Still wandering the wilderness 50 years later | Opinion

This Wednesday (April 4) will mark 50 years since the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated as he stood on the second-floor landing outside his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. He was just 39 years old.

King was in Memphis to support 1,300 sanitation workers who had gone on strike to protest a long pattern of neglect and abuse by the city that included being barred from using showers that were reserved for white workers and being ineligible to collect a pension. When two of their co-workers were crushed to death on a garbage truck in February 1968, the city’s black sanitation employees organized to demand better working conditions and higher pay.

Initial efforts at nonviolent protest had disintegrated into chaos, but King returned to Memphis in early April for another try.

At a meeting at the Mason Temple, Church of God in Christ, the night before he was gunned down, King delivered his final sermon, which is best remembered for its closing lines.

“Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead,” he told the crowd. “But it doesn’t matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the mountaintop. And I don’t mind.

“Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land.

“And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

A half-century later, and 10 years longer than the Israelites wandered in the wilderness, it’s impossible not to wonder what King would think of the journey now. Is the promised land any closer? Is the nation just as sick?

By all accounts, King was tired and stressed when he made his return to Memphis. Despite his successes of the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott in 1956, the 1963 March on Washington and the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, many in the movement — especially those in the younger generation — were growing impatient with King’s nonviolent approach. New leaders preaching Black Power and more direct action were rising.

And focusing only on the last words of his final sermon, it sounds as though King had reconciled himself to passing from the scene like Moses giving way to Joshua to take over the next stage of the battle.

But there is so much in the rest of his sermon that makes it clear that King was in no way prepared to give up the fight.

“The issue is injustice,” he said. “The issue is the refusal of Memphis to be fair and honest in its dealings with its public servants, who happen to be sanitation workers. Now, we’ve got to keep attention on that.”

And although the speech will always be remembered as his “Mountaintop” sermon, King made it clear that he was in Memphis for the here and now.

“It’s all right to talk about ‘Long white robes over yonder,’ in all of its symbolism,” he said. “But ultimately people want some suits and dresses and shoes to wear down here. It’s all right to talk about ‘streets flowing with milk and honey,’ but God has commanded us to be concerned about the slums down here, and his children who can’t eat three square meals a day.

“It’s all right to talk about the new Jerusalem, but one day, God’s preacher must talk about the New York, the new Atlanta, the new Philadelphia, the new Los Angeles, the new Memphis, Tennessee. This is what we have to do.”

As Christians around the world celebrate Easter, it would be good to remember that tension between God’s promises of eternity and the reality of living in a fallen world. It’s the problem of being so heavenly minded you’re no earthly good.

It’s what some call the theology of “already but not yet.” Christians enjoy the “already” benefits of the atonement achieved through Jesus’ death on the cross — remission of sins, adoption as children, the indwelling Holy Spirit — but we await our glorification and the destruction of our sinful natures.

That night in Memphis, Dr. King could talk about “not fearing any man” because he knew the promises were true. But he also expected to be marching again soon with the sanitation workers.

Fifty years later, the promised land remains in the distance and the world is still sick. Some make it to the mountaintop. The rest of us should link arms and help each other get through the valleys.

Tim Morris is an opinions columnist at NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune. He can be reached at tmorris@nola.com. Follow him on Twitter @tmorris504.