Black Christians could agree: they sang more songs and preached more sermons about the cross than any other aspect of Jesus’ ministry. To be sure, Jesus’ life and teachings are important for the black church community to understand his meaning, especially seeing him in complete solidarity with the oppressed. The classic expression of this aspect of Jesus’ ministry is found in the Gospel of Luke. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,” Jesus said at the beginning of his ministry in a Nazareth synagogue, as he read from “the scroll of the prophet Isaiah,” “because he has anointed me to bring good
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