lived, we now know that servitude is inhuman, and that Christ has set found in our encounter with the historical Jesus as the Crucified and
us free to live as liberated sons and daughters of God. Unless Jesus Risen Lord who is present with us in the struggle of freedom. Indeed,
was truly like us, then we have no reason to believe that our true it is Jesus' soteriological value as revealed in his past, experienced in
humanity is disclosed in his person. Without Jesus' humanity our present, and promised in God's future that makes us know that it
constituted in real history, we have no basis to contend that his is worthwhile, indeed necessary, to inquire about his person. It is
coming bestows upon us the courage and the wisdom to struggle because the people have encountered the power of his presence in
against injustice and oppression. their social existence that they are motivated to ask, "What manner
of man is this?" One person might answer the question this way: "He
JESUS IS WHO HE IS is my helper in time of distress. He is the One that's been so good to
me, he gave me victory, the Son of the Almighty God we serve."
To declare that God raised Jesus from the dead is to say that our Another might testify to Jesus' presence by claiming that "he is the
knowledge of Jesus is not limited to his life in Palestine. Jesus is not One who makes things right, and that's why I have to 'steal away' to
merely a historical person who once identified with the poor people of him in prayer, for 'I ain't got long to stay here.' He is the One who
his land and subsequently was executed by the Roman authorities for 'calls me by the thunder,' and 'he calls me by the lightning,' 'the
disturbing the social and political status quo. The Crucified One is trumpet sounds within my soul'; and then I know that 'I ain't got
also the Risen Lord. Faith in the resurrection means that the historical long to stay here.' "
Jesus, in his liberating words and deeds for the poor, was God's way If Pannenberg is right when he says that "no one now has an
of breaking into human history, redeeming humanity from injustice experience of [Christ] as risen and exalted, at least not an experience
and violence, and bestowing power upon little ones in their struggle that could be distinguished with certainty from illusion" because "the
for freedom. experience of the presence of Christ is promised for the end of
While the wasness of Jesus is Christology's point of departure, time," 15 then black religion is nothing but an account of black
thereby establishing Christ's inseparable relationship with the people's subjective fancies. I reject Pannenberg's conclusions about
historical Jesus, the isness of Jesus relates his past history to his the absence of Christ in our present not only because of the
present involvement in our struggle. Unless his past existence is the Scripture's testimony about the promise and presence of Christ's
clue to his present presence with us in our fight for justice, then what Holy Spirit (Acts 1 :8; 2: l f.), but also because of the witness of the
Jesus did in first-century Palestine is of little consequence to human black Church tradition and the contemporary testimonies of black
existence. Against Pannenberg who uses the historical Jesus as the people, both of which proclaim Christ's present power to "make a way

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112 WHO IS JESUS CHRIST FOR US TODAY? WHO IS JESUS CHRIST FOR US TODAY? 113

out of no way." As a black theologian whose consciousness was church, because they believed that Jesus was going to be there with an
shaped in a black community moving from slavery to freedom, I must answer for their troubled minds. At Macedonia A.M.E. Church, Sister
take my stand against Pannenberg and with my people who say that Ora Wallace would line a familiar hymn, investing a depth of passion
Jesus has not left us alone but is with us in the struggle of freedom. and meaning far greater then Isaac Watts ever intended.
According to the black religious story, black people could survive the
slave ships and auction blocks because Jesus was present with them. 0 God, our help in ages past
Jesus gave them dignity in the midst of humiliation. He gave them Our hope for years to come,
freedom as whites attempted to define blacks as slaves. Now I realize Our shelter from the stormy blast,
that not all blacks survived the brutalities of slavery, and that fact And our eternal home.
alone raises some crucial questions about the justice and righteous­
ness of God, an issue that I will discuss in Chapter 8. Here I merely Beneath the shadow of Thy throne,
want to argue that Jesus' identity for us today cannot be separated Thy saints have dwelt secure;
from his presence with us in our present existence. Without the Sufficient is Thine arm alone,
certainty that Christ is with us as the historical Jesus was present with And our defence is sure.
the humiliated and weak in Palestine, how can black people account
for the power and courage to struggle against slave masters and Immediately, the entire congregation would join her in the singing of
overseers in the nineteenth century and the Ku Klux Klan and police this hymn, because they felt the presence of Jesus in their midst,
in the twentieth? What is it that keeps the community together when "guidin' their feet" and "holdin' their hands," "while they run this
there are so many scares and hurts? What is it that gives them the will race." When the pastor would say, "I know the Lord is in this place!
and the courage to struggle in hope when so much in their Can I get a witness?" the people responded with shouts of praise
environment says that fighting is a waste of time? I think that the only saying "Amen" and "Hallelujah." Through song, prayer, and sermon
"reasonable" and "objective" explanation is to say that the people are the community affirmed Jesus' presence and their willingness to try
right when they proclaim the presence of the divine power, wholly to make it through their troubled situation. Some would smile and
different from themselves. I can remember, at an early age, the people others would cry. Another person, depending upon the Spirit's effect
of Beard!!n bearing witness to the power and meaning of Jesus in their on him, would clap his hands and tap his feet. Then again another
lives. There were times when the burden and the agony of life became person would get down on her knees, waving her hands and moaning
very difficult, and the people felt powerless to do anything to change the melody of a song whose rhythm and words spoke to what she felt
sorrow into joy. These occasions happened when somebody's house in her heart. All of these expressions were nothing but black people
was destroyed by fire, leaving a family shelterless with winter bearing witness to Jesus' presence among them. He was the divine
approaching. Then there was death, an ever present enemy, who came power in their lives who gave them an "imagination to think of a good
like a "train blowin' at the station," leaving somebody a "motherless reason to keep on keepin' on" in order that black people might "make
child." The most visible symbol of death's power was found in the the best of a bad situation."
everyday presence of white people who violated black dignity at Of course, in the light of Feuerbach and Marx, Freud and
every level of black existence. Black people had to deal with the Durkheim, Mannheim and the sociologists of knowledge, one could
reality of whites on the job, in the stores, and at other significant areas interpret black people's jumping and shouting about Jesus in their
of human affirmation. Sometimes the people were passive and midst as wishful thinking related to their political powerlessness
speechless, not knowing how to respond to the extreme contradictions and social and psychological maladjustment. But I contend that we
of life. But on Sunday morning, after spending six days of struggling cannot test the truth of the black story by using intellectual
to create meaning out of life, the people of Bearden would go to categories that were not created from black experience itself.

_....
114 WHO IS JESUS CHRIST FOR US TODAY? WHO IS JESUS CHRIST FOR US TODAY? 775
Instead we must immerse ourselves in the existence of the people, They crucified my Lord,
feeling their hurts and pain, and listening to their testimony that They crucified my Lord,
Jesus is present with them, taking black suffering upon himself so They crucified my Lord,
that the people can survive with dignity the oppression and violence They crucified my Lord.
committed against them. Only by listening to their story and
viewing it in the light of the biblical story in relation to other stories In this spiritual, the repetition of the lines enhances the reality of
in human history are we in a position to make a judgment about the Jesus' suffering and emphasizes his humanity as he struggles against
"reasonableness" of black religion. Unless interpreters of black the pain of the cross.
religion are willing to suspend their a priori definitions of reality, But on the other hand, black people's faith that Jesus was raised from
and open themselves to another reality found in the social existence the dead meant that his historicity and humanity are not the only rele­
of black people, then their comments about the truth or untruth of vant factors about his person. He is also the divine One who tran­
black religion become merely an academic exercise which tells us scends the limitations of history by making himself present in our
far more about their own subjective interests than about the contemporary existence. This is the meaning of Jesus' resurrection.
religious life of black people. If the interpreters are willing to hear When God raised Jesus from the dead, God affirmed that Jesus' his­
what the people have to say about their struggle and the reality of torical identity with the freedom of the poor was in fact divinity tak­
Jesus in the fight for freedom, and proceed to develop their tools of ing on humanity for the purpose of liberating human beings from sin
critical analysis in the light of their identification with the goals and and death.
aspirations of the people, then and only then are they prepared to It is within this context that the resurrection is a political event.
ask the right questions and to hear the right answers. For in the The politics of the resurrection is found in its gift of freedom to the
Christian story, truth is not an object but is the project of freedom poor and the helpless. Being granted freedom while they are still
made possible by the presence of God in the midst of the people. poor, they can know that their poverty is a contrived phenomenon,
Only stories that invite an openness to other human stories are true. traceable to the rich and the powerful in this world. This new knowl­
In black religion, the people tell the story of their lives as they edge about themselves and the world, as disclosed in and through
walked and talked with Jesus, telling the story of how Jesus the resurrection, requires that the poor practice political activity
ministered to their broken hearts and weak bodies. Because of the against the social and economic structure that makys them poor. Not
power of his presence with them, he has given to them not only the to fight is to deny the freedom of the resurrection. It is to deny the
strength to struggle but also an openness to fight together with all reality of Christ's presence with us in the struggle to liberate the
victims regardless of their genetic origin. slaves from bondage. This is the political side of the resurrection
Christologically, therefore, who Jesus is today is found by relating of Jesus.
Jesus' past with his present activity. Black people affirm them both The affirmation "Jesus is Lord," like the cry "Christ is risen!" has
simultaneously and thus dialectically. On the one hand, through faith political overtones. The Lordship of Christ emphasizes his present
black people transcended spatial and temporal existence and rule in the lives of the people, helping them to struggle for the main­
affirmed Jesus' past as disclosed in the historicity of his life and tenance of humanity in a situation of oppression. "Jesus is Lord" is an
death on the cross. affirmation of his reigning presence, moving the people toward the
future realization of their humanity. Lordship is Christ's presence
Those cruel people! with power from on high to be with the little ones in trouble. As John
Those cruel people! Knox puts it: "The phrase 'Jesus Christ is our Lord' designates, not
Those cruel people! primarily an historical individual but a present reality actually expe­
Those cruel people! rienced within the common life." 16

j
116 WHO IS JESUS CHRIST FOR US TODAY? WHO IS JESUS CHRIST FOR US TODAY? 117

contemporary with Marx, did not arise out of a dialogue with

JESUS IS WHO HE Will BE Marxism. Black religion and its emphasis on hope came into being
through black people's encounter with the crucified and risen Lord
The meaning of Jesus Christ for us today is not limited to his past in the context of American slavery. In their encounter with Jesus
and present existence. Jesus Christ is who he will be. He is not only Christ, black slaves received a "vision from on high" wherein they
the crucified and risen One but also the Lord of the future who is were given a new knowledge of their personhood, which enabled
coming again to fully consummate the liberation already happening them to fight for the creation of a world defined by black
in our present. affirmations.Their hope sprang from the actual presence of Jesus,
Since the publication of Albert Schweitzer's The Quest of the breaking into their broken existence, and bestowing upon them a
Historical Jesus in 1906, 17 in which he emphasized "consistent" foretaste of God's promised freedom. They could fight against
eschatology, European and American scholars have generally recog­ slavery and not give up in despair, because they believed that their
nized the importance of the future in Jesus' consciousness about his earthly struggle was a preparation for the time when they would
ministry.More recently, advocates of a so-called "hope theology," ta­ "cross over Jordan" and "walk in Jerusalem just like John." They
king their cue from Ernst Kasemann's contention that "apocalyptic were willing to "bear heavy burdens," "climb high mountains," and
... was the mother of all Christian theology," 18 have related "stand hard trials," because they were "trying to get home." Home
eschatology to politics and the struggle of the oppressed to liberate was the "not yet," the other world that was not like this one. Jesus
themselves from bondage. Although eschatology is the study of "last was the divine coming One who would take them to the "bright
things" (particularly the "end of the age"), the "hope" theologians mansions above."
contend that eschatology should be the beginning for theological Unfortunately, American white "hope" theologians have been
exploration. "Christianity," according to Jiirgen Moltmann, "is influenced too much by German and American philosophical
eschatology, is hope, forward looking and forward moving, and discourse on hope and too little by the actual bearers of hope in our
therefore also revolutionizing and transforming the present. The social existence. And if they continue their talk about hope primarily
eschatological is not one element of Christianity, but it is the medium in relation to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Alfred North Whitehead,
of Christian faith as such, the key in which everything in it is Moltmann, and Pannenberg, while ignoring the hope disclosed in the
set. ..." 19 Eschatology for these writers is more than longing for the ··•
songs and tales of black slaves, then we can only conclude that white
next world; it is the grounding of hope in God's liberating work in this 1
1
theology's hope is a reason for despair on the part of the oppressed
world, which thus becomes the foundation of the divine promise to and thus alien to the gospel of Jesus. How can Christian theology
liberate the oppressed from human captivity. truly speak of the hope of Jesus Christ, unless that hope begins and
It is important to point out that black people in their sermons, ends with the liberation of the poor in the social existence in which
prayers, and songs of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries were theology takes shape? In America this means that there can be no talk
talking about the politics of hope long before the appearance of hope about hope in the Christian sense unless it is talk about the freedom of
theology in Germany. The rise of hope theology is related to the black, red, and brown people.
increasing disenchantment of contemporary European theologians I am baffled that many American white theologians still continue
with the alternatives posed by Barth's kerygmatic theology and to do theology independently of the oppressed of the land. That
Bultmann's existentialist approach. Unlike Barth who ignoredMarx a public conference on Hope and the Future ofMan21 could be held in
and in contrast to Bultmann who seemed to depoliticize the gospel, New York (1971) featuring Moltmann, Pannenberg, and Metz but
the hope theologians made political praxis a decisive ingredient in including no one from Africa, Latin America, or even black America
theology itself, thereby laying the groundwork for dialogue with is completely beyond my comprehension. I contend that when
Marxism. 20 By contrast, black people's talk about hope, though theological discourse overlooks the oppressed and the hope given by
l 1fJ WHO IS JESUS CHRIST FOR US TODAY? WHO IS JESUS CHRIST FOR US TODAY? 119

Jesus Christ in their struggle, it inevitably becomes "abstract" talk, coming presence, and thus one is required by hope itself to live as if
geared to the ideological justification of the status quo. the vision is already realized in the present. Black slaves combined
Jilrgen Moltmann raised this issue in the New York conference on the vision of the new Jerusalem with the struggle of freedom in this
hope in his public response to the American theologians of hope. world. They talked about Jesus not only as the One who was born in
Bethlehem and died on Calvary, and as the Risen One present with
The future which does not begin in this transformation of the them, but also as the One who would come again and take them home
present is for me no genuine future. A hope which is not the to glory. That is why they sang:
hope of the oppressed today is no hope for which I could give a
theological account. A resurrection symbol which is not the I'm going back with Jesus when He comes,
symbolizing resurrection of the crucified one does not touch I'm going back with Jesus when He comes,
me. If theologians and philosophers of the future do not plant 0 He may not come today,
their feet on the ground and tum to a theology of the cross and But He's coming anyway
the dialectic of the negative, they will disappear in a cloud of I'm going back with Jesus when He comes.
liberal optimism and appear a mockery of the present misery of
the suffering. If we cannot justify the theme of the conference, And we won't die anymore when He comes,
"Hope and the Future of Man," before the present reality of the And we won't die anymore when He comes,
frustration and oppression of man, we are batting the breeze and 0 He may not come today,
talking merely for our own self-satisfaction.22 But He's coming anyway
And we won't die anymore when He comes.
The public reaction was intense but mixed. Some thought the
comment was in bad taste and others said that Moltmann rightly This spiritual connects hope in Jesus with human suffering, wherein
exposed the navel-gazing of academic theologians. This issue was Jesus becomes the Expected One who is coming to liberate the
lakt.:n up again in a small working group of about forty theologians. I oppressed from slavery.
wus lhc only black person present, which seemed to be due to my The vision of the future and of Jesus as the Coming Lord is the
faculty -sti1-us at Union Theological Seminary. (All Union central theme of black religion. This theme is expressed with the idea of
Theological Seminary faculty were invited.) In the first workshop heaven, a concept that has been grossly misunderstood in black
meeting (there were three in all), theologians discussed hope's religion. For many people the idea of heaven, in the songs and sermons
relation to politics as defined by Moltmann. Most seemed of black people, is proof of Marx's contention that religion is the opiate
uncomfortable with the discussion, because they had come to discuss of the people. Unfortunately, many uninformed young blacks, hearing
the philosophical structure of hope as defined by Whitehead, this Marxian analysis in college, have accepted this criticism as true
Teilhard, and Bloch and not the political status of poor people. In the without probing deeper into the thought forms of black people. To be
other two workshops, discussion returned to its expected status. sure, white missionaries and preachers used Jesus Christ and heaven to
Because Black Theology's Christology is based on the biblical make black slaves obedient and docile. But in reality, the opposite
portrayal of Jesus Christ and Jesus' past and present involvement in happened more often than not. For many black slaves, Jesus became the
the struggle of oppressed peoples, it affirms that who Jesus Christ is decisive Other in their lives who provided for them a knowledge of
for us today is connected with the divine future as disclosed in the themselves, not derived from the value system of slave masters. How
liberation fight of the poor. When connected with the person of Jesus, could black slaves know that they were human beings when they were
hope is not an intellectual idea; rather, it is the praxis of freedom in treated like cattle? How could they know that they were somebody
the oppressed community. To hope in Jesus is to see the vision of his when everything in their environment said that they were nobody? How
 ..

120 WHO IS JESUS CHRIST FOR US TODAY? WHO IS JESUS CHRIST FOR US TODAY? 127
could they know that they had a value that could not be defined by alternative to white religion. Jesus Christ becomes the One who
dollars and cents, when the symbol of the auction block was an ever stands at the center of their view of reality, enabling slaves to look
present reality? Only because they knew that Christ was present with beyond the present to the future, the time when black suffering will be
them and that his presence included the divine promise to come again ended. The future reality of Jesus means that what is contradicts what
and to take them to the "New Jerusalem." Heaven, therefore, in black ought to be.
religion was inseparably connected with Jesus' promise to liberate the When Jesus is understood as the Coming One who will establish
oppressed from slavery. It was black people's vision of a new identity divine justice among people, then we will be able to understand why
for themselves which was in sharp contradiction to their present status black slaves' religion emphasized the other world. They truly
as slaves. This vision of Jesus as the Coming One who will take them believed the story of Jesus' past existence with the poor as told in the
back to heaven held black people together mentally as they struggled Bible. Indeed, their own power to struggle to be human was due to the
physically to make real the future in their present. presence of Jesus with them. From his past history with the weak and
Christologically, we are required to affirm Jesus Christ in terms of his present existence with them, black people received a vision of his
his past, present, and future. This means that we do not have to choose coming presence to fully heal the misery of human suffering. That is
between a Christology "from below" (Pannenberg) or "from above" why they sang with unique passion and meaning:
(Barth), or even "from before" (Moltmann). 23 These three aspects of
his history and person must be approached dialectically, recognizing If I walk in the pathway of duty,
that each is a valid experience of Jesus Christ when viewed in relation If I work to the close of the day,
to the others. We can truly know Jesus' past and its soteriological I shall see the great King in his beauty,
significance only if his past is seen in dialectical relation to his When I've gone the last mile of the way.
present presence and his future coming. Unlike Pannenberg who
postpones the validity of Jesus' truth disclosed in the resurrection When I've gone the last mile of the way,
experience until the end of time, black theologians claim, on the basis I shall rest at the close of the day,
of the biblical witness and the past and contemporary testimonies of And I know there are joys that await me,
black peopli:, that Jesus is who he is as his isness is known in his When I've gone the last mile of the way.
present activity with the oppressed in the struggle of freedom. In our
analysis of the past history of Jesus, we cannot ignore his present Black people knew that they could not trust the power of their own
soteriological value as the Lord of our present struggle. The same is strength to break the chains of slavery. People get tired of fighting
true for his future coming. The past and present history of Jesus are for justice and the political power of oppressors often creates fear in
incomplete without affirmation of the "not yet" that "will be." The ·1 the hearts of the oppressed. What could a small band of slaves do
power of Christ's future coming and the vision that it bestows upon .,
against the armed might of a nation? Indeed what can the oppressed
"i
the people is the key to why the oppressed can "keep on keepin' on" blacks today do in order to break the power of the Pentagon? Of
even when their fight seems fruitless. The vision of Christ's future course, we may "play" revolutionary and delude ourselves that we
that breaks into their slave existence radically changes their can do battle against the atomic bomb. Usually when the reality of
perspective on life; and to others who stand outside the community the political situation dawns upon the oppressed, those who have no
where the vision is celebrated, black people's talk about "long white vision from another world tend to give up in despair. But those who
robes" and "golden slippers" in heaven seems to be proof that black have heard about the coming of the Lord Jesus and have a vision of
religion is an opium of the people. But in reality it is a radical crossing on the other side of Jordan, are not terribly disturbed about
judgment which black people are making upon the society that what happens in Washington, D. C., at least not to the extent that
enslaved them. Black religion, therefore, becomes a revolutionary their true humanity is dependent on the political perspective of
122 WHO IS JESUS CHRIST FOR US TODAY? WHO IS JESUS CHRIST FOR US TODAY? 123

government officials. To be sure, they know that they must struggle Black Christ is an ideological distortion of the New Testament for
to realize justice in this world. But their struggle for justice is political purposes.
directly related to the coming judgment of Jesus. His coming Before moving to the substance of the Black Christ issue, it is
presence requires that we not make any historical struggle an end in necessary to unmask the subjective interests of white theologians
itself. We struggle because it is a sign of Jesus' presence with us and themselves. When the past and contemporary history of white
of his coming presence to redeem all humanity. His future coming theology is evaluated, it is not difficult to see that much of the present
therefore is the key to the power of our struggle. Black people can negative reaction of white theologians to the Black Christ is due
struggle because they truly believe that one day they will be taken almost exclusively to their whiteness, a cultural fact that determines
out of their misery. And they express it in song: their theological inquiry, thereby making it almost impossible for
them to relate positively to anything black. White theologians'
After 'while, after 'while, attitude toward black people in particular and the oppressed generally
Some sweet day after 'while, is hardly different from that of oppressors in any society. It is
I'm gain' up to see my Jesus, particularly similar to the religious leaders' attitude toward Jesus in
0 some sweet day after 'while. first-century Palestine when he freely associated with the poor and
outcasts and declared that the Kingdom of God is for those called
Pray on! Pray on! "sinners" and not for priests and theologians or any of the self­
Some sweet day after 'while, designated righteous people. The difficulty of white theologians in
Prayin' time will soon be over, recognizing their racial interest in this issue can be understood only in
0 some sweet day after 'while. the light of the social context of theological discourse. They cannot
see the christological validity of Christ's blackness because their
JESUS IS BLACK axiological grid blinds them to the truth of the biblical story. For
example, the same white theologians who laughingly dismiss Albert
It is only within the context of Jesus' past, present, and future as Cleage's "Black Messiah" say almost nothing about the European
these aspects of his person are related to Scripture, tradition, and (white) images of Christ plastered all over American homes and
contemp(!rary social existence that we are required to affirm the churches. I perhaps would respect the integrity of their objections to
blackness of Jesus Christ. I realize that many white critics of Black the Black Christ on scholarly grounds, if they applied the same
Theology question "blackness" as a christological title, because it vigorous logic to Christ's whiteness, especially in contexts where his
appears to be determined exclusively by the psychological and blackness is not advocated.
political needs of black people to relate theology to the emergence of For me, the substance of the Black Christ issue can be dealt with
black power in the later l 960s. That is only partly true. The phrase only on theological grounds, as defined by Christology's source
"Black Christ" refers to more than the subjective states and political (Scripture, tradition, and social existence) and content (Jesus' past,
expediency of black people at a given point in history. Rather, this present, and future). I begin by asserting once more that Jesus was a
title is derived primarily from Jesus' past identity, his present activity, Jew. It is on the basis of the soteriological meaning of the particularity
and his future coming as each is dialectically related to the others. But of his Jewishness that theology must affirm the christological
unless black theologians can demonstrate that Jesus' blackness is not significance of Jesus' present blackness. He is black because he was
simply the psychological disposition of black people but arises from a Jew. The affirmation of the Black Christ can be understood when
a faithful examination of Christology's sources (Scripture, tradition, the significance of his past Jewishness is related dialectically to the
and social existence) as these sources illuminate Jesus' past, present, significance of his present blackness. On the one hand, the
and future, then we lay ourselves open to the white charge that the Jewishness of Jesus located him in the context of the Exodus, thereby
124 WHO IS JESUS CHRIST FOR US TODAY? WHO IS JESUS CHRIST FOR US TODAY? 125

connecting his appearance in Palestine with God's liberation of Jesus' presence is real and not docetic, is it not true that Christ must
oppressed Israelites from Egypt. Unless Jesus were truly from Jewish be black in order to remain faithful to the divine promise to bear the
ancestry, it would make little theological sense to say that he is the suffering of the poor? Of course, I realize that "blackness" as a
fulfillment of God's covenant with Israel. But on the other hand, the christological title may not be appropriate in the distant future or even
blackness of Jesus brings out the soteriological meaning of his in every human context in our present. This was no less true of the
Jewishness for our contemporary situation when Jesus' person is New Testament titles, such as "Son of God" and "Son of David," and
understood in the context of the cross and resurrection. Without of various descriptions of Jesus throughout the Christian tradition.
negating the divine election of Israel, the cross and resurrection are But the validity of any christological title in any period of history is
Yahweh's fulfillment of his original intention for Israel to be not decided by its universality but by this: whether in the particularity
of its time it points to God's universal will to liberate particular
a light to the nations, oppressed people from inhumanity. This is exactly what blackness
to open the eyes that are blind, does in the contemporary social existence of America. If we
to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, Americans, blacks and whites, are to understand who Jesus is for us
from the prison those who sit in darkness. today, we must view his presence as continuous with his past and
(Isaiah 42:6-7 RSV) future coming which is best seen through his present blackness.
Christ's blackness is both literal and symbolic. His blackness is
The cross of Jesus is God invading the human situation as the literal in the sense that he truly becomes One with the oppressed
Elected One who takes Israel's place as the Suffering Servant and blacks, taking their suffering as his suffering and revealing that he is
thus reveals the divine willingness to suffer in order that humanity found in the history of our struggle, the story of our pain, and the
might be fully liberated. The resurrection is God's conquest of rhythm of our bodies. Jesus is found in the sociological context that
oppression and injustice, disclosing that the divine freedom gave birth to Aretha Franklin singing "Spirit in the Dark" and Roberta
revealed in Israel's history is now available to all. The cross Flack proclaiming that "I told Jesus that it will be all right if he
represents the particularity of divine suffering in Israel's place. The changed my name." Christ's blackness is the American expression of
resurrection is \he universality of divine freedom for all who "labor the truth of his parable about the Last Judgment: "Truly, I say to you,
and are heavy laden." It is the actualization in history of Jesus' as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me"
eschatological vision that the last shall be first and the first last. The (Matt. 25:45). The least in America are literally and symbolically
resurrection means that God's identity with the poor in Jesus is not present in black people. To say that Christ is black means that black
limited to the particularity of his Jewishness but is applicable to all people are God's poor people whom Christ has come to liberate. And
who fight on behalf of the liberation of humanity in this world. And thus no gospel of Jesus Christ is possible in America without coming
the Risen Lord's identification with the suffering poor today is just to terms with the history and culture of that people who struggled to
as real as was his presence with the outcasts in first-century bear witness to his name in extreme circumstances. To say that Christ
Palestine. His presence with the poor today is not docetic; but like is black means that God, in his infinite wisdom and mercy, not only
yesterday, today also he takes the pain of the poor upon himself and takes color seriously, he also takes it upon himself and discloses his
bears it for them. will to make us whole-new creatures born in the spirit of divine
It is in the light of the cross and the resurrection of Jesus in relation blackness and redeemed through the blood of the Black Christ. Christ
to his Jewishness that Black Theology asserts that "Jesus is black." If is black, therefore, not because of some cultural or psychological
we assume that the Risen Lord is truly present with us as defined by need of black people, but because and only because Christ really
his past history and witnessed by Scripture and tradition, what then enters into our world where the poor, the despised, and the black are,
does his presence mean in the social context of white racism? If disclosing that he is with them, enduring their humiliation and pain
126 WHO IS JESUS CHRIST FOR US TODAY?

and transforming oppressed slaves into liberated servants. Indeed, if

Christ is not truly black, then the historical Jesus lied. God did not
anoint him "to preach good news to the poor" and neither did God
send him "to proclaim release to the captives and recovering the sight
to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed" (Luke 4: 18f.
RSV). If Christ is not black, the gospel is not good news to the
oppressed, and Marx's observation is right: "Religion is the sign of
the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world ... the spirit of
a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people."24
I realize that my theological limitations and my close identity with
the social conditions of black people could blind me to the truth of the
gospel. And maybe our white theologians are right when they insist
that I have overlooked the universal significance of Jesus' message.
But I contend that there is no universalism that is not particular.
Indeed their insistence upon the universal note of the gospel arises out
of their own particular political and social interests. As long as they
can be sure that the gospel is for everybody, ignoring that God
liberated a particular people from Egypt, came in a particular man
called Jesus, and for the particular purpose of liberating the
oppressed, then they can continue to talk in theological abstractions,
failing to recognize that such talk is not the gospel unless it is related
to the concrete freedom of the little ones. My point is that God came,
and continues to come, to those who are poor and helpless, for the
purpose of.setting them free. And since the people of color are his
elected poor in America, any interpretation of God that ignores black
oppression cannot be Christian theology. The "blackness of Christ,"
therefore, is not simply a statement about skin color, but rather, the
transcendent affirmation that God has not ever, no not ever, left the
oppressed alone in struggle. He was with them in Pharaoh's Egypt, is
with them in America, Africa and Latin America, and will come in
the end of time to consummate fully their human freedom.