Over the last 36 hours my emotions have run the gamut from disbelief, anger, heartbreak, despair, confusion, and dark sadness.  I know there are those that have an expectation for me to speak out on this horror, but it is such a temptation to speak out of my flesh instead of speaking something that is God honoring.  My job as a pastor is to speak on God’s behalf, as I look at everything that is happening through my Jesus lenses, this is what I believe to be Jesus’ approach if he were living in 2015 America:

1. First, I believe Jesus would go straight to the survivors and to the families of the deceased. He would love them, he would comfort them with supernatural comfort, He would sit with them, and He would cry with them. I have been greatly encouraged by two phrases used in the gospel of Luke to describe Jesus’ emotional state as he dealt with the death of a friend. Luke 11 says that Jesus was “deeply moved” and “greatly troubled” as he saw people that he loved deal with unspeakable grief. It is in this context that we have the verse that tells us that Jesus wept. I think that Jesus would show up in Charleston and he would again be deeply moved and greatly troubled, and full of compassion.
2. I believe that Jesus would point us to the gospel as the only message that can heal our racial divide. We are a messed up race of humans, and the gospel is the only answer. God made a way through Jesus for us to be made right, or reconciled, to Him. One of the many beauties of the gospel is that as we are made right with God, God makes us right with each other, and our unity is so much more powerful than any racial divide. Those that love Jesus MUST lead the way to racial reconciliation in our country, and part of that leadership is saying and believing that nothing can overcome the hatred of racism outside of the power of the gospel.
3. I believe that Jesus would get us excited about heaven. I think he would remind us to mourn for the families of the deceased, but remember that the actual victims are to be celebrated. There is a kingdom coming where evil is nonexistent, where justice always flows, and where racism and hatred have been permanently defeated. Yes, I think that Jesus would remind us that 9 people achieved a great victory Wednesday night, our own victory will be here in the blink of an eye.
4. I think that Jesus would denounce people of hate. I believe he would do it firmly and passionately much more than he would do it politely or with political correctness. We see Jesus seemingly lose it when he flipped over tables in the temple, we see Jesus purposefully attack and insult the religious leaders known as the Pharisees. The situations where we see Jesus get heated, he was usually attacking those that were seeking their own self gain but masking it under the appearance of religion. The whole white power, southern pride, “blacks have to go” movement has always been attached to a belief in and service of God. I think Jesus would speak loud and strong about those who have hijacked His name and attached it to the hatred that is so opposite of His message. I believe He would call people out like he did 2000 years ago for placing themselves above others and oppressing those that you have deemed yourself above. I believe Jesus would connect the dots between an insulting racist joke and these horrific murders. One may be merely verbal, but the fruit of murder comes from the same seed as the racist insult, that someone is less human than you. All racism grows from that same seed, and many racists would never even think of resorting to violence, yet they must accept that they are in same boat as the murderer. Why? There is a clear connection between thinking you are better and more human than someone and therefore justifying oppression, systems of oppression, slavery and even murder of that same someone. So, I think Jesus would come out swinging against any culture of hate that clothes their hate in any mention of God and the Bible. It is easy for us today to denounce this awful act, but individually and culturally are we willing to denounce all racism in all its forms? Are we willing to speak up and out against both the insulting comment around the office and also the system that justifies a confederate flag still flying over a state capitol?
5. I believe Jesus would call us to unite as Christians. He would not call us to unite as a human race, but Ephesians 2 teaches us that when Jesus died on the cross he killed the hostility between the races and created a new race that is founded on His name. Jesus would also remind us that true biblical unity means we carry each other burdens. Carrying each others burdens is not a cute verse in the Bible, it is an actual emotional investment into shared pain. Can I relate to the terror that comes from knowing there are some that would target to kill me solely on the basis of my skin color? No, I cannot. If you don’t have the skin color that was targeted then you cannot fully relate either. Yet, I am still urged by the gospel to hurt with those who are hurting, to actually feel their pain and pray and encourage and love them through it. This did not happen solely to the black community, it happened to the Christian community. We should all be hurting today, we should all have a heavy heart in the body of Christ. Some of our own were killed inside their place of worship because of their God created skin color, that should break our hearts for more than a news cycle! One way we show our unity is through a sensitivity to the pain that ultimately should be an owning of that pain. Part of that sensitivity should be in what we say and don’t say. For example, a friend of a friend tweeted yesterday morning that isn’t it crazy that God loves the shooter just as much as he loves each of us. Now, that is a true statement, but productive and beneficial it is not. The lack of awareness of some of my white brothers is astonishing to me. Listen, if my daughter was killed, and you came to my house as a friend to sit with me as I was stricken with grief, would you even think about reminding me that the murderer was loved by God? No you would not, I don’t need to hear that right now. In the same way, if God is true and right, then he said those people killed last night are my brothers and sisters, they are my family. Do you think that 12 hours after their murder is the appropriate time to go waxing eloquent about how much God loves the killer? It sends a message that you don’t want to send, a lack of sensitivity and awareness to the degree of pain that exists on a day like today. Did you tweet the same thing about bin Laden the day after 9/11? No you did not, one, because you knew better and two, because twitter did not exist. I just believe that Jesus would call us to a unity that goes beyond throwing up a social media prayer, I believe he would call us to act and pray and speak like we actually are what He called us to be, the family of God and the hands, feet and mouthpiece of Jesus Christ.
6. Last, I know Jesus would call this what it was, pure evil! He would not call it mental illness or one crazy young man, he would call it evil and he would call out its source as satanic. The shooter told police that part of his motive was to start a race war. Usually our enemy is more deceptive than that, but here we have an admission that the goal was not just to kill, but start a movement of hate that results in much more death. This country has never seen a power like the multiethnic church that is just beginning to rise up, do we really think the enemy is going to sit idly by and watch the church of Jesus Christ finally become the powerful diverse movement that it was designed to be? The enemy is fighting hard, specifically trying to expand the racial divide as the multiethnic church begins to gain ground in our country. So the million dollar question is what are we going to do? We are going to grieve together, we are going to speak out, we are going to listen, and we are going to partner with Jesus as he builds his beautiful multiethnic church.