This series of essays focuses on the significance of Negro spirituals, a genre of music with a rich legacy in American history and a deep impact on popular culture. Make sure to check out the introduction, an interview with expert choral conductor and arranger Dr. Rollo Dilworth.
The first time I heard the spiritual “Walk in Jerusalem,” I was a student at North Park University, trying out different sets of skills and enjoying different opportunities. One of them was as resident assistant and front desk attendant at Burgh Hall, where I would spend three-hour shifts playing music while I greeted my fellow North Parkers in the lobby. I had a huge music collection and enjoyed playing amateur DJ every time I sat at the desk. One of my favorite albums was A Mighty Fortress, by C.D. Hawkins & Singers, and “Walk in Jerusalem” was the final track.
I was caught up in the first part of that chorus—“I want to be ready.” I didn’t pay as much to the last part, “to walk in Jerusalem, just like John,” mostly because I wasn’t sure what that was talking about. I figured there might be some New Testament account of John the disciple strolling into Jerusalem with the rest of the disciples. Maybe they were there to grab some food? I wasn’t a devoted enough Christian to actually read through all the Gospels and figure it out. And there was no biblical search window because Bible Gateway hadn’t been invented yet.
All I knew was that whatever God wanted for me during my time in Chicago, I wanted to be ready for it.
There’s an expression in the Black community: “If you stay ready, you ain’t gotta get ready.” The best way to take advantage of the opportunities you encounter in life is—borrowing a military term—to maintain a state of tactical readiness. When stuff jumps off, you don’t want to still be grabbing your stuff and getting everything together. You wanna just be able to go.
Of course, this makes much more sense in a military context than a civilian one. Because the obvious question is, “Ready for what?” Are you ready for a heated discussion at work? An intimate conversation at home? Or a spirited mission to conquer the free samples at Costco?
In the context of the song, it made even less sense to me back then. Was God going to take me on some sort of mission trip to the Middle East? Would I literally be walking in Jerusalem? If so, would I need to practice a special marching cadence or a particular kind of gait? The only kind of walk I could think of was Sherman Hemsley’s walk as George Jefferson. Surely that wasn’t walking like John, was it?
I asked Dr. Dilworth about it because I knew he had his own arrangement of “Walk in Jerusalem.” He reminded me of the reason so many of these songs are suited toward physical movement.
“A lot of this music was being created in real-time as the enslaved were engaged in labor,” said Dilworth. “They were moving around….I have no doubt that they were walking about the plantations with a walking tempo in mind. So that was part of it.”
But what about John?
“‘Walk in Jerusalem just like John’ was about walking into the new city John saw in his vision. The streets would be paved with gold, there would be no more suffering, enslavement, racism, or marginalization. That connection that the enslaved were making between biblical narratives they were taught and their own lived experiences—this piece captures the marriage between those two.”
Of course. He’s talking about “John the Revelator,” who’s also got another spiritual named in his honor. His narrative vision of heaven as the new Jerusalem takes place in Revelation 21.
According to Dilworth, the verses confirm it. “The first verse says, ‘John says the city was just four square. And he declared he’d meet me there.’ So there is this pairing of the heavenly realm with the earthly existence.”
It makes more sense if you remember that many of these spirituals contained layers of functional meaning directly relevant to enslaved people.
“Not only was there this idea that maybe we would meet John in glory one day, but it also signaled that there was probably a slave who was going to escape. They knew that along the underground railroad would be key persons with key objects who would meet them along their destination to help ensure their safety.”
Dr. Dilworth told me that over his years of study, he’s done a lot work categorizing different spirituals.
“This is a narrative spiritual that recounts a biblical story, but it’s also a testifying spiritual, because it was a personal conviction being conveyed at the same time. When they sang, ‘He declared he’d meet me there,’ they were looking forward not only to meeting John on the other side of eternity but also to meeting someone on the other side of the Mason-Dixon line.”
He continued, “That’s why this music should be studied, because lyrically it’s as sophisticated as any piece of Western classical music.”
Even if you ignore the slavery angle for a moment, it’s instructive that the song references the revelation of John. When John received that vision, he was on the island of Patmos—not as a retirement perk as some of us might now dream of island life—but as a banishment by Roman authorities. He spent the remainder of his final days in isolation, leaving behind a written record of his vision as a final act of faithful dissent.
We believe John was inspired by God because he wrote with such clarity and specificity and because many of John’s visions are consistent with ancient prophecies and other apocalyptic biblical narratives. But at the time, John had no forensic proof that verified his vision as real. He probably dealt with doubts on occasion. Still, he had faith to believe it and write it down. In the same way, when the slaves encouraged themselves to be ready to walk in Jerusalem just like John, they had no footage of John’s victorious arrival into the new Jerusalem. They had to believe in faith just as John did.
So for me, being ready to walk like John is as much about my faithful intention as it is about my physical form or my literal destination. The slavery I’m trying to escape is not literal but spiritual. I want to walk, as Paul talked about in Ephesians 6:15, with feet ready to proclaim a gospel of peace. I want to maintain a willingness to follow the Spirit’s nudging into a greater level of freedom than I’ve ever experienced.
Here’s a small example.
I’m currently in a season where I’m trying to train my mind and body to eat less. But I have decades of habitual overeating to overcome. Sometimes when I’m out, I order more food than I’m likely to eat.
The last time this happened was after an NBA basketball game. I was walking several blocks toward my parked car when I stopped to get two donuts at a convenience store.
But as I was walking out, I felt this sense that I should eat one and give one away.
I recognize that this was the Holy Spirit, but at the time it just seemed like a random thought. And since I’m kind of argumentative, I shot back in my head, “What if no one asks me for food?” Given the part of the city where I was walking, that was unlikely. In that industrial area are many people in destitute situations, and they commonly ask for assistance. But in my head I was eager to justify eating two donuts instead of one.
The thought came back just as quickly: “If no one asks for it, give it to your wife when you get home.”
Again, I now believe this was the Holy Spirit. But at the time it just seemed like a good idea, albeit at odds with my typical habits.
As I was getting into my car, someone did ask me for food. And I had a donut in my hand, so it was easy to give it to them. I didn’t fumble around. I didn’t hem and haw. I said, “I got a donut if you want one,” and then the person’s face lit up as they thanked me. I told them that God loves them, and then I got into my car and went home.
My point here is not that giving someone a donut is always the godly thing to do. My point is that it was easy for me to do because I’d already decided to do it. I didn’t have to get ready, because for the rest of that short walk, I stayed ready.
When we pray for God’s kingdom to manifest on earth as it is in heaven, what we’re really asking God for is the help to maintain that kind of readiness to participate in the work of shalom, of making what’s broken whole, and what’s wrong right. For me that day, it was a donut. For others on a different day, it might be some cash, or a warm blanket, or a meal. For still others, it might not be about a stranger at all but about reconciling with a loved one or a coworker. It might mean taking the time to offer an unearned blessing to someone, not because they’ve earned it but precisely because they have not.
That’s how I want to live, and that’s what I want to be ready for. To be the hands and feet of Jesus, even when it’s costly. Even when my immediate surroundings tell me that such optimism seems foolish, naïve, or ill-advised. Even when my actions seem like the lunatic ramblings of an island prisoner.
You know… just like John.
