Season 5, Episode 2: broken body

So, I started a heretical feminist book club a couple years ago.  Mostly we read books about (surprise) feminism and faith. But this month, we’re reading The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James Cone.

As I cracked the spine on my brand new copy, I thought about how appropriate it is that we’re reading this book right now, at this moment. It’s Black History Month, yet it’s also the beginning of Lent, a season that culminates in the remembrance of the death of God’s son for the sins of the world, and Christ’s resurrection three days later.

As I read and I observe 40 days of anticipation, I think about how this mirrors, in a pale and thin way of course, the struggle of black people in this country.  A struggle of slavery, and Jim Crow.  A struggle that continues today.  As Cone points out, “White supremacy was and is an American reality.”  It isn’t any wonder that black people have identified with the Bible’s story, especially the death of Jesus on a tree, so strongly.  A story where victory does not necessarily come by power and military triumph.  Victory comes in weakness.  In abuse.  In death. In the savior’s body broken for you.

I think of what black bodies have endured for freedom.  Lynchings, beatings.  Dehumanizing humiliations, atrocities the mind scarcely wants to remember, but remember we must. Because these black bodies were broken for you.

This year I celebrate Black History and the road to the cross simultaneously.  I remember Jesus’ sacrifice and witness the ongoing struggle for equality in this country.  I’m thankful that, as the book of Hebrews tells us, we have a high priest in Jesus who sympathizes with us.  Who knows what it is to be human and denied justice, to be abused, and broken.   And yes, victorious.  But not in a way that anyone would expect.

• Faith