New Portrait

Lyrics

[Verse 1: KB] Look, was Christ really buried? Is His whole story very fairy and that was just a man? Did they really find His bones and then lied to keep the code Or did He walk out of a tomb to a throne? Was He God? Was He not? Did He buy us a spot into Heaven or is all this a ruse? Are we just delusional dudes who refuse To believe in the truth, are we fools? Is all this the white man religion? European invention to drive the weak to submission How can an African like me get the vision When these preachers owned slaves But taught that freedom was Christian? Christ of the culture, Christ to the vultures Committed genocide with a cross and a holster Christ of America, Christ of the system That is not my Savior, that's a politician [Chorus: KB] Christ that the Lord knows Christ that was foretold Christ that's sure to come back in His war clothes Which Christ do you believe? You gotta know before you leave [Verse 2: KB] Yes, He did arrive, yes, He was alive Brown Middle Eastern, definitely wasn't white No, He never married, He never had any wives But committed His life to a interracial bride Yes, He did rise days after He died God of the oppressed, even in it, He still thrives Died as a criminal from the hood part of town What can I say? Yes, He is God From the womb to the tomb to the throne You can go to the moon but you can't hold to His bones Nobody owns a saint, portraits are all failing He made us in his image, Da Vinci returned the favor But He is still risen, He is still risen, He is still risen Over the guns and supremacists, over all the division Over the wicked intentions, the real One is livin' Christ of the Galilee, Christ of the Nazareth Christ that will vindicate, He will make it right again Christ that was worshipped by the ancient of Africans Many men claimed Him but did He ever claim them? [Chorus: KB] Christ that the Lord knows Christ that was foretold Christ that's sure to come back in His war clothes Which Christ do you believe? You gotta know before you leave Let's leave [Outro: Lisa Sharon Harper & Doctor Jarvis Williams] Now the thing I would argue is that race is not even real It's something that we create in order to determine how the polis, the people, will live together on this land it's a political construct What's real is ethnicity, what's real is the people groups who move through time and space and land that are shaped by their experiences together So I would argue we need to reclaim ethnicity Yeah, He is the Messiah and that what is prioritized and that these are the categories that we have to work with. But Jesus doesn't sit nicely and neatly with our categories And Scripture tells us clearly if you are human then you are created in the image of God and therefore called by God to help steward the world