WHAT I MEAN WHEN I SAY JESUS IS LORD
As a Christian, my affirmation of faith is “Jesus is Lord.” That doesn’t mean he is divine (though, in my theology of omnipresence, we are all in and part of the divine Presence); it means my very faith vocabulary and experience is a challenge to empire, autocracy, and oppression. It means that in a world where Caesar was Lord of the vast empire, a group of subjects, slaves, and peasants dared to call someone else “Lord”, and the person they chose was a carpenter/fisher/possibly illiterate itinerate preacher/Palestinian Jew from an occupied territory.
Caesar’s empire killed “Lord” Jesus and his admirers insisted that somehow, he didn’t stay dead! In story and ritual and imagination and personal experience, he was still around (and remains so). So, calling Jesus “Lord” is an affirmation that significance isn’t limited to earthly/physical years, and it is a rebuke of empire, injustice, and cruelty.
It occurs to me, then, that one cannot have Jesus as Lord and be a fan of unbridled militarism, systemic racism, legalized discrimination against Queer folk, colonization of women’s bodies, or tyrannical narcissism in seats of power. If Jesus is Lord, Caesar ain’t...whether he wears a crown or a red ball cap.
There is, obviously, a sentimental and personal devotion involved in calling Jesus “Lord” as well.
Jesus loved the unloved, touched the untouchable, saw and heard the marginalized, offered hope to the hopeless, and helped the broken and dis-eased to feel whole again. For Jesus to be Lord means that we value compassion, kindness, tolerance, inclusivity, and hospitable welcome.
For Jesus to be Lord means we want bridges rather than walls.
For Jesus to be Lord means we hurt when we see others hurting.
For Jesus to be Lord means a healing touch (medical care) for everyone who needs it.
For Jesus to be Lord means that we would never and could never consider crushing the spirit of someone because of their heritage, the way they pray, or who they love.
For Jesus to be Lord means affirming the sacred value of ALL people.
It’s too easy to make Jesus the distant face of a more distant god, and it doesn’t make the world kinder, healthier, safer, or more joyful. I won’t reduce Jesus to a deity...for me, he’s Lord!
Too many people worship their fears and hatreds and call them God, and many call that god “Jesus.” But if Jesus is Lord, then we will work ceaselessly for the oppressed, the marginalized, the forgotten, the weak, the hurting, the wounded, the hungry, the sick, the refugee, the asylum seeker, the justice seeker, the bullied, the shamed, the shunned, and all the so-called “least of these.”
The oldest creed of the Jesus Movement is “Jesus is Lord.” It remains the cry of my heart, and the motivation for how I wish and try to live in the world. And if Jesus is Lord, then we still have a lot of work to do.
—Rev. Dr. Durrell Watkins
Sunshine Cathedral
Fort Lauderdale, FL USA
