“Eschewing The Sin Of Ignorance!”(Lk.23:32-34).
In his book, “Theological Pitfalls in Africa” the late Byang H. Kato writes, “The dim reflection of God by unbelievers may be compared with the legend of the blindmen and the elephant, which John G. Saxe has described in poetry.” Kato as an Evangelical was saying this to challenge E. Bolaji Idowu who had argued that Olodumarè the Yoruba God is the Supreme Deity Yahweh known by the Yorubas before Christ was introduced to them.
I use the quote here to talk about the dangers of the sin of ignorance which we are most often ignorant about. The poem of John G. Saxe is titled, “The Blind Men And The Elephant.” After each blind man had defined the elephant by the part of the elephant he had touched, the last two stanzas catches our attention:
“And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
And all were in the wrong.
So, oft in theologic wars
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an elephant
None of them had seen!”
Indeed, the fight about God is a perennial war which is ongoing, creating tensions, divisions and animosities among humankind.
Elijah fought for his God to the point of killing about four hundred prophets of Baal. To the point that he thought he was the only one left who worshipped God, but God had to remind him that there were about seven thousand Israelites who had not bowed down to Baal(I Kgs.29:14&18).
In his day, the Jews fought with their last breath to ensure that Jesus should be nailed on the cross for being an impostor who claimed to be the Son of God.
If only they knew, they would not have done what they did! They acted in ignorance and in that ignorance they only helped to fulfil what their Scriptures had prophesied; which in their ignorance they had not understood.
So while on the cross Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
In our generation instead of arguing and fighting about things that we are so ignorant about, let us rather spend some time to pray against ignorance and human folly!
The condemnation and crucifixion of Jesus only reveal how ignorant we can be about the things of God and the ways of God!
May the scale of ignorance fall off our eyes like it did for Paul and caused him to become a diehard evangelist of the gospel of Christ!
Weekend prayer: Holy Spirit give me a discerning spirit and a forgiving heart. Amen!
Have a blessed weekend! Peace be with you!
Prayer point: Pray against overzealousness that boarders on ignorance.
Rev Babila Fochang.