The Antidote To A World Of Power And Domination

WED 040622 EP Reflection

(Exodus 7: 8-24; Mark 10:1-16) Today marks 28 years of two presidents’ assassination that started war and Genocide in Rwanda. A painful chapter in our history and many lessons to learn. After spending some time in this Exodus passage, I began to see a pattern emerging between God and Pharaoh, a pattern which unfortunately is too common amongst us humans. It is human pride and its devastating consequences. We are a people who are thirsty of power and domination. It is a vice that can sneak quietly into our lives and into our society unnoticed. Think of when our culture says to us, that we must be masters of our own destiny. In a way, this is a positive thing but to a point! When your ambition/ destiny becomes a nightmare for other people in order for you to reach your desired outcome, then this is completely negative and unacceptable in the eyes of the Lord. This was Pharaoh’s predicament. He did not want to lose all that Hebrew work force and power. The more he desired his intended outcome (to hold on to the Hebrew people), the more he became at odds with God. To be honest, we find ourselves in the same predicament when we stubbornly vow to pursue a goal without checking in with God. It may be as simple as a business deal which may leave a damage trail to work out; or it may be a choice of a spouse; seeking the affection, the favor of a lady…wooing her using deceit because the guy is desperate and thinking the chances of rejection are high. There are plenty examples in real life, where seeking power/domination regardless of the cost is such an epidemic around the world. The Bible is certainly not silent about it. In the case of Pharaoh, common sense was not attained in one day, it was a lengthy process. We learn that when Pharaoh experienced a respite, his heart would be hardened and his reluctance to release the Hebrews would be stronger as ever. In the same way, our staunch tendency to stick to our rebellious ways despite God’s words of prohibitions can be astonishing in any age. It seems like we learn the hard way, often when we find ourselves at the bottom of ground zero! Pharaoh’s ground zero experience was the loss of Egyptian first-borns. It did it! There is a Rwandan proverb that says: [Ubuze uko agira agwa neza] which translates as "Whoever finds himself with no escape becomes kind." This human endeavor to pursue life with our own sole perspective shows great wisdom in Jesus’ words in Matt 16: 25: “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” We are in the last week of our Lenten season; we are still studying our new Christian endeavor of “death to self” because the word of God tells us that the desires of the flesh are opposed to the desires of the Spirit. The children of God know how to listen to Jesus’ voice. We get challenged to live new lives in Christ and die to our old ways (2 Cor 5: 17). Being a Christian therefore, projects us into a journey of painful self-discovery, letting God’s light in to expose areas that need to submit to the lordship of Christ. Our Gospel lesson today also challenges us and our society’s tendencies to wield power/domination at will without considering the impact. The issue at hand in Mark 10:1-16 was divorce. In those days, the impact of divorce socio-economically was more adversarial to women than men. The Pharisees came asking Jesus for his thoughts on the issue because they wanted to trap him. Jesus’ gracious answer took them to the original purpose of God in a marriage. Jesus knew what was lurking in people’s hearts: power and domination. Do we care about those who were negatively impacted by the divorce? The same issue applies to the position of children in that particular Jewish society. They were to be out of sight, so the disciples thought… But Jesus did not agree! Children needed rather to come in front, because they teach us a lot about the demeanor of a person in the Kingdom of God. This is why he said: “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to, such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” It’s humbling to know that a child is not exactly the picture of power and domination, but rather, a picture of humility, and innocence. What is lurking into our hearts? power and domination? Jesus is the antidote!