Tag Archive for: Mandela

Leigh Robinson

Day of Reconciliation

Day of Reconciliation

Yesterday was the Day of Reconciliation. This public holiday came into effect in 1994 after the end of apartheid, with the intention of fostering reconciliation and national unity. Since his death on Thursday 5 December we have been reminded over and over again in countless ways of the key role Nelson Mandela played in bringing about the degree of reconciliation that has occurred in our country. I say “degree” because there still remains a lot to be done in this area. Racism and division is still a problem, and each of us has a role to play in making this reconciliation a reality in our daily lives. But, having said that, a lot has been achieved in the area of reconciliation and national unity. The many memorial gatherings that have been held since Madiba died have seen South Africans of all race groups and stations in society coming together to mourn as one. This has been most gratifying.

Reconciliation in the Bible

One of the great NT themes concerns the reconciliation of Jews and Gentile believers in Jesus to one another. This came about as a direct result of their reconciliation to God the Father through the sacrifice of Jesus. Listen to this theme explained as I read from Paul’s letter to the Christians in Ephesus. I’m reading from Ephesians 2:12-18

“… remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.

For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace, and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. “

Serving God’s Purpose

We have all thought much of Madiba in recent days. As I thought about him, the words spoken by the apostle Paul concerning David, Israel’s greatest king, came to mind. Summarizing David’s life, Paul said, “For when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep (died)” (Acts 13:36). The text highlights three truths

  • God had a purpose for David’s life.
  • In his lifetime, although he was a fallible human being who failed often, he served God’s purpose. Some of David’s own plans, like the building of the temple, were not fulfilled. But God’s purpose was.
  • When God judged that David had served his purpose, David died.

Today I believe we can say, When Nelson Mandela had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep (died).” As in the case of David, king of Israel

  • God had a purpose for Madiba’s life.
  • In his lifetime, although he was a fallible human being who, by how own admission, failed often, he served God’s purpose. Like David, he no doubt had plans and dreams that he did not fulfill, but he served God’s purpose.
  • When God judged that Madiba had served his purpose, Madiba died.

In the days since Madiba’s death we have been deluged with tributes recounting the numerous ways in which he served God’s purpose in his generation. It has been our privilege as a country and as individual citizens to be on the receiving end of the blessings and benefits that have flowed from his serving God’s purpose in his generation. We are indeed a privileged generation!

Among the many ways in which Madiba served God’s purpose in his generation, three stand out to me. They are well known to us, so I am not going to elaborate on them. Madiba served God’s purpose in his generation . . .

  • By sacrificing for justice
  • By forgiving his enemies
  • By living for others (So many people have stories of what have been referred to as their ‘Madiba moment.’ – stories of simple words and acts of kindness that deeply impacted their lives.)

Eulogize or Emulate

As we have seen in the last week, it is easy to eulogize Madiba. Millions of people all around the world have done so, ourselves among them. It is one thing to eulogize him, but it is another thing to emulate him. It is one thing to praise him, but it is another thing to follow his practice.

I was really challenged by a paragraph in President Obama’s speech last Tuesday. He said,

“We, too, must act on behalf of justice. We, too, must act on behalf of peace. There are too many people who happily embrace Madiba’s legacy of racial reconciliation, but passionately resist even modest reforms that would challenge chronic poverty and growing inequality. There are too many leaders who claim solidarity with Madiba’s struggle for freedom, but do not tolerate dissent from their own people. And there are too many of us on the sidelines, comfortable in complacency or cynicism, when our voices must be heard.”

As he said that, I was hoping that some of the world leaders sitting behind him were listening. And then it struck me—Am I listening? It’s easy to eulogize. It’s another thing to emulate. It’s one thing to praise; it’s another thing to practice. If we praise without seeking to practice we are simply hypocrites!

The Challenge of Madiba’s Life

So the challenge of Madiba’s life comes to me. I cannot be him. Nor can you. But God has a purpose for your life and mine in our generation. To be consistent, I must ask myself

  • What sacrifices for justice am I making?
  • Will I forgive those people who have wronged me?
  • Am I living for others? How many people can recount a ‘Leigh (_____) moment’ . . . a moment when I have noticed them, taken an interest in them, bothered to know their name, served them or sacrificed for them in some way? What will people have to say at my funeral?

These are some of the challenges Madiba’s life poses for us living in the Rainbow Nation he helped bring into being.

There is One greater than David (& Mandela)

As I conclude, I must take us back again to that text about David, and finish Paul’s thought. He said,

“For when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his fathers and his body decayed. But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay.”

In the context of his sermon in Acts 13, Paul praises David for serving God’s purpose in his generation, but he makes it clear that Jesus is in another league. “But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay.” David was a man! Madiba was a man! Jesus was Immanuel, which means, “God with us!” He gave his life for our liberty, and God raised him from the dead, thereby authenticating all his claims. Let’s admire Madiba, but let’s not make him into a god. Jesus, “the one whom God raised from the dead” is God. It is only through faith in him that we can be reconciled to God. Let’s receive him into our lives by faith. Let’s surrender our lives to him. Let’s follow him. Let’s serve his purpose in our generation.

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Leigh Robinson

Reflections on Mandela

The Announcement

Last Thursday night just before 9 o’clock, the Proteas were wrapping up their stunning victory against the visiting Indian cricket team at the Wanderers stadium. Not far away in the stately suburb of Houghton, 95 year old Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Nelson Mandela, was taking his last breaths. A few hours later our president, Jacob Zuma, announced to the nation that Madiba had died. That announcement unleashed a flood of tears and a torrent of tributes around the world.

Tributes from high and low, east and west, north and south—from kings, queens, princes and princesses; from presidents and prime ministers; from political and business leaders; from pop stars and sports stars; and from multitudes of ordinary people whose lives he touched, and who have a story to tell about their encounter with Madiba—maids and gardeners, security guards and street sweepers, friends and enemies, policemen and prison warders, and lots and lots and lots of children.

Since our president’s announcement, the world media has had round the clock coverage of Mr. Mandela’s life, death, and legacy. He has been hailed for his humanity, his humility, and his humour. He has been marvelled at for his courage, his sacrifice, his choice to forgive, and his lack of bitterness. He has been praised for his common touch and his ability to notice invisible people. He has been commended for his shrewdness as a politician and his quiet strength as a leader. He has been called “the greatest leader the world has ever known.”

The Man

All of us South Africans feel like we know him and own a little piece of him. We are thankful for him. We are proud to call him our own. And he will forever be the yardstick against which we will measure other leaders of our beloved country, present and future.

Most of us had never seen Mandela’s face until the day of his release from Victor Verster Prison in February 1990. We were largely unaware of all the behind-the- scenes pressures, negotiations, and discussions that led to his release, or of the preparations that were being made for him to step onto the stage of South African history.

But at last the day came! The picture of him walking to freedom, hand in hand with his wife, Winnie Madikezela Mandela, will be forever etched on our collective memory. Determination was written all over his face as he entered the world of South Africa in 1990. He was a man on a mission—the liberation of his people (of all South Africans) from the bondage of apartheid.

It was that mission that had landed him in prison 27 years earlier. It was that mission that had burned within him as he lay each night for eighteen years on the thin mat in his cold cell on Robben Island. It was that mission that occupied his mind as he studied his books and as he broke rocks day after day in the prison’s limestone quarry. It was that mission that shaped his comradeship with his fellow prisoners and his responses to the ill-treatment he received from some of his guards. It was that mission that, after his release, sustained and drove him through the next four tough years of negotiations. And it was that mission that triumphed when, four years later, after winning South Africa’s first democratic election and being elected president, he stood before his liberated people and the world in front of the Union Buildings in Pretoria and concluded his inaugural speech by saying,

“Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world. Let freedom reign!”

The Sacrifice

Last Friday I heard an interview on Radio 702 with a photographer who had photographed Mandela in his pre-prison days, and often in the years following his release. He summed up Mandela’s lasting legacy in these words: “His sacrifice bought our freedom.” On one occasion Mandela said,

During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.

That quote reminds me of Another—One infinitely greater than Madiba—who was not only prepared to die for our freedom, but who in fact did offer up his life for our freedom—freedom from sin and the brokenness and bondage it brings, freedom from Satan, and from eternal death and hell. His name is Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the Son of God sent from heaven. At an infinitely higher level we can say of Jesus what the photographer said of Madiba:

“His sacrifice bought our freedom.”

The word used in the Bible for this action of Jesus is the word “redeem.” He gave his life by dying on the cross to redeem us. He is our Redeemer. He came into the world to provide redemption. What does redemption mean? The OT provides the background for our understanding, for the people of Israel were essentially a redeemed people. They had been slaves in Egypt, yet God had redeemed them, and by redemption they were made his people. The word “redeem” means “to loose, set free, or deliver”—by the payment of a price (a ransom).During NT times the Roman Empire had as many as six million slaves, and the buying and selling of them was a major business. If a person wanted to free a loved one or friend who was a slave, he would buy the slave for himself and then grant him freedom, testifying to the deliverance by a written certificate. So to redeem is to set free by the payment of a ransom.

Why is redemption needed? Why do you and I need to be redeemed? Every human being born since the Fall has come into the world enslaved to sin, under total bondage to a nature that is corrupt, evil, and separated from its Creator. No person is spiritually free. No human being is free of sin or free or its consequences, the ultimate consequence, or penalty, for which is death—eternal separation from God in hell. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).

Because death is the consequence of sin, death is the price that had to be paid for our redemption from sin. But who would pay that price? It had to be one who was not himself a sinner deserving of death himself. The only one qualified was God himself. Biblical redemption therefore refers to the act of God by which he himself paid as a ransom the price for sin.
As the hymn writer put it—

There was no other good enough
To pay the price of sin;
He only could unlock the gate
Of heaven and let us in.

At Christmas we remember that God became man. Jesus’ name Emmanuel means “God with us.” God the Son became man in order to pay the ransom price by his death. The Bible says, “In him we have redemption through his blood.” The price paid for man’s redemption from sin was costly beyond measure. It was the very lifeblood of Christ himself, poured out in death. What a price! What a price!

One of the results of redemption is forgiveness. The Bible says, “In him (Christ) we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us.” When we are forgiven we are set free (liberated).

How does this forgiveness and freedom become ours? By acknowledging sin and by placing our trust in Jesus alone. You can do this now by simply praying and asking him to forgive you and come into your life. Then you will be able to say, “His sacrifice bought my freedom.”

I’d like to invite you to attend a special service of remembrance and thanksgiving for Nelson Mandela that will be held at RUC on Wednesday from 5-6pm. Also do join us for our Christmas day services at 8 or 9.30.

God bless you!

Leigh Robinson

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