Reconciliation in Christ المصالحة في المسيح

A blog site dedicated to showing the world the reconciliation that God offers to us and between us through the blood of Christ--the blood He shed in love for us and for all nations, to make us one with Him, and one in Him, for eternity.

Monday, December 06, 2004

Precious As Chocolate

Peace in the Lord,

I've had some very good and challenging experiences in the last few days which I wanted to share with those who read this. I have a friend from my Hebrew classes in Jerusalem who invited me to his 30th birthday party/Shabbat dinner last night, so of course I was very happy to come. He's an American, and all except one of the guests were Americans as well. (I was the only non-Jewish person in the room; that's the first time I've encountered that social situation.)

All of the people I met there were interesting and thoughtful people, and we had some very good conversation (as well as very yummy food, I might add). It was good to simply hear the perspectives that they, as Israeli citizens or American Jews, had on the conflict and various issues of daily life here. Afterwards, one of the guests took me back to the checkpoint, and as we were driving I talked with her about my desire to love people on both sides of the conflict. She agreed, but said that it's difficult to get to a point where you can really have an empathy, a gut reaction to the suffering of both sides. She has studied the issues in the conflict, spent time with Palestinians, and yet when it comes down to her emotions, she reacts more strongly to stories of her own people suffering than to Palestinian suffering. I confessed that I have a gut reaction to Palestinian suffering, but not so much the other way, and that I wanted very much to develop that same empathy for Israelis.

It made me think about spending time in Israeli areas this year. I definitely have wanted to know Israelis in a daily life situation, especially Israeli believers in Jesus, but I haven't seen an easy way to do that during this visit. I could always just wait until after my school is done, but this friend challenged me that having that experience would help me even in my studies. Which I know is true. So I pray that if this is something God wants for me, He would open up the doors for me to spend a couple months in Israeli areas, volunteering somewhere (at a kibbutz?) where I could know Israelis as people, and hear their stories and their perspectives on the conflict. I believe that having such experience would not detract from my love for Palestinians, but in fact would refine and strengthen it, making it more of God's heart for both peoples, and not just blindly accepting the prejudices of one or the other side.

Tonight I had another very good conversation with various volunteers and guests at the college. We started talking about responses to injustice, and how an unjust response to injustice simply furthers the cycle. A friend here from South Africa (Afrikaaner) told us of what she saw during the breakup of apartheid in her country, and how God broke down so many walls between blacks and whites there, especially in the churches--how the main police chief there became born again through the proceedings of the Truth and Reconciliation commission, and publicly repented of his involvement in violence and oppression towards blacks. She said everybody was predicting a bloodbath if apartheid was torn down, but what really happened was so encouraging, and that was because of the actions of key black leaders (and some white as well), who applied Christian teaching to the issues.

One guest from Britain told us a story which I wanted to share with you all. He said that a Palestinian believer here was visiting at Bishara's house (the president of the college) with his mom, and the Israeli soldiers stormed in and said he was under arrest. They pleaded, but to no avail; this man was taken to a prison in the desert, which was notorious for ill treatment of prisoners. He managed to take a New Testament with him, but the soldiers when they found it mocked him and took it away. In the prison, they beat and tortured him severely.

Meanwhile, there was an Israeli believer, a young man, who was called up into the reserves. He was assigned to a notorious prison in the desert, and he told his dad he would refuse to go there. But his dad said, "Look, if you don't go, they will send someone else who will have less concern for the prisoners than you. So go, and let the Lord use you as a light in this dark place." He went, and soon found out about this prisoner. He went to visit him one day, told him he was a believer, but the prisoner didn't know if they were just trying to trick him. The soldier gave him a Bible, which he snuck away (even though he knew it might get him into trouble again), and then the soldier offered him a sandwich. "How do I know it's not poisoned?' he thought. The soldier noticed his hesitance, so he took a bite first and said, "Here." He offered him water; same thing--the soldier took a drink, and then gave it to the prisoner. After soldier had left, the prisoner prayed to himself, "Lord, if this man really is my brother in the Lord, next time may he bring me some 'Elite' chocolate [a popular Israeli brand]." (Just like Gideon with the fleece!)

Lo and behold, the next time this Israeli soldier had the opportunity to sneak in a visit, he brought with him Elite chocolate! The Palestinian brother took the chocolate and kept the wrapper as a testimony. What a beautiful and moving example of the twenty-third Psalm:

You prepare a table before me
In the presence of my enemies.


After some time, this prisoner was finally released, but because of the torture he continued to have serious health problems, internal bleeding and urinary-digestive tract problems.

Some time later, while this man was at seminary in Cairo, Israeli soldiers once again came into his mother's house. "We're looking for _____!" (his older brother.) His mother, knowing what her other son had suffered in prison, and being a very excitable person in general, was severely tempted to hate the soldiers and lose it completely. But when her son had returned, he had told her the story of this Israeli brother who had helped him. He had kept the chocolate wrapper in his Bible as a bookmark, and on the opposite page was written, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who persecute you." She said about that, "My son taught me what I should have taught him."

So when these soldiers came into her house , she panicked, but prayed that God would give her love for these soldiers. "Good morning!" she bellowed.

"Good morning?" they said. "What are you talking about? Nobody says 'good morning' to us in Beit Jala." Then they said, "There are rocks out on the street. Your son put them there, and we are arresting him."

"What rocks? My son didn't put them there, but if you would like he can remove them for you."

"No, we are arresting him! Where is he??"

Suddenly without thinking, she stretched out her hands and blurted out, "Blessings on you!! Blessings in the name of the Lord!!" At this, the shocked and bewildered soldiers ran out, went back to the jeep and took off! (I guess God decided that they would be most blessed by being out of her house!)

Meanwhile, while the intifada was still going pretty strong, this Palestinian family invited this Israeli brother to their house in Bethlehem (which I think may have technically been illegal--I'm not sure). In any case, it was certainly extremely abnormal for a Palestinian family in the West Bank to actually invite an Israeli soldier into their home (most often they would come quite uninvited). But even more, when the mother met this soldier for the first time in her house, she looked at him, embraced him and said, "You are my son." Imagine, the mother of a tortured Palestinian prisoner, embracing an Israeli soldier as her own son!

Oh, God is so good. Our sin is so great, so blinding, so deeply entrenched in our thinking and our behavior. But God does wonders in those who entrust themselves to Him. And He's shown us how to love our enemies by loving us in Christ. "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8).

May this love of God in Christ be precious to you today, like Elite chocolate to a tortured prisoner, like a table set before you in the presence of your enemies. And may you all be reconciled to God, just as this soldier was to the Palestinian mother, who embraced her former enemy, saying, "You are my son."

Seth

PS Please pray for me, that God would be refining my heart, giving me a gut love for Israelis and Palestinians, and if He so desires, opening a door for me to live with Israelis for a time this year.

PPS I've had Elite chocolate now, and it's really yummy. =)

1 Comments:

Blogger Seth said...

Just wanted to mention, a few months after I heard this story I was in Kosova, and told it to some Albanian friends of mine in the church there, relating it to their own struggles with the Serbs. I'd brought a package of Elite chocolate with me, and after I told the story I shared it with them. One of the girls who was moved by the story later asked me if she could have the wrapper of the chocolate as a souvenir, just as the Palestinian man had kept his as a bookmark for the Bible the soldier had given him. What a beautiful connection between God's work in these two places where so much hatred and violence has existed. May the Lord continue to bring peace and forgiveness to hard and broken hearts.

10:28 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home