Lent 2025 Day 19

James Cone, Theologian and Scholar 
Exodus 3:7-12 | Isaiah 55:1-9

Dr. James Cone (1938–2018) was a theologian, scholar, and prophet who revolutionized Christian thought by centering the Gospel in the lived experience of Black people in America. As the founder of Black Liberation Theology, Cone argued that God is always on the side of the oppressed, standing with those who suffer and calling for their liberation. His seminal works, Black Theology and Black Power and God of the Oppressed, challenged the church to reckon with its complicity in white supremacy and to embrace a Gospel that actively seeks justice.
 
The God that Cone spoke of is the God of Exodus 3:7-12—a God who hears the cries of the enslaved, who sees their suffering, and who acts in history to deliver them. This is not a passive, distant deity but a God who calls Moses to lead a people to freedom. For Cone, the Exodus was not just an ancient story but an ongoing reality. The struggle for Black liberation in America, from slavery to Jim Crow to mass incarceration, mirrors the plight of Israel in Egypt. Just as God called Moses, Cone insisted that God calls each generation to be part of the movement toward justice.
 
One of the core convictions of Black Liberation Theology is that theology must speak to the real experiences of the people. Cone rejected the idea of a colorblind or neutral faith, insisting instead that any theology that does not take seriously the suffering of Black people is not truly Christian. He wrote, “The blackness of God means that God has made the oppressed condition God's own condition.” If Christ stands with the crucified of history, then faith must stand with the lynched, the imprisoned, the marginalized, and the poor.
 
Isaiah 55:1-9 invites all who are thirsty to come and drink, reminding us that God’s ways are not our ways. Cone understood this passage as an urgent call for the church to embrace a vision of justice that transcends human expectations. Too often, Christianity has been distorted to serve power rather than to liberate. Cone’s work sought to reclaim the radical message of Christ, who stood with the poor, the marginalized, and the crucified of history. He famously wrote, “Any theology that is indifferent to the theme of liberation is not Christian theology.”
 
Cone also emphasized that Jesus’ crucifixion was not just a spiritual event but a deeply political one. He compared the cross to the lynching tree, drawing a powerful connection between Christ’s execution by the Roman Empire and the suffering of Black bodies under white supremacy. “The cross is God taking the side of the victim, becoming the victim in the person of Jesus and promising that the logic of domination will not have the final word.” Lent calls us to reflect on what it means to follow a Christ who was lynched, whose resurrection is a sign that oppression does not have the last word.
 
Lent is a time to examine whose side we are on. Are we aligned with the suffering Christ who is crucified by unjust systems, or are we complicit in the forces that uphold oppression? Cone reminds us that faith is not neutral—God’s justice is active and so must be our discipleship. Following Jesus is not about passive belief but about action that dismantles structures of injustice and builds communities of freedom.
 
Reflection:

• How does the story of Exodus challenge your understanding of God’s presence in history? 
• Where do you see God calling people today, as Moses was called, to work for liberation? 
• What does Isaiah’s call to seek the Lord and embrace God’s ways mean in a world that often resists justice? 
• How does Jesus’ crucifixion, when seen through the lens of the lynching tree, change the way you think about suffering and resurrection? 
• Where is God calling you to take action in the fight for justice today? 

Breath Prayer: Inhale: God hears the cries… Exhale: …and calls us to justice.

May this Lenten season open our eyes to the suffering around us and give us the courage to respond as God does—with justice, compassion, and action.

Amen.