Don’t Be A June 18th Christian

In 2021, Juneteenth became a federal holiday in the US. I was asked recently why I didn’t celebrate it. I observe the holiday but can’t say that I celebrate it. I understand why the enslaved Black people in Texas, after realizing for the first time that they had been liberated from institutionalized human slavery, joyously celebrated. My perspective of Juneteenth from 150 plus years later is a bit different from theirs. The celebratory formerly enslaved were unaware that the proclamation didn’t apply to the enslaved in the north, or that it would be followed by Jim Crow in the South which was far deadlier, or that it would take another one hundred years before their power to protect their freedom would be safeguarded by the Voting Rights Act. Yes, I can understand why they celebrated, but today it doesn’t make me feel festive. I think the observance of Juneteenth is important because it reveals the medical history of Texas and the US when trying to diagnose the failing health of equality and justice for all.

I think Christians can learn a lot from the Juneteenth holiday. It is a real life example of the impact of not spreading the gospel. When the good news of the gospel is suppressed or withheld, people continue to suffer and perish needlessly.

Those who confess to believe in the gospel of Christ should be celebrating their liberation like the June 19th formerly enslaved people of 1865 Texas. Instead, we see millions of confessing Christians living like the June 18, 1865, people who were uninformed of the liberating good news. Today there are many people who confess to believe in Christ, while remaining enslaved to sin and the filthiness of the flesh, even though GOD has broken the power of the enemy and liberated them. This unfortunate condition is due to rejecting the good news more so than not hearing it. Similar to the way the children of Israel rejected the leadership and message of the prophet Moses and continued in the mindset shaped by life in Egypt.

When the Union Army reached the Black people in Texas on June 19, 1865, with the good news, they immediately began to celebrate with prayer, feasting, song, and dance. In the following years they would observe June 19^th with prayer meetings, songs, and adorning themselves with new clothes to celebrate their new lives. Their celebrating reminds me of the admonishment of the Apostle Paul to put on the new man which is renewed after the likeness of Christ and to always make melody in your heart with songs of praise unto GOD and to pray without ceasing. Don’t be a June 18^th Christian. Accept the good news of the gospel with your whole heart unto taking up the cross and believing GOD for the newness of life that comes afterwards. Renounce the slave mentality of the former life and exercise your will towards reaching for the promises of righteousness, peace, joy, and the glory of Christ likeness.