Mandela's Christmas wisdom on human relations

"Coexistence": poster for a peace exhibition I saw 
in Belfast some years ago

Whatever else he was and whatever else he did, the late Nelson Mandela proved to be a master of reconciliation. As the commemorations of his life now fade from the news agenda, it’s still appropriate to reflect on some of his words as we enter the Christmas season of peace and goodwill. Mandela offered peace and goodwill towards people who had opposed and imprisoned him.

In his autobiography Long walk to freedom¹ he writes of things he learned as a child. “I learned that to humiliate another person is to make him suffer an unnecessarily cruel fate,” he wrote. “Even as a boy I defeated my opponents without dishonouring them” (p10). Another lesson was gleaned from tribal meetings, where everyone had a say. “I have always endeavoured to listen to what each and every person in a discussion had to say before venturing my own opinion” (p21).

Those principles – honour your enemy and listen to those you disagree with – were the foundation of his much later work as the first black President of South Africa. So, with good cause, perhaps, to want to wreak revenge on others, he emerged from prison knowing that his freedom did not give him the liberty to take others’ freedom away from them, and that “the man who takes away another’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness” (p617).

“In prison, my hatred towards whites decreased, while my hatred for the system grew. I wanted South Africa to see that I loved my enemies even while I hated the system that turned us against each other” (p559). And writing of the then President De Klerk, who he had previously criticised heavily, “I never sought to undermine Mr De Klerk…To make peace with an enemy, one must work with that enemy, and that enemy becomes your partner” (p604).

Nelson Mandela has given us a lot to think about as we reflect on our relationships with and attitudes towards others. But he was doing no more than applying in practice what Jesus had taught almost 2000 years before.

In the sermon on the mount Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:43-48).

That teaching is echoed by the apostles. “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse….Do not repay anyone evil for evil….As far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay'….Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good’’ (Romans 12:14-21).

But there’s an even greater reason to take the example of Mandela and the exhortations of Jesus and Paul seriously. It is that reconciliation is what God himself is all about, which is also at the heart of the Christmas message. Paul writes, “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.” And, he adds, he “gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18-21).

The Christmas image of the baby in the manger can sometimes obscure the fact that the Christ child came into the world with a mission to bridge the moral gap between erring humans and a perfect God. Perhaps Mandela’s death just before Christmas could be seen as God’s gentle reminder to a conflict-ridden world that the event we celebrate contains a call to adopt a peace-making lifestyle all year round.

 

Think and talk

1.  Look up the full Bible passages from which the passages above are quoted. Make a list of all the implications they have for the daily life and relationships of ordinary people.
2.  Think of situations where you either need to seek reconciliation with others or where you can seek to act as a peacemaker (Matthew 5:9). Make these situations a matter for prayer, and then look for opportunities to exercise a ministry of reconciliation.

Reference

1.  Nelson Mandela, Long walk to Freedom, Little, Brown and Company, 1994