Jesus, Justice, and the Struggle of the Oppressed
When people say Jesus wasn’t political, it often reveals more about their comfort than Christ’s character. The Jesus of scripture—the one who overturned tables, rebuked religious hypocrisy, and stood with the poor—isn’t the soft-spoken savior many churches present.
For Black people living in the shadow of systemic oppression, the real Jesus is not just a spiritual figure—He is a liberator.
And no one said it better than theologian James H. Cone, who, in his groundbreaking 1969 work Black Theology & Black Power, drew a straight line between the gospel of Jesus and the lived realities of Black resistance in America.
“Any message that is not related to the liberation of the poor in a society is not Christ’s message.”
— James H. Cone, Black Theology & Black Power
Jesus’ Gospel Was a Mission of Liberation
Jesus opens His public ministry in Luke 4:18 by declaring:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor… to set the oppressed free.”
This was not a metaphor. It was a public claim of purpose—a political, economic, and social message for the forgotten and downtrodden.
James Cone reminds us: if the gospel doesn’t speak to the pain of Black people in America, it’s not the gospel of Jesus.
“The scandal is that the gospel means liberation, but it has been used to enslave.”
— Cone
Jesus Took Sides
Jesus didn’t minister from a place of neutrality. He took sides—with the poor, the sick, the women, the widows, the prisoners.
In Matthew 25, He says our fate is tied to how we treat “the least of these.”
In John 8, He stops the execution of a woman caught in adultery.
In Mark 11, He flips tables in the temple to protest economic exploitation.
James Cone places this radical Jesus squarely within the Black experience:
“The cross is a lynching. Jesus did not die in a cathedral between two candles, but on a garbage heap between two thieves.”
— James H. Cone, The Cross and the Lynching Tree
The crucified Jesus knows what it’s like to be falsely accused, brutally beaten, and publicly executed. He knows what it’s like to be Black in America.
Faith Without Justice Is Fraud
For Black communities today, Cone’s theology offers not just insight but marching orders. He warns that churches obsessed with morality but silent on injustice are betraying the very gospel they claim to preach.
Cone challenges Christians to reimagine their faith—not as a path of personal comfort, but as a commitment to collective liberation.
If your Jesus can’t speak to mass incarceration, poverty, or police brutality, then it’s time to reconsider which Jesus you’ve been following.
If your gospel doesn’t have room for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, or the child facing hunger in your own ZIP code, it is not the gospel of Jesus. If your Jesus doesn’t understand redlining, mass incarceration, or voter suppression, then it’s time to meet the real one.
Final Word
James Cone calls us to confront a hard truth: Jesus is not colorblind. Jesus is not neutral. Jesus is not silent.
The real Jesus:
Cares about who’s hungry
Sides with the exploited
Critiques unjust systems
Honors Black life
If the gospel you’ve been taught tells you to wait, hush, or stay in your place, that gospel is broken.
Jesus isn’t here to maintain the peace of the powerful—He came to disrupt it.
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