Juneteenth and the Message of Freedom

A Freedom Worth Celebrating and Contending For

Juneteenth, otherwise known as Emancipation Day, is a 161-year observance dating back to June 19th, 1865. On that day, Major General Gordon Granger arrived on the shores of Galveston, TX along with roughly 2,000 Union soldiers and read General Order No. 3 declaring that freedom was now, once and for all, available to every American.

Although Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1st, 1863, freedom didn't arrive everywhere at once. The proclamation applied only to states in rebellion against the Union, and even there it could only take effect as Union forces advanced and enforced it. Texas, the most remote Confederate state, was among the last to be reached.

And so, despite these words of freedom echoing through the plains, mountains, and valleys of our country, they would not land in the fields of Texas with any authority for another 2 and a half years…Juneteenth. On that day Granger announced that approximately 250,000 Black Texans were no longer to be held in bondage.

"The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor."

Freedom, though slow in its arrival, had finally come.

Today as I quietly reflect on the story of my forefathers and kin, I'm reminded of a similar declaration made thousands of years prior in Exodus 5:1, "Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, 'Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, "Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness."'"

These two declarations held up to the light bring God's desire into focus.

God is a God who desires people to be free!

We see it not just in the story of resilience of Black Texans in 1865. Neither is it only seen in the Exodus narrative. We see it in the Old Testament prophets. We see it in the New Testament apostles. We see it in Jesus. In fact, one of Jesus' first public addresses was saturated with the call of freedom, a passage where he reaches back into the prophet Isaiah to announce his own mission.

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised." (Luke 4:18)

God is a God of Freedom. Jesus is a Savior who longs to see people free.

It is for this reason that we labor to preserve freedom, not just for ourselves but those around us, those whose voices are loud enough to declare for themselves and those whose voices are not.

It is for this reason that we stand against any threats to pull people towards bondage. The God who declared justice against oppression during the Passover is the same God who stands against oppression today.

But it is also for this reason that we do not rest solely on freedom for this life. The highest freedom is the freedom available not just for this life, but the next. So, we resist the urge to only be concerned with the threat of physical bondage. We strive to see men and women free from the yoke and bondage that sin presents. Freedom enjoys its HIGHEST EXPRESSION in the body AND soul that's been liberated.

"If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." (John 8:36)

So, we as the hands and feet of Jesus aspire by His grace to be instruments in His hands, bringing freedom to anyone He might place in our path.

Today as we reflect on Emancipation Day, may we also be challenged to fulfill our God-given responsibility to be people who not only enjoy freedom but people who bring it wherever it needs to be experienced.

May each of you have a blessed and memorable Juneteenth!