In 1934, an African American pastor from Georgia made the trip of a lifetime, sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, through the gates of Gibraltar, and across the Mediterranean Sea to the Holy Land. After this pilgrimage, he traveled to Berlin, attending an international conference of Baptist pastors. While in Germany, this man — who was named Michael King — became so impressed with what he learned about the reformer Martin Luther that he decided to do something dramatic. He offered the ultimate tribute to the man’s memory by changing his own name to Martin Luther King. His 5-year-old son was also named Michael — and to the son’s dying day his closest relatives would still call him Mike — but not long after the boy’s father changed his own name, he decided to change his son’s name too, and Michael King Jr. became known to the world as Martin Luther King Jr.
Monday happened to be Martin Luther King Jr. Day. And although he certainly did a lot of work on behalf of those who didn’t have access to all of the rights that other Americans had at the time, the man for whom he was named made an even bigger impact on the world.
Martin Luther (the original) was not so concerned about equality as he was eternity. He put his life on the line to lead people to their Savior and dedicated every waking moment to explaining why anyone and everyone can be saved by God’s grace through faith in Jesus found in the Bible. Of course, we wouldn’t subscribe to everything he ever said or did, but we do acknowledge that he played an instrumental role in bringing people back to the clarity and grace of God’s Word.
As this country celebrates MLK JR Day, take a moment and thank the Lord for the Martin Luther who lived in the 1500s in Germany. Through him the Lord accomplished amazing things for the salvation of countless souls.