Twelve years ago, world leaders including then President Obama
and former presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter traveled to
South Africa for Nelson Mandela’s funeral.
Mandela died December 1, 2013.
As a young black lawyer in South Africa, Mandela became the leader
in the movement to eliminate apartheid, the South African set of laws that
discriminated against Blacks and Asians.
When his influence became a threat to those in power, he was imprisoned
at Robben Island for 27 years. Mandela emerged from prison unbroken, taking up
his earlier mantra to live for freedom or to die for it. He was swept to power as President of South
Africa four years after his release.
Mandela’s story would be remarkable simply because he was
able to rise from rural obscurity to national and international prominence. It is more remarkable given his election as
President of South Africa after spending 27 years in prison as an enemy of the
government. But it is most remarkable
because when he was bestowed with power as President, he refused retaliation
and chose forgiveness and reconciliation.
How did he come to this position? How did he rise above the natural passions of
vengeance, hatred and corruption that control most men, especially those who
come to power?
In his autobiography, Long
Walk to Freedom, Mandela states that he early became a member of the
Methodist church, like his mother, and started his education in a Methodist
school run by missionaries. Later, when
he was a young man he “became a member of the Students Christian Association
and taught Bible classes on Sundays in neighboring villages.” Perhaps in those early beginnings the seeds
of his ultimate success were sown. In his autobiography, Mandela wrote, “ I saw that virtually all of the
achievements of Africans seemed to have come about through the missionary work
of the Church."
But the record of Christian influence in South Africa, as
elsewhere, has its issues. In South Africa as in the American pre-Civil War
South, the systems of racial subjugation and prejudice found support in the
churches. Speaking of Apartheid, Mandela
wrote, “The policy was supported by the Dutch Reformed Church, which furnished
apartheid with its religious underpinnings … In the Afrikaner’s worldview,
apartheid and the church went hand in hand.”
Many who profess faith in Christ are prone to adopt the
world’s systems with its prejudices and presumptions rather than follow the
teachings of Christ. It is, in the end, the degree that we implement the
teachings of Jesus, regardless of denomination or affiliation, that makes the
greatest difference. Jesus set the example by which we are to forgive as we
have been forgiven, to love our enemies and do good for them.
In 1994, Mandela addressed an Easter conference and spoke of
"… the Good News
borne by our risen Messiah who chose not one race, who chose not one country,
who chose not one language, who chose not one tribe, who chose all of
humankind!”
Nelson Mandela is a reminder that when one man is willing to
put into practice the radical teaching of Jesus, he can change the world. In our families, our jobs, our schools and our
communities, we can, every one of us, practice forgiveness, acceptance, respect
and faith that transforms the world.
