Nathan E. Lewis

The night prior to his assassination, Martin Luther King Jr. preached, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.” (Listen to and watch this clip of this historic moment.) Undeniably, he was one of the greatest preachers of the 20th century in regard to rhetoric and in regard to speaking prophetically into the present moment/context. Little in this world is more beautiful or moving than a person who confidently fulfills his calling, knowing his place in history and his contribution to society. King was such a person. You can see it in his eyes as he preaches. You can hear it in his voice. The rhetoric is connected to a passionate calling and a timely message. Technically, King delivered a speech the night before his death. (Read the entire script.) Only the final paragraph is sermonic in form revealing King’s original and abiding vocation as an ordained minister of the gospel. Most of us know the words of his speeches rather than the sermons he preached at his home congregation, Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. Nevertheless, when King delivered a speech, everyone discovered in a few minutes that he was indeed a preacher, not a lecturer, a politician or an entertainer.
In this speech King describes himself in terms of the great Hebrew prophet, Moses. It is an appropriate use of the biblical imagery. Interestingly, the New Testament authors liken Jesus to Moses. The author of the book of Hebrews refers to Jesus as the one greater than Moses. Indeed students of the Bible know of this connection and those who appreciate biblical theology and chart the flow of redemptive history understand Moses as one who pointed to Jesus, announcing in advance the final and great Prophet, the Christ. Were King preaching a sermon on Sunday morning, he may have made the connection between Moses and Jesus, but in the heat of the civil rights movement, delivering a speech, he appropriately made the connection between Moses and himself. Rarely do we see such a use of the biblical narrative, so powerfully presented as the culmination of a speech.
Read this online selection of King’s sermons preached in church worship services to develop a feel for his style, voice, and message. What do you think of the content? How does it compare with the sermons you have heard in your church? I have not read many of King’s sermons and so I am no expert. In the few I have read, I have encountered many illustrative stories told in support of a short biblical text. King speaks much of his work leading the civil rights movement. Most, if not all of it seems to me to be supportive of his text as he understood the text. Rarely, if ever, did his connection to the text present itself as powerfully as the connection he made between himself and Moses on the night before he was assassinated.
Beyond the Moses references, the striking element of this final speech is King’s seeming knowledge of his imminent death. He seems to know that he will not see old age, but that he will meet with death as a young man. (He died at 39 years old.) Was he a prophet foreseeing the future? Did he have inside information of plots against his life? Of more interest to me, as a preacher, is King’s voice and face as he delivered this speech. I believe what he says. He genuinely seems to be at peace with his lot in life, trusting in God to do what is right with his life. He is not resigned to death, defeated by it. Rather, he is standing in the face of death sensing the gravity of his calling, his work, and the continuance of the movement beyond his death. There is nothing prideful in his demeanor or presentation. He is a man who knows who he is and at what point in history he has arrived and for what purpose he now stands on the platform.
Some have accused him of using his pulpit for politics. Others have accused him of abandoning his pulpit for the road. What if God called him to hit the road of the civil rights movement? Is there any legitimate way for a preacher to participate in such a movement? Regardless of how you answer these questions, what is undeniable is that no matter where the road took King, he was a preacher whether he wanted to be or not. He could not shake it. If I am not mistaken, he was a fourth generation preacher! He rose many times to deliver a speech and the sermonic form took over. His final paragraph of his final speech is in fine sermonic form!