From time to time God raises prophets in the midst of turmoil and injustice to make his voice heard clearly, providing guidance and direction. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is one of these prophets.
When the prophet Jeremiah was called by God to preach his Word, the prophet rejected God saying he was too young. God rebuked him saying “say not I am too young, to whomever I send you, you will go; whatever I command you, you shall speak.” Jeremiah eventually accepted his calling and preached fearlessly. In the end he was killed by those who disliked his message.
What strikes me the most about Martin Luther King Jr. is that, unlike Jeremiah, he did not believe he was too young. In just 39 years of life he accomplished what no man before him had been able to achieve. He knew he did not have much time evidenced by statements like “the quality, not the longevity, of one’s life is what is important” and his last speaking engagement before his murder, “[God] has allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.”
The work and effort of Martin Luther King Jr. was inspired by his religious conviction, not political gain. Oftentimes history books fail to acknowledge this very important fact.
Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday we celebrate today, is a prophet of our times. He called a whole society to conversion by standing up for truth in the face of prejudice and turmoil. Saint Catherine of Siena once said that “if we are who we are meant to be, we will set the world on fire.” This is precisely what Martin Luther King Jr. did, he followed God’s call and certainly set the world on fire, transforming it and creating a new equal society.
One man who influenced Martin Luther King Jr. greatly was Mohatma Gandhi who led a non-violent revolution in India to overthrow the English colonial government. Martin Luther King Jr. visited India in the 1950s to learn more about Gandhi’s ideas which he later implemented in the United States as he organized and led non-violent acts of civil disobedience throughout the South.
Last Saturday Arun Gandhi, the fifth grandson of Mohatma Gandhi, spoke in Augusta at an interfaith service and I had the privilege to hear him share lessons he learned from his grandfather and to briefly meet him. Arun was born in South Africa and at age 13 was sent to live with his grandfather in India until Gandhi’s assassination one year later in 1948.
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