Exodus 6:6-7: “I am the Lord and I will free you…and deliver you from slavery… I will take you as my people, and I will be your God. You shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has freed you.”
There are figures who are larger than life. Nelson Mandela is such a figure for me. I met him in 1998 and the power of his presence and the humility and humour of this marvellous man were obvious to the thousands of us gathered in Harare, Zimbabwe.
My ‘connection’ with Nelson Mandela goes back many years as I first followed his struggles as a freedom fighter, a political prisoner, an enemy of apartheid, and finally a president of the country he loved so much.
During his imprisonment, our family ‘adopted’ him. Nightly we gathered our children around us and we prayed for him. The day I announced his release from prison my children felt they had played a significant part in his release. They were just a little overwhelmed to learn that he soon became president of his country (that had not been one of their prayer requests!) but pleased nonetheless. The Nobel Peace Prize was simply recognition of the man we already knew and loved.
We are like many who followed his long walk to freedom. And we are among the millions who mourn his passing. But we mourn as those who know that a destination has finally been reached and a welcome given and true freedom finally found. We thank God for him.
His words are really the only appropriate words with which to pay him honour.
“I slowly saw that not only was I not free, but my brothers and sisters were not free. I saw that it was not just my freedom that was curtailed, but the freedom of everyone who looked like I did . . . It was the desire for freedom of my people to live their lives with dignity and self-respect that animated my life, that transformed a frightened young man into a bold one . . . freedom is indivisible; the chains on any one of my people were the chains on all of them….
“It was during those long and lonely years that my hunger for the freedom of my own people became a hunger for freedom of all people, black and white. I knew as well as I knew anything that the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed. A man who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness . . . the oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity.
“When I walked out of prison, that was my mission, to liberate the oppressed and the oppressor both. Some say that has now been achieved. But I know that that is not the case. The truth is that we are not yet free; we have merely achieved the freedom to be free, the right not to be oppressed. We have not taken the final step of our journey, but the first step on a longer and even more difficult road. For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others…
“I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way but I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom comes responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.” —Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom
By the grace of God that walk now ends but so many joined the journey with Nelson Mandela that the journey itself is no longer in doubt. The journey to freedom is a journey that we all share and no matter the hills or the hells that await those who seek freedom, the journey is worth it. Mandela was able to see the Promised Land from afar and, unlike Moses before him, was able to set his feet firmly on the other side of the Jordan and see his dream realized.
Prayer: Blessed God, as you sent Moses to lead your people on the long walk from slavery to freedom, we give you thanks for Nelson Mandela who led his people to freedom. Help us to continue in the journey and find that freedom that only the Son can give us, for we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
