Jesus and South Africa and people

It has been awhile since I have written - but trips to South America in November and South Africa in December/January wore this old man out. Nevertheless - I've got some stories to tell, stories that I think will encourage you about the heart of our King, Jesus...and the reality of His Kingdom and His great and powerful redemptive love for people.

The first story has to do with me going to South Africa at all...what I was doing there...and my friend and translator, Pastor Aiken Zondo. There I stood, on December 27th, in Praetoria, before 1,500-2,000 of my South African brothers and sisters in Christ. Some were from Johannesburg and the surrounding area, some were from the Eastern Cape, some from Swaziland [a fascinating and also separate country in northeast South Africa], and many from Zululand along the southeastern coast. So what's the big deal...me teaching the Bible to some believers in another country? Not much...unless you consider the history of South Africa - and the demonic, racist system of division called apartheid, and the fact that the British and the Dutch imposed this system of hatred on the native South African population officially for 50 years - but unofficially for 200 years - and the fact that those folks who dominated and oppressed and kept separate and literally killed the bodies and spirits of millions happened to be white - and here I am, the only white guy in the house - whose face COULD remind the listeners of 200 years of pain...and yet, and yet - instead of rejection, I am met with love and warmth and embrace and respect and acceptance and a listening spirit. And I ask myself, "why?"

And then there is my translator, Aiken Zondo, my elder brother in the faith. Pastor Zondo has lost several children over the years - 2 to illness - but one of his sons got involved with the militant arm of the ANC [African National Congress]. Growing up, this son talked openly about his discouragement and frustration that only the whites had good schools, that only the whites had freedom to go and travel where they wished, that only the whites had access to good food and good places to live...and this intense young man didn't know what to do with his frustration. From what I hear of his story, he fought and fought the urge to channel his frustration into violence - but at some point, through a series of circumstances and some arm-twisting of the ANC - he helped them plant a bomb...some people were killed and injured...he got caught...and was executed for his crime by the ruling apartheid government. And here I am, with Pastor Zondo - this man who lost a son to a demonic system perpetrated, in this case, by white people - on a stage, preaching the Bible together, and we're hugging each other and functioning literally as one body and soul, sweating and shouting and crying together as we talk to our brothers and sisters about King Jesus and His Kingdom...and I say to myself, "When Pastor Zondo looks at me, Lord, what must he see? What must he be reminded of in terms of at least my 'appearance' and the 'appearance' of connection to the people who oppressed his land and his people and killed his son? Why would he want to be on a stage with me, teaching anything, let alone the Bible - and with such passion and conviction and obvious connection to my soul? Why?"

And even though I had been to South Africa several times before and even preached at this conference two other times in the last decade - still the question haunted me, "Why? There is no earthly reason why these folks or this man should want to have anything to do with me - if for no other reason, than because I remind them of a hateful, oppressive past - the painful, death-dealing effects of which are still lingering in South Africa today."

And then a couple days after the conference, I got an email from Pastor Zondo - and the email was only a paragraph or two long - and twice - not once, but twice - he said to me: "We know that you love us...we know that you love us...". And once again I was reminded - though I knew the answer already - from a theological perspective - I mean, I knew all the Bible verses and knew what the Gospel of Jesus calls us to and the power His love is supposed to have to draw all folks together - and how the power of this Kingdom love is supposed to declare to the world that indeed, the Kingdom of God has begun to decend in Jesus of Nazareth - and that indeed His cross has truly reconciled ALL people to the Father and to one another and a new era has dawned - and that our fractured lives have hope of being restored and the darkness has hope of being overcome by the light. I knew all the verses. I knew what was supposed to happen. But here, in front of my face, in the words of my still grieving brother, Pastor Zondo, I saw it - I saw the power of the Kingdom of God - that indeed, the love of Jesus, the Christ, had brought this white man from America together with my brothers and sisters in South Africa - and had reconciled even apparent differences and wounds - and had given us a bond that could never, ever be broken - because it was a bond won for us by the blood of the King Himself.

And I found myself, for the rest of the trip, and to this day - weeks later - kneeling in a deeper way than ever before in front of my King, and believing - more surely than ever - that this same love is THE only answer to every wound, every division, every fissure in every part of our personal and corporate lives, in every individual, every family, every community, every country on earth, every galaxy in the universe. And by God's grace, and the power of the Holy Spirit, I am going to keep being about that healing love until I no longer have any breath in my body to breathe. Help me, Lord Jesus.