Reconciliation (Part III)

By Odon Bulamba (2 May 2003)

Let us read the book of 2 Corinthians 5:19-21

God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ not counting men’s sins against them and He has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors as though God were making His appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Amen.

Jesus Christ didn’t sin but He bore our sins and He didn’t sulk. He didn’t even say a word. He said, “I am going to die for these people.” And how many times do you accept the tasks of heaven so that reconciliation might happen? How many times do you accept to be called something false so that reconciliation might happen? How many times do you accept to be arrested so that reconciliation might happen?

When Jesus was arrested, all His clothes were taken off Him – He was completely naked. Could we accept our reputation to become naked in front of everybody so that reconciliation might happen? If the answer is yes, praise God. And if it is not that way, what will you do?

To make reconciliation happen, you must make up your mind. Don’t wait for the other person to come to you, but you have to go forward to that person. When you talk to the other person, there are two possibilities – you might be accepted or rejected. But as Christians you are called to go and once you arrive there, you have to talk about reconciliation. Don’t talk about the problem that happened. Don’t remember what is already buried but tell this person that you will live the same friendship that you used to live before. And if it’s possible, we will try to make this friendship to be pure love. This doesn’t mean that if I was a drunk yesterday, I will go back to my friends and drink together. You will go back but say you would like to talk to them about God. God has transformed me and given me life so take this opportunity to learn who God is.

What is reconciliation? Reconciliation is a very small thing in the life of a human being. There was love or friendship and then this friendship became broken but after that, one goes towards the other to put people together and love comes back. This is reconciliation. Reconciliation does not mean forgiveness. It does not mean humility. But reconciliation means to accept everything to be put on you. It means all the mistakes that were made will be put on you so that two parties can be put together again and carry on in good way.

Remember the Hutu story...the children from the Hutu family grew up and the oldest who was asked to be killed, always remembered that. One day he went into the army of Rwanda and his aim was to become a solider. Not to defend the interests of the Tsuti but to revenge himself. He said that because he still lived today, it was only by God’s grace, because my neighbours asked my mum to kill me. So my neighbours were my first enemies so I am going to revenge myself against my neighbours.

One day this man took his weapon, went to the neighbour’s house and knocked on the door and he found the man and all his family present. He took out his weapon and said, “Do you remember the blood that my mother lost? Remember the hand of my mum? Remember the machete of which you said she will have to cut her son’s throat with? And especially you man, remember that you said every thing has its time. As you were a Christian before and then you weren’t, well the same goes for me. I was a Christian yesterday, but today I am not.”

This young man lined up the whole family and said, “You will die one after another. So who will be the first?” And the father looked around and didn’t know what to say. And his wife said, “Do you remember what I said? When his mum came and said let’s get reconciled, you rejected her and now we are going to pay the price with our lives.” And the boy said, “Who will be the first?” And the mum said, “Here I am.” So the boy took the gun and gave it to the husband and he asked the husband to kill his wife.

The husband realised he had a weapon in his hand and had been asked to kill his wife and he said, “You are stupid. I am going to start with you.” He turned himself against the boy and found that there was no cartridge in it. The man was disappointed and the boy said, “Here it is. You have the spirit of murder. So you keep being the same. When will you change your life? When we were children you would gather us to preach the gospel of God but up to today you don’t even have the fear of killing so because of that I will kill you”.

And this man knelt down and asked for forgiveness. He said “Forgive me my son, do not kill me. What I did was not correct. It was the pride of my race. It was also to promote the success of my tribe. But I ask for forgiveness.” And this boy forgave this family. The boy went home and called his mum and he said to her “Let’s go and get reconciled with other families.” Once they arrived everybody started crying. They didn’t cry because they were ashamed but because they regretted all their mistakes. And before eating the man said “I had asked my wife to prepare some food but in this food is poison so don’t eat. As for us Tustis we kill easily. If we miss you with a knife we might use poison. So I thought one day you would revenge yourself so I put poison in your food.” And the boy said, “You keep being a murderer.” And he said “Forgive me again for the last time.”

So what can we learn from all this? Someone who has killed your parents or made your life difficult and you find a perfect situation to punish him, what are you going to do? If for example someone has made your life miserable and you find him in front of you and you are a powerful person, will you call on reconciliation or will revenge take place?