By Wayne Stapleton, NAB VP of Cross-Cultural Engagement and Emerging Leader Engagement; & Michael Benson, NAB communications director
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all people. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and pleading with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:4–7 NASB)
When Paul wrote this, his body was in chains, but his soul was free: free to rejoice, free to declare the nearness of the Lord, free to trust in God despite persecution. Freedom is valuable, precious, and extensive. Often when we as believers talk about the freedom found in Christ, we tend to focus on the spiritual side, the freedom found in Christ alone. Yet that is only part of the whole picture.
In contrast, when we talk about freedom as Westerners, something our culture holds dearly, we are talking about specific rights we hold: free speech, freedom of religion, free assembly, etc. As believers, we know nothing aside from Jesus can actually save our souls and allow us to experience the fullness of life God always intended for us. Yet, as people called to neighbor-love, the freedom of others should be as dear to us as our own freedom.
In loving our neighbors, we must remember not all the political freedoms we currently enjoy were always available to everyone. Freedom, righteousness, and justice are valuable concepts, embraced by those of us in the West; yet, in actuality, the history of these ideas has been a rocky and uneven road, stronger on paper than when lived out in the hearts and actions of fallen people. The power of the Gospel reminds us that we don’t need to shy away from recognizing sin, even the sin of our own ancestors. On the contrary, we undermine the power of what God needed to do in Christ if we fail to admit when real oppression and real sin have taken place. Historically, certain American citizens’ experiences of freedom have been downright nonexistent, if not severely hindered.
Prior to emancipation, some enslaved Africans in the United States would spend the last night of the year praying and hoping for freedom from slavery. This was called Watch Night. On December 31, 1862, enslaved Africans who followed Jesus waited and prayed for the freedom afforded other American citizens. The very next morning, this freedom was put into effect as the Emancipation Proclamation was enacted.
Unfortunately, for some in the US, giving enslaved Africans freedom was difficult to accept. It took a full two and a half years for those in the Confederate state of Texas to provide freedom to its enslaved Africans. It was on June 19, 1865, that 2,000 Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to announce that the quarter of a million enslaved Black people in Texas were free according to the US government. This day soon came to be known as Juneteenth by the newly freed people. It wasn’t lost on many of them that their true Deliverer was the Lord himself: the very next year, African Americans in Texas began to celebrate June 19 with meetings that included prayer, singing spiritual songs, and wearing clothes symbolic of their freedom.
How This Helps Us: Remembering the Past to Become Freedom-Forward
What should this aspect of American history mean for us today? What does love demand of a pluralistic church when facing this kind of legacy? If the Bible is our guide, a mere 160-years is not enough distance for the memory to fade; Jewish people still celebrate the Passover today, despite the fact it commemorates a different kind of freedom achieved 3,500 years ago. Even for Jesus, it had been about 1,500 years by the time he observed the Passover in the Upper Room. Liberation from race-based chattel slavery was, and still is, a significant milestone for people of African descent, and those who follow Jesus recognize it was more than a merely human deliverance.
The freedom of the neighbors we are commanded to love should be precious to all followers of Jesus. Freedom has been fragile and fought for by many throughout history. In Canada, it took until 1922 for White women to be able to vote in every province except Ontario, and full suffrage for Asians and First Nations peoples didn’t happen until 1948 and 1960, respectively. In the US, White women were given the freedom to vote in 1919, but it took until 1965 – one hundred years after the end of the Civil War – to codify laws making racial discrimination around voting illegal.
There can be a tendency to forget Jesus attended to the whole person in his interactions with people; he was concerned not just with their spiritual well-being but also their physical, emotional, and relational well-being. On more than one occasion, he fed thousands. He brought dead people to life. He healed many of various ailments, including those who were blind, unable to walk, or plagued by leprosy or bleeding conditions. At the outset of Jesus’s ministry, he strategically and biblically declared his mission, as prophesied by Isaiah:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed,
To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. (Luke 4:18–19 NASB)
The Spirit of the Lord that anointed Jesus to be a blessing to the poor, the captive, the blind, and the oppressed also challenges all followers of Jesus to be mindful of and attentive to the poor, captive, blind, and oppressed in our midst. And as our King, his ministry extends to us and through us to our neighbors and our enemies, regardless of ethnicity or culture, inclusive of social or economic status and gender. The restoration Jesus provides is a part of the good Kingship by which he rules, and through which we not only announce his reign but work as his followers to realize. In this restoration is true freedom.
God has worked and is still working. And the message of Juneteenth is profoundly biblical. Let us celebrate how he has delivered in the past and live in hope of how he is providing freedom and healing today. As author Toni Morrison once wrote, “Remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.” Isn’t this what Jesus did for others, and for us? As followers of Jesus, we preach not only physical or political freedom but the freedom found in Christ. We serve a God who sent his Son to make us free. Let us live with intention, recognizing God has given us the hope of freedom and inviting our neighbors to the same.
Additional Resources
- Juneteenth: Faith & Freedom – a 75-minute documentary hosted by Rasool Berry and released by Our Daily Bread Ministries, telling the history of this day and the way faith has been woven into it from the start.
- The Historical Legacy of Juneteenth – a short article on the origins of Juneteenth from the National Museum of African American History & Culture.
- The History and Significance of Juneteenth: A Celebration of Freedom – an article from the Texas State Historical Association detailing some of the ways Juneteenth as a celebratory day has grown and evolved throughout the decades.
