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WAS JESUS A RACIST?

Probably yes, but definitely no!

Samaritan woman at the Well—John 4

In a recent podcast with my son Josh, I suggested the need to recognize racism as a natural human condition—that even Jesus was racist! The comment was made in passing, honestly, but as we went on I felt uneasy about having left it at that. Thankfully, some old friends from my first church forced my hand—“Marlin, explain yourself!”

By putting “Jesus” and “racist” in the same clause, I was drawing on Jesus’ humanity. But Jesus’ humanity makes many Christians uncomfortable—we prefer Jesus “all God” and just a little bit human. Of course, that preference means we miss the human struggles that Jesus shared with us, all the nasty junk like lust and anger and envy and greed and hypocrisy and ego and, yes!—prejudice and discrimination—all the crappy stuff.

I’ve long been drawn to the humanity of Jesus, innately sensing that if I’m going to connect with Jesus at all it has to be on the human level. Over the past 15 years the importance of emphasizing the humanity of Jesus has been affirmed in me as I’ve led groups visiting the “holy sites” in the land of Jesus. Many of these places are overseen by the Catholic Franciscans. Numerous conversations with the brown-robed priests of this order drew me into the teachings of the Saint whose name they proudly, but humbly, represent.

Jesus: Breast-fed and spoon-fed

Saint Francis of Assisi (1181–1226) was an enthusiastic champion of Christmas. He is said to have observed the birthday of the child Jesus with inexpressible eagerness over all other feasts: “It is the feast of feasts, on which God, having become a tiny infant, clung to human breasts.”

Like every other baby, Jesus suckled to survive. Jesus learned to walk and talk and read and write and think—yes, think. Like me, Jesus was raised in a small town. A few dozen families lived in Nazareth during the time of Jesus, and they were likely all related to one another. It was here in this insulated environment that Jesus was cared for, nurtured, schooled on a host of important matters. The foundation of his character was chiseled in Nazareth, values instilled around hard work, honesty, integrity, love for nation, and reverence toward God.

Location, location, location

View of the Jezreel Valley from the Cliffs of Nazareth. The Hills of Moreh are on the left where Gideon and his 300 defeated the Midianites. On the right is a modern highway running through the valley, almost certainly the path of the Via Maris (Way of the Sea).

How did setting affect the character of Jesus’ hometown? Nazareth was situated just north of one of the most fertile valleys in the world—the Jezreel Valley. Through this valley ran the Via Maris (Way of the Sea), a main artery connecting Egypt with Syria. This trade route ran directly below the cliffs on the west side of Nazareth. A child could sit high on a rock and watch Roman soldiers march by as well as exotic caravans parade through with camels and horses and strangely dressed men and women. 

The same beautiful view overlooked Mt. Carmel where Elijah defeated the prophets of Baal. Meandering below was the Wadi Kishon, a creek bed where 450 of these foreign seers were slaughtered by the same prophet. To the south was Mt. Tabor, the breast-shaped hill that was the staging area for Barak and Deborah’s ten thousand soldiers who would slaughter the charioteers of Sisera. A little further south were the hills of Moreh—surely the child Jesus knew the story of Gideon’s 300. Jesus’ small town was seeped in the glory of past victories by “God’s people”—Jesus’ people.

Why does this geographical background matter? In order for us to relate to the human Jesus it is essential that we know where he was raised and by whom.

A rough crowd

There is no mention of Nazareth in the Hebrew Scriptures (known to Christians as the Old Testament). That’s because families migrated there during the Hasmonean period (2nd Century B.C.E.) as part of an effort to repopulate northern Galilee with Jewish people. The goal was to replace the non-Jews living there—those Greek settlers from the time of Alexander the Great. This objective was so thoroughly accomplished that by the time of Jesus, the Galilee was almost 100% Jewish.

As Luke 4 testifies, these uncles and aunts and cousins of Jesus living in Nazareth were a tough bunch. When Jesus suggested that maybe the hated Gentiles could be included in the plans of God, these villagers (as mother Mary watched) threatened to throw him off the cliffs overlooking the very road traversed by foreigners. Jesus grew up hearing racial slurs the same as I did in the Jim Crow ‘50s. Jesus was brought up believing that Jewish people were superior to every other people group—Greeks, Canaanites, Samaritans, Romans, etc.

Was Jesus racist? Probably, yes. . . .

But definitely no!

Matthew 15:21-28 and Mark 7:24-30 recall Jesus’ encounter with a woman, a Canaanite woman. Her ancestors once lived in Northern Galilee but now dwelt in the region of Tyre and Sidon—Phoenicia. Thus Mark labels her Syrophoenician. She is pestering the disciples of Jesus because she wants her daughter to be healed. They want her to go away.

“Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David, my daughter is tormented. . . .” As a pastor I’ve heard this parent’s cry a hundred times.

In response, Jesus makes this startling declaration: “I was sent only for the lost sheep of Israel.” What? Ouch! Not to be deterred, this desperate mother kneels at Jesus’ feet and begs, “Lord, help me.” How does Jesus respond? In what feels like an effort to run her off, Jesus says to her: “It is not right to take the food of children and throw it to the dogs.” The Greek word is actually “little dogs,” which takes some of the sting off the slur, but still. . . . What is this?

Google it

I encourage you to Google these passages. You will discover thousands of sources explaining away the words of Jesus, softening the blow. Mostly they claim that Jesus was testing the woman, or maybe testing the disciples. I hate it when we do that sort of thing with the humanity of Jesus. Here we have an opportunity to connect with Jesus in a transformational way. Jesus is being human, exactly as human as you and me. He is reacting out of his bias, his prejudice toward this woman. I’ve done this. You’ve done this. We’ve all done this. I take comfort in the fact that Jesus did this too.

The woman retorts: “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters.” Wow! Just wow! Not just because of the woman’s bold and keen response, but because Matthew and Mark include this story. Thank you, gospel writers!

A set-in-stone racist would not be moved by this or anything else from the lips of a despised inferior, but Jesus was. “Woman, great is your faith. Let it be done. . . .” The writer of Matthew reports that “her daughter was healed instantly.”

Resisting one’s raising

I was raised a racist, but I don’t have to remain one. Rather, I can examine my attitudes and my actions. I can be open as Jesus was open. I can recognize in all people a shared humanity and adopt the impartiality of God.

Jesus met a loathed Samaritan woman at a well in the middle of her region. He revealed to her that he was “living water”—a clear reference to being the Messiah. Jesus was summoned by a Roman Centurion to come and heal the commander’s beloved servant. He went and he did. Jesus preached good news to the people of the Decapolis, Greek settlers living on the eastern plain of the Jordan Rift Valley.

Likely, Jesus was raised a racist the same as me, but his actions suggest a valuing and respect for all people. The fact that Jesus was able to resist his raising seems important to me.

It is hard to shift our mindset of who counts. The early Jesus movement was entirely Jewish. The disciples had no vision for including Gentiles. It took an action of the Holy Spirit within a Roman soldier named Cornelius and a Jewish man called Peter (Acts 10) to expand the notion of who’s in and who’s not. I believe that Jesus’ first disciples learned from Jesus to recognize faith when they saw it, and that’s to their credit. They made a way for us, for you and me, to get on the Via Jesus (Way of Jesus). They confronted their bias and overcame it.

Later, irony of ironies, when the Jesus movement became primarily Gentile, in the early part of the 2nd Century C.E., the non-Jews excluded the Jews. All are infused by racism.

What’s possible?

The white American Christian can and should acknowledge the bias that is inherent in each of us, and all of us together. We make this confession with assurance that God knows us, really gets us.

Recently I brought both my cars to the dealership for diagnostics. They seemed to be running fine, but I wanted to check their internals—all good. Two weeks ago I had both an endoscopy and a colonoscopy, literally a gut check. All good, thank God. Perhaps around matters of race and gender and sexuality, each of us need a regular gut check.

Gut check

We might start with a couple of questions. Would I say to a white person or a straight person or a man what I might say to, or about, a black person or a gay person or a woman? Do I think as well of black teenagers as I do of white? Do I ever find myself wondering if a person of color got a job because of their color? Or a woman because of her gender?

Here’s what I think about Jesus and racism. His encounter with the Canaanite woman was a gut check. Samaritan woman at the well? Gut check. Centurion’s request to heal his beloved manservant? Gut check. Crowds of Greeks coming to a revival? Gut check.

If Jesus needed a gut check from time to time, diagnostics on his internals, then so do I! And so do we.



2 responses to “WAS JESUS A RACIST?”

  1. Sue Raatjes says:

    Marlin, you always make me dig deeply & think. Thank you. Love the reminder to “gut check”.

  2. Kimberly VanEs says:

    I appreciate how you struggle with what it meant for Jesus to be human in terms of racism.