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Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:
The Man, His Mission, His Master
By Rev. Dr. Perry Simmons, Jr.
President, General Baptist Convention of New Jersey
I remember as a teenager having to drink from water fountains that read, “colored only,” and having no bathroom provided for us in the movie theater where we were forced to sit upstairs while the whites sat downstairs. I heard whites refer to me and others as n------, boy, jigga boo, coon and many other racial slurs. I remember having our door kicked in by the county sheriff, who never admitted that he was at the wrong house.
I attended Morris Brown College in Atlanta, Georgia where my dorm was just five minutes away from the house where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lived. While there, I did participate in a march protesting the war in Vietnam that was led by one of the foot soldiers of Dr. King, Hosea Williams. I was excited about what Dr. King was trying to do for blacks and the underclass in America. His work also motivated one of my younger brothers back in our hometown of Cairo, Georgia, who led a demonstration to desegregate public schools there. He was successful in his efforts, but was not allowed to graduate from the school he helped to integrate.
I gave you that bit of history so you would get a better idea about why I was so excited about the Man, His Mission, and His Master.
The Man: Dr. King was a man I feel was chosen from the foundation of the world to be a leader in his time. No man could ever see so clearly the vision that God had for him unless he was chosen. He understood, “that God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of love and of a sound mind.” He understood well that God had given him a Mission.
His Mission: What has made his name great in history is that he was not just fighting for blacks, he was fighting for all poor and mistreated of all races. His mission was to create a level field for all Americans so that no one would be judged by color, but by character. His Mission was to fight for equal wages for equal work for both males and females, regardless of race, color or national origin.
His Master: Dr. King knew that, “he was not his own, but he had been bought and paid for with a price.” He knew to whom he belonged. So he was God’s Man on God’s Mission and he acknowledged God in all he did. God wanted men everywhere to free. Didn’t Jesus say, “those whom I have set free, are free indeed?”
As we come together to celebrate the life and work of Dr. King, we must realize that he was a part of the body of Christ, the church. As the church, we must become the men and women who must continue the mission. There is still an underclass in America that is made up of members from all races; people of all races who are not getting a good education; living in sub-standard housing; exposed to segregation. There are still poor people of all races without adequate health care. And the list goes on and on.
We must also look to the same Master that led and helped Dr. King to lead and help the Church. Jesus is our lord and Master. Just as Dr. King accepted the challenge that God had for him, the church must accept the challenge that is ours in this disturbed social order.
And it is the challenge of the church in a disturbed social order, for those who are dedicated to the proposition that “Christ is all,” not to allow the doubts of difficulties of these dark days to disturb or dishearten them. As Dr. King did in his time, you must stand upright in a world that has been upset.
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