CHRISTIANS - CHRIST TO THE WORLD

 by adam harbinson

In his book, 'A Jew Without Knowing It', philosopher Mike Gold tells of his childhood in New York City. His mother's strict instruction was that he should never wander beyond four certain streets. She couldn’t tell him that he lived in a Jewish ghetto, he was too young to understand that he had the 'wrong kind of blood' in his veins, because children don’t understand prejudice.

Mike Gold tells of the day that curiosity led him beyond the four-street barrier laid down by his protective mother. 'Hey, kid,' called a group of older boys, 'are you a kike?' Mike had never heard the word before, so he answered that he didn't know.

'Are you a Christ-killer?' but again he didn't know what they meant, and then they asked him where he lived. His address gave him away, 'So you are a kike, you are a Christ-killer. Well, you're in Christian territory and we’re Christians. We're going to teach you to stay where you belong.' And they beat the little boy and sent him away with the screams, 'We’re Christians! You killed Christ! Stay where you belong!' ringing in his ears.

When he returned home crying, face bloodied and torn clothes, his frightened mother asked him what had happened, ‘Who did this to you?’ But he could only sob and answer that he didn't know. So his mother washed away the tears and blood from his face, dressed him in clean clothes and took him into her lap as she sat on her rocker, trying to soothe him. Many years later Mike Gold recalled how he had raised his small battered lips to his mother's ear and asked, 'Mama, who is Christ?'

Mike Gold died in 1967. It’s said that as a pro-Communist he drifted into obscurity during the McCarthy era in America when Communists were demonised. His last meals were eaten in a Catholic charity house in New York City, run by Dorothy Day who once said of him, 'Mike Gold eats every day at the table of Christ, but he’ll probably never accept him because of the day he first heard the name of Christ.' And so he died.

What kind of picture of Christ do we project to our children, to a watching world, to neighbours and work colleagues? Do they see a gentle, forgiving and compassionate Jesus who loved those who hated him? Or do they see a harsh, demanding dictator who is prepared to trample the rights and feelings of others just because they think differently?

John Powell in his excellent book, Why Am I Afraid To Love? challenges us thus ; 'For better of for worse, Christ has taken us as his living symbols in this world. The world that is asking whether God is dead or not, the world that is asking who Christ is, can find its answers only in the Christian, for whether we like it or not, Christians are Christ to the world.'