{"id":2313,"date":"2014-03-16T08:00:16","date_gmt":"2014-03-16T00:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=2313"},"modified":"2022-04-21T17:47:04","modified_gmt":"2022-04-21T09:47:04","slug":"100-saved-from-prison-learning-from-nelson-mandela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=2313","title":{"rendered":"100. Saved from Prison – The Mandela-Factor"},"content":{"rendered":"

And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.<\/span><\/strong>[Luke 23:34<\/span>, RSV<\/em>]<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0<\/a>\"\"<\/a> <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

[L] John the Baptist<\/em>, in Michelangelo\u2019s The Last Judgment fresco, Sistine Chapel. [R]\u00a0St John the Baptist in the Prison<\/em>, by Juan Fernandez de Navarrete, 1565-1570.<\/span><\/p>\n

Imagine that you are sitting in a theatre. Directing the play is Mark the Evangelist. For the opening scene, he grabs your attention with a shrill narrow-tubed war trumpet sound. As the curtain slowly rises with this clarion call, he confronts you with the sudden appearance of a name-calling wild man – wearing camel skin, eating locusts and drinking wild honey. Standing smack at the front of the stage, he points menacingly right at you, screaming: \u201cPrepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight\u201d [Mark 1:3]. You feel sinful, you feel guilty, and you certainly feel that you have fallen short in discipleship.<\/span><\/p>\n

Driven by a sense of urgency, the Evangelist Mark wrote impatiently. Neither an infancy narrative nor a genealogy, which Matthew and Luke took time to elaborate, appears anywhere in the Gospel According to Mark. But what is absent in Mark\u2019s narrative, he more than makes up for with a stunning entrance for an opening scene. He compels the readers to sit up and stare wide-eyed at this prophetic figure \u2013 John the Baptist \u2013 crying in the wilderness, announcing the nearness of the kingdom of God, demanding that we change our ways, shape up, and respond appropriately to the coming Lord who is inaugurating the new kingdom. The Baptist has absolutely no question in his mind, no doubt in his heart, and no hesitation in his words. He entertains no excuses and takes no explanations. He wants action, and he wants them now<\/em>. He is nothing but confident, certain, and table-slapping demanding. This \u201cimmediacy\u201d in Mark\u2019s narrative starts from the get-go and runs right through his Gospel to the very end [which in the original draft-script featured the death of Jesus and the bewilderment of the followers and their dispersal in verse 16:8].<\/span><\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t until chapter 3 in their respective Gospels, that we find Matthew and Luke narrating the same Baptist-episode.\u00a0By then, the sense of immediacy is lost. The rough and offensive demand of the Baptist does not burn as caustically. What they lack in causticity and searing urgency, however, they more than make up for by transposing our attention to a more ponderous Baptist in prison. By now, the Baptist has mellowed from a fiery preacher to a searching enquirer. He neither proclaims nor demands. As the wilderness expanse gives way to the restricted confines of a prison cell, he no longer resorts to name-calling anymore. The prophet with a menacing voice is now a prisoner with a penetrating question. \u201cAre you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?\u201d [Matthew 11:3].<\/span><\/p>\n

What happened to cause that change?<\/span><\/p>\n

In prison, one has time in surfeit. Prisons may soften one up, and lead one to deeper contemplation. Far from any negative connotations, this \u201csoftening\u201d is often holy ground where grace works its mysterious wonders beyond our human calculations. For surfeit time combined with restricted movement open the doors for the spiritually inclined to dive deep in contemplation, to seek the essentials rather than the superficial, to hear the soft whispers of God. Recall the youthful and impetuous Moses up on the mundane, monotonous, and yet holy ground of Mount Sinai.\u00a0YHWH used a second cycle of forty years in his life to slowly “soften” him up, before dispatching him on a holy mission of setting His people free from slavery, indignity and injustice. The stories of Moses and John the Baptist point to a consoling lesson. Where others see one\u2019s future eclipsed and potentials seriously curtailed in physical confinement, God may in fact have other ideas. This period of restrictions may turn out to be a time when one is blessed with a deeper appreciation of God’s vision for His people. In a time like this, the essence of life given by God, in clear distinction from the clamorous incidentals, may come into sharper focus.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is what we see in Dietrich Bonhoeffer whose singular focus during his time in prison\u00a0was the issue of Christian essence. Incarcerated by the Nazis at Tegel prison, he wrote:<\/span><\/p>\n