Nelson Mandela died at the age of 95. He exemplifed an unusual kind of political power. He spent 27 years in prison for his anti-apartheid activism in South Africa. Whereupon he built up so much moral authority that the apartheid government, with its overtly racist system in which whites ruled over blacks, ended up dismantling itself. When he emerged from prison to become president of the new government, he led the newly-empowered black majority away from revenge to reconciliation with their former oppressors.
Mandel was a Christian, as the post below recounts. After the jump, an excerpt from a quite powerful sermon he gave on the risen Messiah.
From an address by Nelson Mandela at the Zionist Christian Church’s Easter Conferences in 1994:
“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!
“Each Easter marks the rebirth of our faith. It marks the victory of our risen Saviour over the torture of the cross and the grave.
“Our Messiah, who came to us in the form of a mortal man, but who by his suffering and crucifixion attained immortality.
“Our Messiah, born like an outcast in a stable, and executed like criminal on the cross.
“Our Messiah, whose life bears testimony to the truth that there is no shame in poverty: Those who should be ashamed are they who impoverish others.
“Whose life testifies to the truth that there is no shame in being persecuted: Those who should be ashamed are they who persecute others.
“Whose life proclaims the truth that there is no shame in being conquered: Those who should be ashamed are they who conquer others.
“Whose life testifies to the truth that there is no shame in being dispossessed: Those who should be ashamed are they who dispossess others.
“Whose life testifies to the truth that there is no shame in being oppressed: Those who should be ashamed are they who oppress others.”
via Nelson Mandela and his faith | Christian News on Christian Today.
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