While it’s probably not likely for white Christian believers at this moment in America to “get into” the lives of our Black brothers and sisters, we still have the same capacities and same needs and same desires: we want to be loved, and cherished, to be held and forgiven, to be seen as we are, to be admired when we do well and to be embraced when we fall, to have our tears dried and our wounds bandaged, to see our children thrive and our spouses protected, to have safety in our homes and schools and churches, to be treated with respect and dignity in our daily lives, to travel freely where we will, live where we will, work where we will, love whom we will, and do what we will.
There is nothing that white American Christians have or want as human beings that our Black brothers and sisters do not want, and while it can be hard to understand just how much their experiences are not like ours, we can have the human connection of empathy when our brothers and sisters have their dreams crushed needlessly, their bodies hurt cruelly, their hopes destroyed aimlessly, their futures blocked deliberately. We can, as it were, walk with them and listen to them, sit with them, and hear for understanding when they speak to us of their joys and their pains.
I can’t speak for all white people and certainly am not going to speak about the lived experiences of my friends, but I think we can as white people strive to understand and strive to have empathy–which is not pity and not superiority, but the sense of connection about the human expressions that result from the very different experiences our friends have through no fault of their own except being created in the image of God with all the humanity that God grants to his children, and yet living in our country as incomplete citizens without equal protection of the law and without the mutuality of community with all of us.
And I’d hope that the realization that we as white Christians don’t always “get it” would lead us to work for justice and equality whether or not we get approval from the rest of the white community that is happy with the way things are right now.
Maundy Thursday is a time to remember the words of Jesus as matched with the works of Jesus: Here is the commandment I give you, to love one another as I have loved you.