Red, Yellow, Blue, and White
I interviewed a former student of mine last night from Hong Kong. Winnie Wu was born and raised in this incredibly diverse and international city. She committed her life to Jesus at the age of twelve, the first Christian in her family. Her mother followed her sometime later. The recording of the interview is a bit rough at times, but it is worth listening to. I hope you will take the time to do that.
In that interview, one of the things we discussed was the unrest in Hong Kong due to the Chinese government’s intervention of free elections in the city. The city itself divided into two colors with different opinions toward the government - yellow and blue. The yellows have protested against what they consider government overreach. The blues support the government controls and restrictions. Families are being torn apart as yellow and blue family members clash over their differences. Restaurants are being classified as yellow or blue, and people support the restaurants whose colors are the same as their own. Even churches are a part of this yellow-blue divide.
As we talked together, I shared with Winnie about the Red-Blue divide in the United States. In my sixty-four years, I’ve never seen anything like it. We truly are a kingdom divided against itself, and while there are no easy answers to the deep ideological and political divisions in Hong Kong or the United States, there is something that we, as Christians, can do, and that is to recognize that in spite of our ideological differences, we all share the most important and basic things of life in common.
We all have hopes and dreams, fears and failures. We have kids to raise and bills to pay. We all seek love and acceptance from others. We all need lives filled with meaning and purpose. Most of all, whether we are aware of it or not, we need to be treated and to treat others as human beings created in the image of God.
As we prioritize these things over our differences, our colors, whatever they are, fade to white.
I love the verse in Isaiah 1:18 where the Lord says, “Come let us reason together, though your sins are like scarlet they shall be white as snow.” I’ve said it often, but it bears repeating: at its heart, sin is missing God’s plans and purposes for our lives. Regardless of how red, blue, or yellow our convictions may be, it is crucial that our hearts are white. And for me, white symbolizes the purity, power, and peace of God’s kingdom. Scripture is clear - someday, the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ. (Rev. 11:15)
Engaging in raucous debates with friends and family members over politics, however strongly we feel, does not promote God’s kingdom. It does just the opposite - it divides, embitters, and alienates. During his last week in Jerusalem, just before his crucifixion, Jesus’s disciples came to him with a request by some non-Jews. John tells us very specifically; they were Greeks. This is important because Greeks and Jews had some major differences in how they saw their lives and their world. It was during his response to this request that Jesus makes this statement: “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to myself. (See John 12:32)
God’s kingdom is not Greek or Jewish. It’s not red, blue, yellow, or any other color. In fact, even calling it “white” is inaccurate. It’s pure, like sunlight. And in that pure sunlight, we behold all the colors. But those colors come together to reflect the glory of a kingdom, that when all others have faded away, will stand for eternity.
In Christ,
Dan