Let me be clear at the beginning. Saying that each life matters is not the same as saying that all lives matter. There is a crucial distinction between the two.

I was reminded of this distinction twice this week as I read through posts from friends on Facebook. One of these posts was opposed to Black Lives Matter and the other was opposed to those who oppose Black Lives Matter by claiming that all lives matter. Both of these posts used Christianity, the Bible and Jesus to support their position.

Back in the time of Michael Brown and the ensuing demonstrations, at the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement, I was working on an essay on Paul’s letter to the Galatians. I noticed a similarity between Paul’s opposition to Peter, when he drew back from eating with Gentiles (2:11-14) and the opposition of the Black Lives Matter movement to a two-tiered system of justice. I titled my essay, “Gentile Lives Matter.”

It seemed to me–and still seems to me–that one of the foundations of Paul’s theology was a belief that Gentile lives matter. In Galatians 1:15-16 he writes about his call (often called his conversion): “But when God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles …” The revelation which was both the beginning and the foundation of Paul’s faith in Jesus Christ includes this call to the Gentiles. Others such as Peter may be sent to the Jews but Paul has been sent to the Gentiles because Gentile lives matter to God.

For this and other reasons I have been inclined to support the Black Lives Matter movement. But I hadn’t thought much about it until last week and the murder of George Floyd. So when I saw a post which said that God settled the question of who matters 2000 years ago when Jesus died for all, I responded.

I thought of the line which Charles Schultz gave to Linus: “I love mankind … It’s people I can’t stand.” I noted that there is a difference between saying, “Jesus died for each of us,” and “Jesus died for all.” The concept of “all” finds its meaning in a world of “mankind” and universal truth, while “each of us” lives in a world of “people” whose individual lives on earth are changed by the death of one man named Jesus.

And then today I was reminded of powerful example of the importance of “each” over “all” in Jesus’ parable of the lost sheep, found in Luke 15, “Which of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?”

Jesus gives us all a lot of credit. And that credit belongs to our hearts which understand that the life of that one lost sheep matters. It does not belong to our heads which might argue that it is sensible to stay and protect the overwhelming majority. If sheep could reason, the ninety-nine would try to convince the shepherd that “All lives matter,” in order to maintain the security they enjoy with him on guard.

Jesus trusts the compassion of the shepherd more than the intellect of the sheep.

We might argue that all lives matter in a vain attempt to protect the privilege we enjoy in a two-tiered system of law enforcement and court justice. After all, wasn’t our country founded on the principle of “All men are created equal”? And don’t we pledge allegiance to “the republic … with liberty and justice for all“?

Maybe one pathway into a more just future is to replace those ideal, philosophical “all”s with more specific and heart-felt “each”s: “Liberty and justice for each person;” “Each person is created equal to each other person;” and “Each life matters.”

I trust, along with Jesus, that our hearts know the difference between each and all. The wisdom of the heart knows that the lives of black citizens, who now experience a lower level of justice, that their lives matter.