A TRIBUTE TO MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

The Things He Gave Me

I was six years old when Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. I never met him. I never saw him publicly. I don’t even remember the first time I heard his name. I have no recollection of hearing of his death — sheltered, no doubt, by overprotective parents. Yet, his voice rings in my head as much as any other human being.

a tribute to mlk

 

The Voice of Angels

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal” (1 Cor. 13:1).

 

King’s touch is indelible. His voice impacted and inspired millions. He arrived “for such a time as this,” and left a lasting footprint on our country’s historical landscape. His voice was strong, clear, and undefeatable because it was rooted in love.

 

King gave me things I didn’t know I needed. I’m sure he didn’t know he was giving them to me. Not just me, of course. Millions just like me, and different from me. But, gave them he did. And I will be forever thankful to this man I never knew.

 

The Things He Gave Me

I’ve read five biographies of Martin Luther King, Jr. including the magisterial Bearing the Cross. Having studied his life, I know that he wasn’t perfect. He, like all of us, was a flawed human being — a sinner in the hands of a loving God.

 

What is undeniable about King is that God used him to change our world. We would not be the nation we are today, were it not for King’s articulate voice and tireless work. He changed how we see each other. In so doing he changed each of us.

 

Here are the things he gave me (and you too!)

 

A Pastoral Ethos

King was first and foremost a pastor. It was his first calling. He was a brilliant child and could have been anything he wanted to be. He couldn’t shake the call to pastor.

 

He loved people. He felt with the hurting. He cared about the oppressed. He was motivated by a deep sense of care for people that he learned from his own pastor-father and mother.

 

His house, growing up, was always filled with people. People his father and mother were helping. He may have preached from the mountaintop, but he lived down in the valley with the people. He gave me hope that the call to shepherd can make a difference in this hard and cruel world.

 

King said, “The purpose of life is not to be happy, nor to achieve pleasure nor avoid pain, but to do the will of God, come what may.”

 

And to do God’s will was to love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as you love yourself (Mark 12:30-31). This was the pastoral ethos out of which King lived his life. I highly recommend it.

 

A Clear Vision

Not long after taking his first pastoral position, King was confronted with another call — to be a public voice for the oppressed. This was a more difficult call than his first. God gave him a vision for how he would use him — It was a dangerous vision. Sitting alone at his kitchen table one night he fearfully submitted to that vision. It changed his life. It changed the world.

 

King proclaimed his vision for our nation on the footsteps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, when he said:

 

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character … And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring … And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

 

King gave me hope that if we will surrender to God’s vision for our lives it can change the world.

 

A Prophetic Voice

King is a role model for what it looks like to exercise a prophetic voice. The prophets were despised, vilified, spat on, laughed at, beat up, and killed — all by their own countrymen (Luke 13:34).

 

When a preacher preaches in front of a self-appointed congregation and gets a standing ovation with shouts of “amen” — he is not being prophetic.

 

When a preacher sells millions of copies of his latest self-help book and lives in the lap of luxury, a product of his fame — he is not being prophetic.

 

When a preacher appears on television or social media to promote anger, resentment, bitterness, and fear — fanning the flames of all the worst angels of our nature — he is not being prophetic.

 

When a preacher is beaten up, arrested while standing with the poor, vilified for preaching love, threatened for speaking truth to power, and assassinated for his Godly cause — he is most likely being prophetic.

 

I don’t usually want to be a prophet. It’s too scary. I’m sure King had the same fears. I am so thankful he overcame them.

 

A Courageous Love

King famously said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

 

He lived out that love ethic. He was convinced that love would always win. He understood the radical love ethic of Jesus that commands us to love even our enemies (Matt. 5:44). He spoke a hard truth to his own people (which, again, is the essence of the prophetic voice) when he said:

 

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.”

 

He believed in love, and that takes amazing courage.

 

A Sacrificial Life

Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).

 

King knew how his life would most likely end. He faced his cross every day of his adult life. I can’t imagine what that was like.

 

In his last sermon in a Memphis church, preached the night before his death, he addressed the death threats he was receiving:

Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land. And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

 

This is what it looks like to give your life to Jesus.

 

I’m not Martin Luther King, Jr. On my best day, I don’t want to be him. Too much suffering involved. But, I’m so glad he lived. And I am thankful for the things he gave me.