“May Your Faith Seek Understanding!”

“May Your Faith Seek Understanding!”(Lk.17:31-34).
In a conversation yesterday, I told a colleague about a pamphlet written by a missionary to the Mbembe people of Donga-Mantung Division. The title of the document was, “Ignorance is killing us.” In the document, the missionary was lamenting the ignorance of foreigners who come to work with the Mbembe people. What they see in the Mbembe people as wrong is because they are ignorant of the worldview of the Mbembes.
The grounds of misunderstanding other people’s worldviews are cultural prejudices that cause us to see and understand other people only in terms of what we know.
Cultural biases are quite in order because “we cannot take in new ideas except in terms of ideas we already have.”
I have a friend with whom we have shut out the critics because we sympathise with their ignorance. Our secret code us, “They can’t understand!” “They won’t understand!” “They can never understand!”
Yes, “where ignorance is bliss, it is folly to be wise.”
Jesus had just called aside the Twelve and explained to them that he was about to launch the next and final phase of his mission in fulfilment of “everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man. They are going up to Jerusalem where the Son of Man “will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, and spit on him; they will flog him and kill him. On the third day, he will rise again.”
This was to fulfil a prophecy. Yet we are told, “The disciples did not understand any of this. Its meaning was hidden from them, and they did not know what he was talking about.”
My friend, there are some things we can’t understand; not because we are dull, but because prophetically ordained, its meaning has been hidden from us. Suffice it to say, *this text is intentionally chosen to prepare us for the Lent season as Wednesday from today is Ash Wednesday marking the beginning of the Lent season. During the forty days of Lent, we are reenacting and reliving the fulfilment of Jesus’ words to the Twelve.
*The beauty of Lent is that it is not a tragedy; but it is not a comedy either! Rather, it is a tragicomedy! Mockery, insults, spitting on him, flogging, and killing him make it a tragedy. But the sweetest part, “On the third day, he will rise again.”
Here is the peak of the demonstration of God’s love for humanity! When we understand the Scriptures by and by, we would pass this sacrificial love on to others.
As we receive ash on our foreheads on Wednesday, may it remind us of the reason for this tragicomedy and may we work on our sinful nature during the Lenten period so that the Lord’s predictions and fulfilment are not in vain!
Sunday prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, make your example of wilful suffering be my inspiration to walk the talk. Amen!
Have a blessed Sunday! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.
15/02/2026.