Monday is Dr. Martin Luther King Day in the United States. After the events of recent years our annual federal holiday should carry new meaning. How should we honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.? Everyone reveres the prophet after he’s dead, but will we allow his message to reach us, again, today?
How Should We Honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.?
In predictable Biblical tradition we honor Dr. Martin Luther King after he’s gone, and in short order have reduced the honor to an innocuous three-day weekend for federal employees. But events like the murder of George Floyd have revealed how short our memories are. Whoever the prophet might be, in his day the prophet is rejected, ridiculed, scorned, misunderstood, misquoted, vilified, and in some cases shot in the head.
Jesus understood this dynamic well:
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!” (Matthew 23: 29-31)
Sweet and gentle Jesus railed against the powerful religious tendency to ignore the word of God when it is living and active, while building cold stone monuments to the word after the voice is silent.
