It ought to be those that have some genes in Africa, those who know the Lord has brought us up out of Africa, carried us through slavery, and brought us to where we are right now. We have dealt with this before. Last Sunday as we began our journey into our hour of power season, we began a sermonic series that I thought would carry us through the end of this month called Survival Mode.
Realizing that sometimes life puts you in a place where all you're trying to do is make it to the next season and stage. I preached part two of that message last night at our six o'clock service. We looked at the woman with the issue of blood and how it is she's able to survive. I think the sermon went all right.
The choir seemed to like it. Some folks shouted and a few folks joined. And it was my intent to continue that series and that sermon on this morning with you. Went home after church last night feeling pretty good, and all that changed about 12 hours ago.
Like many of you, I received word that George Zimmerman was found not guilty, the slaying of Trayvon Martin. And it just didn't seem that it was appropriate to continue with business as usual in the sermon today. God was pressing and pushing something different that he needed to speak in this moment. And I ask for your prayers as what I bring has just been prayerfully shaped overnight. But trusting that it's what God wants to speak.
As we ponder the events of our world, I want to invite you to journey with me into the 15th chapter of the Gospel of Mark. In the Gospel of Mark, in the 15th chapter, there's one verse that I think helps. frame and shape our thoughts and our feelings this morning.
Mark chapter 15, and we ask those who are physically able, if you would stand with us as together, we hear the word of God. Mark chapter 15, the 21st verse. Mark chapter 15, verse 21. Then they compelled a certain man, Simon a Cyrenian, the father of Alexander and Rufus, as he was coming out of the country and passing by, to bear his, meaning Jesus, cross. That's enough.
Today I want to talk about when the verdict hurts. You may be seated in the presence of God. I have to be honest this morning that I find it difficult to stand here as Reverend Doctor because as Reverend Doctor you have the expectation that I'm super spiritual and somehow or another and shielded from some of the new realities of the struggles of life that we all experience I want to ask you to give me a little bit of time to take off the Reverend Dr. Pastor and just put on the Howard John for a moment and tell you that as I stand here, like many of you, I come with a mixed bag of emotions.
One way I'm hurt. I hurt with Trayvon Martin's mother and father to receive the double blow of not only losing their son but now realizing that there may be no justice for his death. I hurt because Trayvon Martin reminds me of my own sons and how fragile black life really is.
I hurt Because there are almost 50 black lives taken by other black hands in my own hometown of Chicago just last weekend. We're on a phone call this morning with pastors who were praying together and preparing what they were going to speak in this moment. Dr. Otis Moss, who I'll be with this week in revival. Said that his heart hurt because his son came to him and asked him, Daddy, am I next? So I hurt.
But not only do I hurt, I'm confused. I'm confused as to how in the world a young black man's life can be taken. The one who killed him walk away with a handshake and a smile.
I'm not a lawyer. I don't seek to understand the complexities between homicide, murder, and manslaughter. I know this, a young black boy is dead and nobody's paying the price for it.
And I'm confused legally. I'm also confused theologically. Don't act like your Bible is so big and you understand it so well that at times you don't wrestle with what God seemingly allows to go down that doesn't make any sense. Confused theologically about how to find and place God in the midst of a verdict like this. On that phone call we were speaking about this morning, my good friend, Reverend Dr. Nathan Scovens, said that he was confused because his son came to him and asked him, Daddy, is George Zimmerman going to heaven?
I know what my Christian answer is supposed to be. And I know that doesn't bother you because you're saved and sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost. But sometimes answering a question like that in a moment like this is a lot harder than Sunday school prepared you for. I'm hurt, I'm confused, and Derek, I'm disappointed.
I'm disappointed in that verdict. But Faye, I'm not surprised. I don't believe I'm the only one who saw this coming.
When this man wasn't even arrested until weeks after the slaying, there's something that said he was going to walk away. It's not even about the stand your ground law. It's not even about whether the prosecution was too aggressive in seeking second degree murder instead of manslaughter. Saw it coming, because I know this is the difficult thing and this is why you put me up here at the mic to say what you're thinking.
That I have a racial consciousness. That lets me know that in situations like this, it typically doesn't work out in our favor. I know you can't say it is politically incorrect and you can't bring it up on your job because they'll send you to HR, but I can say it in this place.
What would be the outcome if the color roles were reversed? If this were a young black man that had taken a white life, would we be wrestling with it like this, this morning? There is a racial consciousness about this that really, if I can be honest with you, it angers me. I want to take race out of it.
I want to live in a world where I'm not judged by the color of my skin but the content of my character. I want to live in a world where I believe that we're all created and treated equally. I want to live in a world where we're not separate but equal but we're unified regardless of race and creed. But the reality is that I have to look at this through the eyes of a black man.
With the Paula Deen the Supreme Court ruling, and now this. There's a racial consciousness that rises up within me that somehow taints my ability to see this objectively. I'm angry.
How in the world can Michael Vick go to jail for two years? For taking the life of an animal and a man killer black boy and walk away scot-free. I know that's not the button I should be pushing, but it sends a sign.
That the life of an animal is more protected than the life of our black and brown children. And I struggle with this. The Reverend Dr. doesn't, but the Howard John does.
And wondering, what do you do when a verdict comes down that hurts like this? And Lord reminded me that this is not the first time we've had to learn to live with a verdict that hurts. Come on out of 2013 and journey back to antiquity in Jerusalem with me. Allow me to show you another travesty of justice.
A brother's on trial. Some of y'all don't know him, his name is Jesus. And he's brought up on some charges that have no validity.
He's accused of being subversive to the Roman government, of encouraging citizens not to pay taxes, and of calling himself a king. And there's a weak judge on the bench, represents the oppressive Roman government by the name of Pilate. And Pilate looks at the evidence and knows it's all circumstantial. He knows it's all hearsay, that there's no bona fide evidence that Jesus is guilty.
And Pilate wants to dismiss the case, not once, but twice. But he's pressured by the Jewish aristocracy and religiosity of the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin council. And they demand that Jesus be crucified.
The case is given over to the jury of the crowd that is gathered and the crowd hollers out crucify him. This man who the evidence shows beyond a shadow of a doubt is innocent. Beyond the preponderance of the evidence, has done nothing to deserve death, but yet the judgment that comes out of Pilate's court is that Jesus must be crucified.
And in common Roman custom, when that trial is over, he's taken to a room where he is beaten within a breath of his life. They used something called a cat of nine tails. It was a whip that had shards and hooks on the end that were meant to grab the flesh and rip it off of one's back.
Jesus is beaten for hours, severely dehydrated, bloodied, and bruised. And according to Roman custom, the insult to the injury is that now he has to carry the cross. upon which he will be crucified through the uphill streets of Jerusalem.
Our Savior, who's been beaten within a breath of his life, bloodied and bruised, severely dehydrated, is weak and is yet called to carry a wooden beam that weighs at least 100 pounds. He's carrying it through the streets of Jerusalem and his humanity kicks in. He's weak, he's dehydrated, he's bloodied and bruised, and he stumbles and falls.
The Romans say the crucifixion got to keep going, we got to get to Calvary. The Bible says that there's a brother on the side of the street. whose name is Simon and Simon verse 21 says is compelled to carry the cross.
Now I need you not to misinterpret that term compelled. He did not do it of his own volition. That word compelled is a euphemistic way of saying that the same Roman government who found Jesus guilty even though he was innocent are now the soldiers who forced Simon to carry the weight of a cross that is the result of an unjust verdict. Make sure you hear this.
Here is a brother who now has to bear a weight that is the result of an unjust verdict. He has no choice in the matter. He cannot escape it.
The reality is he's got to learn to carry that weight. Good morning, Simon. Because that's what you have to learn to do today.
To carry the weight that comes as a result. of an unjust verdict and we're compelled to do it. Not because we want to, but because it's done. Double jeopardy exists and Zimmerman is innocent.
You gotta bear the weight of the bitterness it leaves in your soul. How does this brother carry this weight? Verse number 21 is short, but it gives us so much to hold on to when we have to deal with verdicts that hurt.
Notice why Simon is in Jerusalem. That's not his hometown. The Bible says he's passing through that country.
He's in Jerusalem because it's Passover. Somebody say Passover. For those who are biblically illiterate, Passover is the season where the Jews gather together and look back at what God did in Egypt and remind themselves of the God that brought them this far.
So here is a brother who is in Passover mindset. He's reflecting over where the Lord has brought his people. Now, if Jerusalem ain't his home, the question you need to ask is, where is he from? Bible tells you right there in verse 21, he's from Cyrene. Somebody say Cyrene.
Since you can't Google in Miller's sermon, let me tell you where Cyrene is. Africa. Here is an African who is in Passover mindset.
Here's a brother that's come out of Africa and is remembering where the Lord has brought him from and he finds the strength to carry the weight of an unjust verdict because he's an African who's come so far that he remembers where the Lord has brought him from. Can I preach right now that that is where we find the strength to bear this weight? Because if anybody ought to remember what the Lord has done, it ought to be those that have some genes in Africa.
Those who know the Lord has brought us up out of Africa, carried us through slavery, and brought us to where we are right now. We have dealt with this before. He carried us through Emmett Till.
He carried us through the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. He carried us through James Byrd and Yusef Hawkins. He carried us through Rodney King.
And God will carry us through this. We find our strength to bear this, knowing that our forefathers and foremothers have walked this road before. And when they carried themselves through this road and dealt with the Emmett Teals and dealt with the bombings and dealt with the lynchings and dealt with the Klan. they would just lift up this old song that some of you remember.
We have come. Over a way that with tears has been watered. And we have come treading our path through the blood of the slaughter. And the God that carried us through all of that is the God that gives us strength to carry this weight.
He does it because he's come out of Africa with a memory of what the Lord has done. But I suggest to you, secondly, that he bears this weight because the Bible says this, he is the father of Rufus and Alexander. He carries this weight because his boys are with him.
And if he doesn't carry this weight, the penalty may rest upon his sons. He's the father of Rufus and Alexander. Put your children's names there.
And he says, I've got to carry this weight. So that they don't have to. Now, can we do a little Bible study real quick?
Because the name Rufus and Alexander may not mean too much to you. Until you keep on reading and get to Romans. And get to the 16th chapter. Because it is there that Paul, in writing to the church in Rome. The church that is centered in the midst of an unjust system.
A church that is located in the heart of Roman oppression. That Paul begins to commend the leaders of the church in Rome. And when he gets down to the end, he says, and don't forget to hug Rufus.
The young boy who watches his father carry the weight is the young boy who winds up in Rome itself proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ. The same young boy who watched his daddy bear that weight is the young man that grew up and stood in the middle of the same city and declared Jesus is Lord. The way his father carried the weight allowed that young man to be productive in the center of a system that was biased against him. We have to carry this weight correctly. Because we've got some Rufus and Alexanders who are watching how we respond to this.
I don't want to carry this incorrectly because I've got a Cooper and a Deuce. I don't want them to grow up and use a bitterness of racial injustice to cause them to be unproductive in the world because they blame race on everything. We've got to carry it correctly so that our sons and our daughters will know that regardless of the color of their skin, that God has given them the strength to be productive, that they can stand in the midst of an unjust world and continue to raise their voice in the name of Jesus and the Lord.
will give them strength. We must not riot. We must not become hateful. We must not become bitter. We must bear this weight with the dignity of our forefathers and our foremothers so that our children can be productive.
We have to carry this correctly. So that your Rufus and your Alexander can still live and thrive. According to Roman culture, when he carries this beam, the one who's going to be crucified has to walk in front. And so Simon literally carries this weight with Jesus walking in front.
So that while he's carrying it, the only thing he sees is his Savior. The only thing he focuses on is Jesus. The weight may be heavy, the load may be a lot.
not want to carry this but if my faith and my focus is on Jesus Christ who suffered and bled and died when I focus on the Lord it gives me the strength to bear the weight that I must bear as a result of this verdict I sometimes wonder Did Rufus know? Did Alexander know? Did Simon know what was going to happen after Christ was crucified? No, we don't always know how it turns out. But what we have the benefit of knowing that Simon didn't was that yes, that Jesus was crucified.
But I feel it coming. But my Baptist says early on Sunday morning he would rise from the dead. Come here. That message of the resurrection of Jesus is not just a button to push at the end of a sermon to make folks stand up and shout.
It is a hope that lies within us that declares that no matter how bad it gets, that we serve a God who if you give him some time and put your faith in him and trust in him, he is able to turn situations around. able to resurrect dead things. He is able.
The message of the resurrected Jesus is this, that the verdict, though unjust, is not the end of the story. The verdict, no matter how much it hurts, is not the end of the story. That Pilate was not the final judge. That the jury doesn't have the last say.
But we lift up our eyes to a God who is eternal and sovereign and omnipotent and is able. And that's where we find our strength. We find our strength in our history of what the Lord has given us. We find our strength in looking at our Rufus and our Alexander.
We find our strength in keeping our focus on Jesus and knowing that the verdict is not the end of the story. I don't know how, when, where God does it and will resurrect it, but my faith says that God makes things right. My faith says that God knows how to handle situations like this.
faith says that one day I'll see the justice that I demand it may not be in this life but I'm so glad this ain't the only life I'm living for for when this old life is over I've got another home not made with human hands where there's nothing but glory and justice all day long and God And God will wipe every tear from our eyes. And God will hold the heart of Trayvon Martin's parents. And God will comfort us through this situation. But we've got to handle it correctly.