Today's daily lesson comes from Luke chapter 20 verse 17:
"The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone."
Later this week will mark the first anniversary since the death of Nelson Mandela, who after serving 27 years as a political prisoner was elected president in South Africa's first free and fully democratic election. Following Mandela's death Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote a touching eulogy in which he said his friend's imprisonment was "a crucible" which made Mandela the man he is remembered world-over to be -- a statesman whose moral voice was won through suffering and whose 27 years in prison "gave him the authority to say, let us try to forgive."
Mandela was a Christian -- or "little Christ"; and he followed in the forgiving way of His Lord.
Rejected, unjustly condemned, and executed, it was Jesus' forgiving spirit even from the cross which still gives him a moral respectability across the world, amongst Christians and non-Christians alike. Though spurned by the leaders of his own nation, Jesus himself became the ultimate symbol of moral goodness. As the lesson says, the stone the builders rejected became the cornerstone.
Mandela faithfully followed in the Christian way of his Lord Jesus of Nazareth. It is the way of forgiveness, the way of compassion, and the way of reconciliation. It really is the only redemptive way through "the crucible" of man's inhumanity to man.
And right now, we really need to find this way.
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