From the Pastor’s Heart OP-ED BY DR. ROBERT KENNEDY
Historical moments cause people to feel a profound sense of relief and the need to rejoice. They rejoice that justice has been done. Such was the moment with Israel at the Red Sea when God parted the waters, and Moses and Aaron led, what is estimated to be, two million Israelites across, and Pharaoh and his army drown into the Sea.
Such a moment cannot be forgotten in the history of Israel and has served as a moment of faith for all of God’s people in moments of suffering that oppressive forces will be broken. I desire to reflect on that moment at the Red Sea, but let me suspend it for a little to speak of the reaction to the verdict in Derek Chauvin’s trial, for this is also an epoch-making moment.
Yes, people are reacting to the verdict everywhere. Immediately after the decision, some people were jumping with raised hands out in the streets. Some were behind the fences, around the courthouse building. Some, including a Jazz band, gathered at George Floyd’s Plaza. The built-up tension that people felt for weeks during the trial as they repeatedly watched the video of George Floyd’s death was broken. Yes, as the verdict was announced, people were hugging, crying, shouting, and giving praise to God that justice had been done.
As members of the Floyd family spoke, I paid particular attention to one of the brothers who took the stand during the trial. He said he felt relieved. He said it was horrible to sit in court and repeatedly watch the video of his brother being murdered. But he said that today, he and the entire world could breathe again, at least for a moment.
The focus of the trial might have been in Minneapolis, but the reaction reverberated throughout the United States and all across the world. President Biden and Vice President Harris spoke after the verdict. Both asserted that they rejoiced that justice had been served and hoped that much will be learned from the verdict. They asked that peace will follow the verdict and that the country will listen and seek to reform policing.
Two of my brothers who live outside of the United States were glued to their TVs but took time to phone me, even to have me repeat my story and my sons’ stories about what happened years ago with certain police force members. Many others with whom I have spoken since have also been reciting their stories. Every time they see an experience like Floyd’s, the old memories return.
Many people are now saying that this verdict is just a beginning because they want to see more justice in other cases. With the sight of Chauvin being cuffed and taken away to jail, they say Chauvin is just one individual who’s being held accountable, but they want to look at the system that allowed for a man like George Floyd to die. In Floyd’s case, there was a nine-minute-and-29-second video that documented every moment, but they talked about all the other cases that had no nine minutes and 29 seconds documentation of what happened. The desire is that George Floyd’s case will serve as a movement towards looking at the whole system, hoping that positive transformation can be made.
Yes, when justice triumphs, there is reason to feel a profound sense of relief and give God some praise. It was gratifying to hear just about every member of Floyd’s family who spoke say what has kept them was their faith and prayers to God.
Just listening to Floyd’s family and people rejoicing at the courthouse in Minneapolis, I was drawn back to our starting point with Israel at the Red Sea. Their moment of rejoicing is briefly recorded in Exodus 15, when Moses crossed with the host of Israel and together, they began to sing. Commentators say that Moses must have written the song and handed it to Israel, and together they sang. And they became more exuberant as Miriam led the chorus with the women repeating, “Pharaoh and his army are drowned into the Sea.”
Yes, it was a real moment. The people of Israel who had been shut up in Egypt, working in the kilns, making the great pyramids and other structures that draw the imagination of tourists today, were not allowed to speak and sing with their true vigor during the time of their oppression. However, when they stepped across the Sea and realized that their oppressors had drowned in the Sea, it was a moment to rejoice.
Let me close my reflection by inviting each one who reads, not only to rejoice for the brief moments in declarations of justice in this world but to look forward to the day when, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. quoting (Amos 5:24). used to say, “justice (will) roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!”
I am looking forward to such a moment. And even if we experience some justice now, the system needs to be reformed. As a country, we must not sit by and expect it to happen. We must all pray and advocate to make it happen. Yes, I know that lasting justice will only follow the consummation when our Lord Jesus shall “set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed.” (cf. Daniel 2).
