What comes to your mind when you think of the apostle Paul? I see a man in a robe. I see a man with a beard. An outspoken dude with a very strong opinion. I see someone who was dedicated and committed. Lately, I have been entertaining this thought that Paul in a lot of ways was someone a lot like me. Not only like me but a lot like many other non white folk I know.
See Paul was Jewish. But he was not only Jewish. He is Jewish in between multiple worlds. He had to take his Jewish identity and navigate the Greco-Roman world with its strange customs and ideas. He said it himself in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23:
Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
This navigation of the world of Greco-Roman culture did not negate his Jewish identity. He even made a trip to Jerusalem to perform a vow that he had taken to the Lord. In establishing his credentials he boasts against the Judaizers in Philippians 3:4-6 of his authentic Jewishness:
If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
Paul grew up in Tarsus. A multicultural cosmopolitan city of the empire and was trained in Jerusalem the center of Jewish worship. Consequently he wrote in Greek. He could also speak in Aramaic and had a command of the Hebrew scriptures. Not only that but being a Roman citizen he more than likely was functional in Latin as well. He was rooted in his Jewishness but also living in a world that was altogether different and loving the world for the sake of Christ.
What does this have to do with me? I think as a member of the African diaspora there is a part of me that is rooted in blackness. Rooted in my African heritage. There is also a part of me that has to navigate the multicultural world of America. How do I maintain my sanity? I do what Paul did. I cherish and treasure my blackness. I appreciate and appropriate from other traditions where necessary and I realize that my ultimate identity is in Jesus. For Paul everything that constituted who he was-education, heritage, righteousness, culture-was to be set aside in comparison to Jesus. For Paul Jesus was everything and made his identity even more valid and important. Because I believe in Jesus I don’t cease being black but my blackness is transformed and remade in the image of Christ. To put it simply being Christian is more important than being black but being black, loving my blackness is part of my being Christian. Our identity in Christ causes us to embrace our cultural and ethnic identity from a different perspective. We no longer look at the world as us vs them but we see the uniqueness of who we are in relation to Him.
