Regardless of Race or Color

What a Japanese American learned from Jesus, as he dedicated
himself to bringing social services to Asian Americans in need.

by Cyril Nishimoto

My name is Cyril Nishimoto, a third-generation Japanese American, born and raised in Gardena, California. I tried to get the best education possible and was fortunate to receive a B.A. in Psychology from Yale and a J.D. from Columbia Law.

I pursued my high school dream of helping people of my own background in need and became a community poverty lawyer as the Director of an agency I helped to found -- Japanese American Social Services, Inc., in New York City. I enjoyed working at JASSI and being involved in Asian American community groups and issues for over 15 years until I felt God's call to move back to L.A.

I am now serving full-time as the Executive Director of Iwa, a Christian organization which publishes materials for Asian and Japanese Americans.

The following describes how Jesus cared for social outcasts, and what he taught me about meeting the needs of others...

Jesus Heals the Blind

And behold, two blind men sitting by the road, hearing that Jesus was passing by, cried out, saying, "Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!" And the multitude sternly told them to be quiet, but they cried out all the more, saying, "Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!" And Jesus stopped and called them, and said, "What do you wish Me to do for you?" They said to Him, "Lord, we want our eyes to be opened." And moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes, and immediately they received their sight, and followed Him. (Matthew 20:30-34)

Jesus said, "I am the light of the world." (John 9:5)

Jesus first passed by me when I was a child. I saw him as someone who could wipe my slate clean and as my ticket to heaven. To Jesus' question, "What do you wish me to do for you?" I answered, "Come into my heart and cleanse me of my sin so that I could go to heaven when I die." And he did. He gave me security.

When I was 14 years old I encountered Jesus in a new way. I saw him as a revolutionary who could change individual hearts and thereby change the world. To his question, "What do you wish me to do for you?" I answered, "Change my heart, let me live and die for you and your cause, and help me change the world." And he did. He gave me purpose.

His life of caring for social outcasts inspired me to pursue an education and career in social services in which I could help bring social justice for the poor and minorities. So I ended up working for 20 years as a grassroots advocate for Japanese people in need.

About 10 years ago, after burning myself out trying to serve him through church and community activities, I met and saw Jesus in a new way. He was not someone who was there to give me something -- entry into heaven or a changed world -- although he was quite capable of doing those things. He was not a means to an end. He was the end in himself. To his question, "What do you wish me to do for you?" I answered, "Nothing. You did it all for me already. I just want to be close to you and appreciate you for who you are." Now I can enjoy a closeness to him that I never had before. I've found him to be the treasure in life that I seek. He is the light of the world who compassionately touches and opens the eyes of blind people like me. The more of him I see, the more of life I enjoy.

Jesus Engages the Marginal

There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink."...The Samaritan woman therefore said to Him, "How is it that You being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?" (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans).

Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, "Give Me a drink," you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water."

She said to Him, "...(W)here...do You get that living water?"... "Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life." (John 4:7-14)

I too am marginal. I'm a person of Japanese ancestry living in a country that is racially and culturally different from the country my ancestors came from. I'm the son of parents who were put in concentration camps by the government of Canada during World War II, because of their race. I was occasionally called "Jap" or "Nip" by other kids when I was young. But living in an insular Japanese American (JA) community, I didn't experience too much of that. And I felt that I was superior -- smarter, with better upbringing, and more naturally gifted than non-Japanese Americans. But as I moved into adulthood the world changed. I got passed up in size and "manly" physical features by non-Japanese American males. I discovered that I was a "minority," a product of two cultures. Feelings of inferiority set in. But I resisted by trying hard to prove myself and to be successful wherever I could -- in education, career, athletics, community service, and church work. I was hungry for acceptance and thirsty for respect and dignity. But when does the treadmill stop? How much achievement is enough?

Jesus transcended racial and cultural boundaries to come to me with the "bread of life" and the "living water." What he was offering me was himself, his life. But before I could receive it, he had to do something with what was already in me. I had the spiritual disease of trying to make my life work without God. A life with God at the center, like Jesus', would have acceptance and contentment, not the superiority and inferiority that I had. So Jesus took my diseased life into himself, got rid of it when he died on the Cross, and planted the seeds of his new resurrected life in my heart. He demonstrated to me that to him I am loved and accepted as a human being of infinite worth and value. Jesus' bread and water are satisfying my hunger and thirst. I am off the treadmill, and he is causing my feelings of inferiority to disappear, and enabling growing acceptance of myself as the Japanese American male that I am. I know that is happening because I am growing in my ability to see other marginal people as human beings of value and worth.

Jesus Touches the Leper

And there came a leper to Him, beseeching Him, and kneeling down to Him, and saying to Him, "If you are willing, You can make me clean."

And moved with compassion, He stretched out His hand and touched him, "I am willing; be cleansed." And immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed. (Matthew 20:30-34)

Nobody touched lepers in Jesus' day, but Jesus did. By law, lepers had to announce that they were approaching, saying, "I am a leper," and people would scatter shouting, "Unclean!" By his compassionate touch, Jesus not only responded to the physical needs of an incurable man's body, but he also responded to the social needs of an untouchable man's soul.

I remember when this unwed mother on welfare came to church with her four children who had three different fathers. People didn't know what to do with her. Most wanted her to go away. She ended up on my doorstep at the social service agency I directed. In the 15 years that she was my client, I helped her with everything from getting emergency food and public housing when she was evicted and homeless, to helping her get her "green card" under the "amnesty" program. At first I helped her because it was my job and the "Christian thing to do." A streetsmart survivor, she was less than honest, sexually promiscuous, and undisciplined. I thought I was better than she was. Jesus showed me I was wrong.

When I looked at him and his moral perfection and then at myself, I saw that the same leprous disease that I saw in her was in me too. I too had the tendency to try to make life work without God in the picture. I just expressed it in more socially acceptable ways. She didn't. So I looked down on her with pride, rather than seeing her with compassion, as Jesus saw her, as a human soul with infinite value. So when I came to him with my own leprosy; an amazing thing happened. I started to see that over time, I could see her as a soul with value, just as Jesus saw me. And I began to treat her that way. I have been learning that the more intimately connected I am to Jesus, like a branch to the vine, the more he can put his qualities into me. Apart from him, I could not give compassionate service. I experienced miraculous cleansing from a leprous pride that only the touch of Jesus could give me.

Jesus Calms the Storm

And when He got into a boat, His disciples followed Him. And, behold, there arose a great storm in the sea, so that the boat was covered with the waves, but He Himself was asleep. And they came to Him, and awoke Him, saying, "Save us, Lord, we are perishing!" And He said to them, "Why are you timid, you man of little faith?" Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm. And the men marveled, saying, "What kind of a man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?" (Matthew 9:23-27)

No ordinary human being could control the wild elements of nature, and yet Jesus made the wind and the sea obey him. I believe he has that kind of power because I've seen him bring order and calm to the uncontrollable circumstances in my life.

Having always risen to any academic challenge that came my way, I was devastated when I failed to pass the New York State Bar Exam, even though it was by a small percentage. I felt the shame of failure and a defeat I had never known before. It took over a year with Jesus in the boat with me calming the storm, before I took it again and passed. In that year, I came to see my self-worth not tied up in academic success or social standing, but in the value of my life to God.

Shortly after I had taken the test for the second time, I was hospitalized for a spontaneous pneumothorax (collapsed lung) and had to have a major operation. Never before had I had any physical problems that required hospitalization or surgery. But Jesus was there again calming the storm and helping me realize that my body and my health were not under my control, but ultimately under his. So I resolved to take care of myself -- to avoid overtime work whenever possible and not let work run my body down, to make rest a priority, to eat right and exercise daily. But I also understood that my physical well-being always had been a precious gift from God, and that what he'd given, he had a right to take away.

Years later when I was walking home late at night, I was robbed for the first time in my life by knifepoint right in front of my apartment. My watch and some cash were taken, but I was unharmed. I felt personally violated, humiliated, vulnerable, and powerless. But Jesus was there again, and this time I could see my lack of control over my possessions, dignity, and life. I struggled with this a bit, but in the end came to the realization that what had mattered most was that I was still alive and that my life was valuable to him. He calmed another storm in my life.

I feel incredibly privileged that I can have a close, intimate relationship with such an extraordinary person as Jesus. He made outrageous statements about himself that no ordinary human being would make, but I believe them because he keeps showing me how true they are as I interact with him daily. Anyone who would willingly give up his life for me certainly must be taken seriously when he says he loves me. I want you to know him and his love for you too.

Jesus says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him, and he with me." (Revelation 3:20) If you hear him knocking on the door of your heart and want him to come in and begin an intimate relationship with you, you can invite him to do so now. You can ask him with such words as:

"Jesus, I believe you are who you said you are. Thank you for loving me by giving up your life for me. I give my life to you. Please come into my heart and renovate it. Thank you for bringing me Home into your family and giving me all I need to satisfy the deepest longings of my soul."

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