GOSPEL READING : John 12:1-8:
JESUS’ GREAT LOVE TOWARDS A HYPOCRIT!
In the Burundi former tradition, when a man got married and it happened that his wife was found sterile, he had the right to return to his in-laws family and be given his wife’s young sister. No matter whether they loved each other or not. But the man would not divorce the elder wife. Could we call that true love or hypocrisy?
I usually take time to represent myself this moving tale about a Cobra and a Partridge which lived closely to each other and shared whatever they got as food. Despite that fact, the Partridge suspected the Cobra to be swallowing its eggs from time to time but there was no proof. Hence, one day the Partridge asked the Cobra:
– Oh, dear friend, Cobra, though you say we are friends, I am afraid of you whenever we are talking because I really suspect you for swallowing my eggs. So, could you open your mouth and allow me to look in your gullet ?
The Cobra accepted and the Partridge had a look in its gullet where it saw a little door and said :
– Mr. Cobra, what I was thinking about you is true. You really have a little door opened in your gullet and that’s the way my eggs go through and where I’ll probably end my days.
The Cobra replied and said: “No, dear friend. I love you so much and I can’t treat you that way”.
Later, the forest that was next to the bush where the two beasts lived burned and the Cobra said to the Partridge :
– Oh, dear, I am afraid of the fire because the bush where we live is connected to the forest that is burning. So, please, since you can fly quickly, could you take me and help me escape from the fire that is approaching?
– Of course, my friend, the Partridge replied. Get quickly around my neck and I’ll fly immediately.
And so the Partridge flied quickly taking the Cobra very far to a nice plain where it landed. Then the Partridge asked the Cobra to get off its neck because there was no more danger. Unfortunately, the Cobra refused and continued to suffocate the Partridge. The Partridge insisted again in vain and finally cried: “Didn’t I tell you that you had a little door in your gullet and that you had evil plans towards me?” While discussions continued between the two, a group of people who were returning from working to put out the fire in the forest came that way. The Cobra heard them and afraid, it got off the Partridge’s neck and tried to escape. Unfortunately, these people saw the Cobra and stoned it till it died before the little door in its gullet had swallowed the Partridge.
Dear Brethren, Let’s pour on Jesus’ feet the precious perfume of OUR REPENTANCE today and be aware that one of the powerful weapons the Devil is using to attack Christians and the Christian Church is Hypocrisy. We’ve met it several times on our ways in our lives. We’ve shared our deeper secrets with hypocrites in the Church or in our businesses and have been caught in their traps while trusting them as righteous. And how many lovers have ended their lives in suicide simply because they came at a point where they found themselves manipulated by a false and hypocrit friend?
Judas Iscariot thought he was unknown from Jesus and the rest of the Disciples. But why did Jesus, the Son of God, allowed Hypocrit Judas to be part of the holy Disciples’ Foundation Body and even take part in the Holy Supper? Somebody said that Jesus simply wanted to tell all the Hypocrits of all the times that God so loved the Hypocrits that He gave His only begotten Son , that any Hypocrit who believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. So, as true Jesus’ followers, let us also welcome the hypocrites in Church. Let us also share the Holy Communion with them. Let us be humble and naïve and seem like not paying attention to all the evil they are doing against us. Let us keep on meditating and sing together with Charlotte Elliot and William Bradbury and remember that one day we also came to Jesus “Just As We Were”, Hypocrits or liars or robbers and killers, etc. And let these blessed words be our prayer :
Just as I am without a Plea,
But that Thy Blood was shed for me
And that Thou bidd’st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come !
Just as I am and waiting not
To rid my soul of one dark blot
To Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot,
O Lamb of God, I come! I come!
In Christ’s Love,
Bishop, Dr. Justin Baransananikiye
CHRISTIANS STRENGTHENING CHRISTIANS,
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