Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13

Civil Rights leader John Lewis died on July 17, 2020 at the age of 80. We remember Rep. Lewis not only for his life-long fight for justice, but also for his faith in Jesus that led him to do so. He lived a life of courage, willing to risk injury and death to secure rights for African Americans and justice for all.

Click here to view an illustration of John Lewis as a bridge to voting rights

Lewis was born on February 21, 1940 to sharecroppers in Troy, Alabama. As a child, he dreamed of being a preacher and enlisted his siblings, cousins, and even the farmyard chickens as his audience. At the age of 15, he heard Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preach on the radio on the letters of Paul. Lewis felt like Dr. King was speaking to him, and from that point on, he wanted to get involved in the civil rights movement. Like Dr. King, Lewis was committed to the discipline and philosophy of nonviolence, in keeping with his faith.

In 1961, Lewis risked his life as one of the original 13 Freedom Riders, who rode buses together to pressure the federal government to enforce a Supreme Court Decision that made segregated bus travel unconstitutional. He and other Freedom Riders were beaten, arrested, and jailed. In 1963, he was elected chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). At age 23, he was the youngest speaker at the March on Washington, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. Lewis is perhaps best known for leading over 600 marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 7, 1965, in a campaign to gain full voting rights. He was beaten and his skull fractured in a day that became known as "Bloody Sunday." The brutality against non-violent protestors spurred President Johnson to send a voting rights bill to Congress.

John Lewis remained dedicated to nonviolence for his entire life because of his commitment to follow Jesus' way of love and the scriptural call to reconciliation. In a 2004 interview, he shares how his faith was the underpinning of his work in the civil rights movement. Lewis shared, "Without our faith, we wouldn't have been able to succeed. On many occasions, before we'd go out on a sit-in, before we went on the freedom ride, before we marched from Selma to Montgomery, we would sing a song or say a prayer. Without our faith, without the spirit and spiritual bearings and underpinning, we would not have been so successful. Without prayer, without faith in the Almighty, the civil rights movement would have been like a bird without wings."

In 1986, Lewis was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served until his death last week. He was known as the "conscience of the Congress." He was committed to educating others about the story of the civil rights movement, taking his colleagues on trips to visit important sites. It is because of his persistence that the National Museum of African American History and Culture was created and opened in 2016.

Representative John Lewis was called home to his Savior on the same day as his friend and fellow activist, the Reverend C. T. Vivian. In a tribute to Lewis, Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative writes, "There is less grace and courage in the world today. No one did more to improve the justice quotient in America over the last 60 years than John Lewis." Lewis spent his life getting into what he called "good trouble, necessary trouble," following the call of his Lord. May we be inspired to do the same.