Whose Lives Matter?

In December of 2014, Kathleen McCartney, president of Smith College in Northampton, Mass., sent out an e-mail in the wake of Ferguson and Baltimore in which she asserted that “all lives matter”.  Even though she was solidly in the corner of the “black lives matter’ movement, she was excoriated for her “mistake” and issued a written apology.

I was thinking about this issue again this week.  If it were Jesus, what would He say?  Would He single out a segment of society and note that those people matter while ignoring other segments of society?  The answer is found on the cross.  When Jesus died, He did not die for Jews alone.  Nor did He die for the wealthy, or the impoverished to the exclusion of others.  He didn’t die for people of more color or for people of less color.  The death of Christ was the most color-blind, racially equal, all-inclusive event in human history.  Jesus died for all of us – “Red and yellow, black and white. They are precious in His sight.”  The human race matters to Jesus – all of it.