JOS CRISIS: A “CROSS” VIEW

Last week a cousin of mine looked me in the eyes and asked me if there was a meter for pain, if there is an apparatus to measure the level of pain he was going through. He was quite serious so I did my best to hide the tears that were coming; at that level words become so inefficient.
One doesn’t need to be a mother, a loved one or a friend to feel the loss. One doesn’t need to see the corpses or hear the grimy details to appreciate the level of pain that is currently in the hearts of many, and one wouldn’t need a meter to read it. Like my cousin someone in Jos right now, an affected individual or a concerned citizen is feeling the pain of Sunday morning incidence right now. As I write this my heart is bleeding and I lack words to fully express the thoughts except that evil has triumphed here.
I dare say that the figures are not important, as someone aptly said; “kill one individual and I will call it murder, kill a million and I will call that statistics”. None the less an individual’s death is enough to warrant this article.
Where is the explanation for this madness? When will it stop? What does God say in the face of this tragedy? Where is Jesus in this crisis?
Where is Christ in the face of this wanton destruction?
Answer: On the cross, weeping. His heart bled not only for those that were martyred last Sunday morning but more so for those who committed the detestable act. He shed His precious blood for them all and lest we should forget He made a profound statement: “Father forgive them for they do not know what they do!”
But then what are they doing?
They flared the church and killed individuals known to be Christians, Christ in His words acknowledged that yes they have done a very evil act (he prayed for their forgiveness) but in reality they do not know what they are doing. They did theirs out of religious zeal; Christ too was crucified out of religious zeal. Man has been a religious zealot for ages, trying to please God! Someone might suggest that the acts were politically motivated but then the individuals that executed the acts weren’t.
God cannot be pleased by the efforts of sinful man; I repeat, a Holy Righteous God cannot be pleased or appeased by the mere efforts of sinful man, efforts conceived by a heart God himself described as “desperately wicked”. Man’s problem is not that he is unethical it is that his very heart is lost in sin. God’s Holiness unlike our “righteousness” is not due to the absence of sin but due to the presence of something. Christ on that Cross has paid a price man for centuries have tried to negotiate and man’s righteousness before God can only be inputted.
At the heart of every religious view is man’s desire to please God and Man is so aware of his sinful state. The individuals that murdered these citizens in Jos cannot be celebrated as saints even by an atheist. Christ came and made a statement, a very simple one; “Man He said, Man, your sins are forgiven. I am the lamb for the sacrifice, the only qualified sacrificed. Just believe in me”. Many a men have heard that statement and had said “No sir, I want to do something”.
It is only a heart that has accepted His Love that can love and this is another ultimate test for Christians for Christ also said “Love your enemies, pray for those who spitefully use you”.
So I pray for the individuals that murdered potentialities on Sunday morning, individuals that have “pleased” God yesterday. I pray for the family members and individuals that encouraged them on this act. I pray for their children, as they recount their ordeal to their sponsors, I pray for them. I pray for them at those nights when the seed of God inside them will remind them that those individuals were also made by the same God they worship, I pray for them on the day they will lose loved ones and remember the pain they have caused others, I pray that as they discover that we mourn at the loss of loved ones because our spirit realize the eternality of that event, I pray that God will indeed forgive them for truly they do not know what they are doing.
It is not time for hate. If a child should mistakenly place a hot coal in my eye in a domestic accident I would not like it, I would be very sad at it, I would have done my best to prevent it if I could, but I won’t hate him for that incident even if my loss were for life.
In Christ we find meaning to every expression; everything that is happening in the world today is a fulfillment of His Word, from Jos to Haiti. The details are all there in red ink and that brings a certain assurance that a knowing God loved me, sent His son to die for my sins, gave me His Word to explain and instruct me on my pilgrimage on this earth and reminds me that it is His will that none should perish especially the murdering hoard at Jos. He reminds me to tell them that more than half the written testament was written by a man who was known to be the terror of the Christian faith and I pray they meet the Lord. Hear Mr. Paul, ex-religious zealot, fanatic and self acclaimed righteous man, well trained on the facts of the law, a lawyer by training, award winning persecutor:
“even though we can list what many might think are impressive credentials. You know my pedigree: a legitimate birth, circumcised on the eighth day; an Israelite from the elite tribe of Benjamin; a strict and devout adherent to God's law; a fiery defender of the purity of my religion, even to the point of persecuting Christians; a meticulous observer of everything set down in God's law Book. The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I'm tearing up and throwing out with the trash--along with everything else I used to take credit for; and why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant--dog dung. I've dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn't want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ--God's righteousness.
I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. “
Mr. Paul of Tarsus in his letter to the children of God at Philippi, the 3rd chapter

From this view I am apt to allow Christ to bring His comfort to my bleeding heart and not make room for bitterness for the Love of Christ compels me.
Okwonna Nelson