Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matt. 5:10)

Tomorrow is Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day—a day when this nation honors the man who fought without using violent force for righteousness and justice for black Americans—and all those who love freedom. Some of us grew up in the turbulent days of civil rights marches led by Dr. King. I will admit to you that I did not always appreciate or sympathize with Dr. King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Now, as I look back on the life of this man, with all of his flaws, I see a man who stood on the platform of God’s Word and the Gospel message. Here was a prophet for such a time. He embraced faith in God’s sovereignty and righteousness in the face of persecution, discouragement, failures and rejection—and he did so with patience, forgiveness and hope. I wonder if I would respond with the same Christ-like resolve if faced with similar persecution today.

For many of us, this day will come and go without any thought to why we honor Dr. King. I wonder, what do our grandchildren really know about Dr. King and the underlying motivation for leading the civil rights movement? Will you use this opportunity to teach your grandchildren the truth about what drove Dr. King to do what he did?

The sad reality is that the true message and motivation beliefs behind Dr. King’s cause have largely been lost in today’s world of relativism and hostility toward things Christian. His cry for freedom was rooted in and expressed by responsibility and moral integrity. Today’s cries for freedom see faith and religion as adversaries to freedom. King saw truth and Christian faith as the foundation for true freedom.

Many quote his famous I Have A Dream speech but forget the biblical foundation upon which that speech and all of his work was based. A quote from Isaiah explained the focus of his dream, “the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed”. The Sermon on the Mount defined his work and was the substance of most of his speeches. He said, “Christianity has always insisted that the cross we bear precedes the crown we wear…carry it until that very cross leaves its mark upon us and redeems us to that more excellent way which comes only through suffering.”

Notice what Dr. King told many of the students who were growing restless and hungering to retaliate in the face of such suffering:

There is something in this student movement which says to us that we shall overcome. Before the victory is won some may have to get scarred up, but we shall overcome… That is the basis for this movement, and as I like to say, there is something in this universe that justifies Carlyle in saying that no lie can live forever…behind the dim unknown, standeth God within the shadows, keeping watch above His own.

(From The New Yorker, April 6, 1987)

I am convinced Dr. King would insist that if there were to be any honor on the day we have established as a national holiday, it should be given to God, not a man. It was for Christ’s righteousness and justice that he stood up to expose the hatred and unconscionable injustice of racism. Like David and all of us, Dr. King was guilty of a great many sins. Yet what he did right defined him and his cause. When others attacked with hate and violence, he did not strike back. When many in his own organization called for revenge, he called for love and forgiveness. “We love men not because we like them,” he explained, “nor because their ways appeal to us, nor even because they possess some kind of divine spark. We love every man because God loves him.” And, I might add, because each is made in the image of his Creator.

This is what our grandchildren must know and understand about injustice and standing up for righteousness. These things have their source in the very nature of God, and are rooted in our souls as image-bearers of our Creator. Dr. King embraced the truth. May we be found as faithful in the cause for truth and freedom as he was.