The Letter from Jail is an open letter written on April 16, 1963, by Martin Luther King, Jr. King wrote the letter from the city jail in Birmingham, Alabama, where he was confined after being arrested for his part in the Birmingham campaign. King's letter is a response to a statement made by eight white Alabama clergymen on April 12, 1963, titled "A Call For Unity". The clergymen agreed that social injustices existed but argued that the battle against racial segregation should be fought solely in the courts, not in the streets.
Here is an excerpt from the letter:
I received a letter this morning from a white brother in Texas which said, "All Christians know that the colored people will receive equal rights eventually, but is it possible that you are in too great of a religious hurry? It has taken Christianity almost 2000 years to accomplish what it has. The teachings of Christ take time to come to earth." All that is said here grows out of a tragic misconception of time. It is the strangely irrational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time is neutral. It can be used either destructively or constructively. I am coming to feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and persistent work of men willing to be coworkers with God, and without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation...As I was reading during my quiet time this morning in Matthew 12, here are some of my thoughts and reflections.
"Appalling silence." As a witness to the transforming power of the gospel, has the church of Jesus Christ lost our voice? As the people of God, do we speak for those who can't speak for themselves? Do we stand silently as we see injustice run rampant? Are we willing to stand with the gospel in the places where it critiques and confronts our culture?
Jesus was willing to confront his religious culture. Jesus was counter cultural. When confronted by the Pharisees about law-keeping and boundary-drawing, Jesus responded with this:
And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. Matthew 12:7
Jesus was criticized for doing good and for healing on the Sabbath. He so thoroughly confronted the Pharisees legalistic system of religion that they went off to plot how to kill him. And what was Jesus response? Luke 12:15 says he withdrew and many followed him, and he healed all their sick.
Matthew writes that Jesus compassion and mercy reflects the heart of God and was foretold in Isaiah 42:1-4:
“Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I take great delight. I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations." Matthew 12:18
If we are silent the rocks will cry out! What does it mean in our culture at this time of history to proclaim justice and practice mercy? What would it look like to be a follower of Jesus who speaks for those who have no voice? Let's be silent not more!
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