Billy Graham has preached the Gospel around the world to
every race. In an interview with Diane Sawyer he was asked this
question: "If you could wave your hand and make one problem in
this world go away, what would it be?" Without hesitation he
replied, "Racial division and strive." This world is filled with civil
wars based on race and religion all because people have a
deep-seated prejudice against other people who are different. Hate
crimes abound for the same reason. If this was the limit of the
impact of prejudice in our world, it would be the number one sin of
mankind according to Billy Graham and many others. But this is
just the tip of the iceberg. Prejudice of one kind or another poisons
the heart of just about everyone. Masses of people do not
experience racial prejudice because they have no contact with any
but their own race. But nobody escapes all forms of prejudice.
The issue of male-female prejudice touches almost everyone.
Class prejudice is also nearly universal. Religious prejudice, not
only between the religious and non-religious, but between the many
religions of the world and the many denominations of each religion.
We could go on endlessly listing areas of prejudice down to such
trivialities as right-handers against left-handers and cassettes lovers
against CD lovers. There does not appear to be anyone who can
escape all forms of prejudice, and so to some degree we are all a
part of the problem.
The Apostle John tells us that he did not record all that Jesus
did, for the world could not contain it if everything was recorded.
But he did record the confrontation of Jesus with the woman at the
well, and he gave us a lot of detail. The reason for it is because in
this encounter Jesus demonstrates that He was free from, and
uncontaminated by the prejudice that dominated the fallen hearts
of men. Jesus rejects all the major prejudices of men in this
account. Racial, religious, and sexual prejudice are rejected in this
encounter. No two people could be more in contrast to each other
than Jesus and this woman, and yet we see Jesus reaching out to
break down all the walls of prejudice in relating to her.
It is hard for us to grasp the audacity of Jesus in this situation,
and to understand why the disciples were so surprised to see Him
talking with her. But just imagine if you walked into a McDonalds
and saw Billy Graham in a booth talking to a black prostitute
whom you knew had just started her own cult in the area, and
Graham is asking her to go get him a glass of water. If that scene
would not surprise you and draw out some feelings of prejudice,
you are ready for the rapture. Most Christians would be shocked
just as the disciples were shocked at Jesus. Why? It was because
they were prejudice. They were products of their culture, and so
they had the typical sexual, racial, and religious prejudices of their
day.
Jesus uses prejudice people like His disciples because that was
His only choice. They wanted to call fire down from heaven to
destroy the Samaritans. They wanted no part of eating with
Gentiles, and they were even prejudice against little children, for
they wanted mothers to keep their kids away from Jesus. He
rebuked them and told them to let the little children come, for of
such is the kingdom of God. Jesus had to fight all kinds of
prejudice in His disciples, and the fight goes on all through history
for Christians are full of all the prejudices that are popular in the
culture in which they live.
Jesus came to buck the system and to reject the prejudices in
all its forms. He goes against the grain of His culture and dares to
love all people equally. It is His dream that His disciples will be
people of the same spirit. It took a long time for Jesus to get His
disciples free of prejudice. Peter, even long after Pentecost, could
not bring himself to eat with Gentiles. It was a deep prejudice in
him, and even the Holy Spirit could not cleanse him of it. God had
to speak to him in a dream and tell him not to call anything unclean
that he had made clean. He finally got Peter to go and eat with the
Gentile Centurion Cornelius in Acts 10. It was one of Peter's
hardest spiritual battles in letting go of his prejudice against
Gentiles.
It is good that his battle is recorded, for we do not want to give
the impression that prejudice is easy to eliminate. It is very hard to
do so, and often the best Christians can do in the short range is to
recognize that they have prejudice, and to keep it under control so
it does not do damage. I know Christian leaders who are prejudice
against others, but they know it and face it honestly, and they do
not let it block their Christ-like response to others. It is there, but it
is Christ who is controlling their actions.
Overcoming the power of prejudice may be the hardest battle
many Christians will fight. Lavonne and I are grateful for our
mostly prejudice free upbringing. We have very seldom felt the
power of prejudices in our lives, and we have not found it hard to
love people of a wide variety of differences. This has not been the
case for many Christians, and the result is they have a perpetual
fight with the power of prejudice. Bad circumstances that lead you
to suffer because of other people's behavior leads to prejudice.
I read a funny story that illustrates this point. A Jewish painter
in Tel Avive was hired to paint a church. The ladder began to slip
when he was painting the ceiling, and he fell into the baptismal
fount and was knocked out. The priest passed by and tried to
revive him, but he could not do it. He made the sign of the cross
over him and uttered a few Latin phrases. He was about to leave
when Mr. Feldman awoke. He asked, "What happened? Where
am I?" The priest said, "You are in a church and I just bestowed a
blessing on you. You are now a Christian." Feldman went home
feeling very shaky, and he called out to his wife, "Rachel do you
want to hear what happened to me today?" She shot back from the
kitchen, "No time! I'm late for my tennis game. Supper is on the
table." He went to his daughter's door and said, "Marian, do you
want to hear what happened to me at work today?" She came
bursting out of the door saying, no time! I hear Don honking the
horn for us. Bye." He walked down the hall to his 17-year-old sons
room, and before he could even ask his son he came out clutching
his basketball and said, "Hi dad. The guys are waiting to get
started. I'll see you tonight." Feldman sat down on the living room
couch and thought to himself, "I'm a Christian only a few hours
and already I hate three Jews."
The point is, if you are in some way mistreated by a person who
is of another race, class, sex, or religion, you will tend to hold all
people in that category accountable for your suffering, and that is
prejudice. Let one woman driver do something stupid and almost
cause you to have an accident and you will say, "Those awful
women drivers," and condemn the whole class because of the
mistake of one. Then every time you see a female driver you have
the preconceived judgment that she is a menace on the road.
Prejudice is based on magnifying a particular experience into a
universal principle. I know a Mexican who will not get out and get
a job. Therefore, all Mexicans are lazy. I know an Irishman who
drinks too much. Therefore, all Irishmen are drunks. We could go
on endlessly describing how people make universals out of
particulars. Jesus refused to do this, and instead, he treated all
people as individuals without judging them as a part of a class.
Other Rabbis would be saying that you do not talk to a woman
because they are uneducated and ignorant. Jesus did not assume
such a thing, and the result was that He found her to be quite
intelligent. Jesus did not assume anything, but He treated her as an
individual with as much worth as any other individual.
Jesus did the same thing with Zachaeus. Others were prejudice
against this little man, for he was a tax collector. He was
pre-judged as being a scoundrel with no potential to be an asset to
society. Jesus did not prejudge him, but He loved him and treated
him with respect. Because of this He won him as a disciple. Jesus
did not right anybody off as having no potential to be a part of His
kingdom. Gentiles, women, children, publicans and prostitutes, and
even Pharisees were welcome. Jesus never shut the door on any
individual, for He was prejudice free. This is the goal for every
believer.
Jesus lived in a world filled with all forms of prejudice. The
Jews hated Samaritans, and both hated Romans. The Jewish and
Gentile conflict was perpetual. All of these conflicts are still a part
of that area of the world. Jesus did not change that at all but He
produced a kingdom within the world where prejudice is not
allowed. In the kingdom of God there is no Jew or Gentile, bound
or free, male or female, but all are one in Christ. In the kingdom of
God all prejudice is eliminated. When Christians do have prejudice
it is because they are conforming to the world, and they are letting
the values of their culture control their lives. They are not praying
that God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
The Christian is to be in world but not of it. When they are
both in and of it they no longer represent the kingdom of God.
There would be no point in the Lord's Prayer being prayed: "Thy
kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," if this
was automatic. It is not, and the Christian can refuse to let the
kingdom come, and instead let prejudice be a controlling factor in
their lives. At this point they are just like the world, and this
explains why there is so much conflict in the Christian world.
When we operate in Christ, and His spirit dominates us, then we
are in conflict with the value system of the world. If other
Christians are not in Christ, but are in the world, they will be
prejudiced against us.
Take D. L. Moody as an example. He was so full of the love of
Christ for all people that he was severely criticized by many
Christians. Moody loved the ragged poor kids of Chicago, and this
made the rich Christians angry at his folly in focusing on them.
Moody loved famous theologians like George Adams Smith and
Henry Drummond. They were too liberal for many Christians, and
they were angry at Moody for loving them. Moody was friendly
with certain Roman Catholics in a day when this was very offensive
to many Protestants. When his son Paul Moody wrote about how
prejudice free his father was he was savagely attacked by other
Christians. Why? Because the kingdom of God and the kingdoms
of this world are in conflict, and if you have the mind of Christ and
live free of the scandal of prejudice, you will be in conflict with all
people who thrive on prejudice.
I have a hunch that the large majority of Christian conflict with
other Christians is a matter of prejudice. When the Christian does
not have the mind of Christ, but is thinking like the world, there
will be inevitable conflict with Christians who do have the mind of
Christ. If you are prejudice free you will not only be bucking the
world system, but the Christian population who is influenced more
by that system then by the Spirit of Christ. This means that to be
really Christ like you have break out of your comfort zone, and, like
Paul, rebuke Peter for his prejudice against Gentiles. It is hard to
risk the disfavor of other Christians, but it is a duty to point out the
scandal of a Christian having prejudice attitudes. Peter responded
to the rebuke by overcoming his prejudice, but not all will respond
this way.
Jesus cared about this Samaritan woman as much as He cared
about any other person. She was of a mongrel race, which was a
race of Jews that had intermarried with the hated Assyrians. She
was of a corrupt religion, and her personal life was a disaster of
broken relationships. If anybody Jesus ever met should have been
ignored or rejected, here was the prime candidate. But Jesus gives
her more than the time of day. He gives her the water of life, and
she became one of the greatest evangelists of the New Testament as
she brought many others to Christ. There are dozens of reasons
why this was all wrong from the point of view of prejudice, but
none of these reasons had any effect on Jesus. He broke down all
relational walls so that there was no such thing as a person who was
treated with any kind of prejudice.
The greatest enemies of Christ were the Pharisees, and the
most violent of them all was Saul of Tarus. And yet Jesus chose this
enemy to be His Apostle to the Gentiles. He converted him, filled
him with His spirit, and sent him into the world to break down
walls, and to be an agent of reconciliation. Saul, the embodiment of
prejudice, and a man filled with bitter hatred toward those who
were different, became Paul the embodiment of Christ-likeness with
a prejudice free spirit. This is the dream of Jesus for all who follow
Him. Jesus did not approve of this woman's divorce record, nor did
He put any stamp of approval on her living with a man out of
wedlock. He did not okay her unorthodox religious views either.
Being loving and unprejudiced towards others is not the same thing
as acceptance of all others do or believe. Jesus was very narrow in
His perspective. He said, "I am the way, the truth and the life, no man
comes to the Father but by me."
Jesus had many deep and absolute convictions. But He was
able to accept all persons regardless of how they may differ from
Him. He did not say, "You are a woman, and so I'll not waste my
time talking to you. You are a Samaritan, and so I'll not make any
effort to break down that wall. You are immoral, and so I'll not try
to show you a better way." A prejudice free spirit says that
anybody and everybody is worth relating to, for they have the
freedom to choose the will of God for their life. Being prejudice
free does not mean you like or accept everything about another
person, but that you accept the person, and do not let what you
don't like hinder your treating them with respect.
To do this is a far greater sign that you are filled with the Spirit
than speaking in tongues, or healing of diseases. You can do
wonders galore, but if you do not have love you are, as Paul says,
nothing. Without the prejudice free Spirit of Christ that enables
you to love all people you cannot fulfill His dreams for you. Gandhi
in his Autobiography tells of how he was beaten and forced by
officials to leave his first class place on the train in South Africa,
even though he had a first class ticket. The whites refused to let a
colored man have equal accommodations with them. He refused to
cooperate with their prejudice, and they had to take him off the
train by force. He fought this kind of prejudice and inspired many
around the world to do so. A lot has changed because of his
influence, but the spirit of prejudice is still alive everywhere.
The Christian is to go beyond the law and really care about
people of all races. By law the world has to treat people better, but
if the Christian does not rise above that level they are still
sub-Christian. Christians are to love and not just tolerate, and until
they do they are not prejudice free, and until we are prejudice free
we are still a part of the scandal that is so contrary to the Spirit of Christ.
