THE ESSENCE OF EASTER

Tomorrow is Good Friday which commences the most important weekend in Christendom. And as Christians all over the world mark the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, there can be no better time to reflect on the essence of our faith. For me, nothing best exemplifies this season than a story I read recently which brought tears to my face. It was reportedly told by the late Charles Wendell Colson, a former Special Counsel to the American President, Mr Richard Nixon, who resigned from office in the wake of the Watergate scandal in 1974. Colson was also jailed for his role in that scandal but following that experience, he became an Evangelical Christian leader who founded Prison Fellowship International.

According to Colson’s story, during the Second World War, a group of American prisoners of war (POWs) were made to work in a prison camp. One evening, 20 POWs were lined up after the day’s work and when the shovels handed them were counted by the prison guard, only 19 were found. In rage, the prison guard demanded to know which of the prisoners did not bring his shovel back. When no one responded, the guard drew his gun and said he would shoot five men if the guilty prisoner did not step forward.

After a moment of tense silence, a young soldier, aged 19, stepped forward with his head bowed down. The guard grabbed him and shot him in the head. He then turned to warn the others that they would suffer a similar fate if they exhibited the same carelessness. When the prison guard left, the 19 remaining POWs gathered the shovels only to discover there were actually 20. The guard had miscounted.

In his commentary on the story, Pastor John Piper wrote: “Can you imagine the emotions that must have filled their (the remaining 19 POWs) hearts as they knelt down over his (their slain colleague) body? In the five or 10 seconds of silence, the boy had weighed his whole future in the balance—a future wife, an education, a new truck, children, a career, fishing with his dad—and he chose death so that others might live. Jesus said in John 15:13, Greater love has no one than this; that one lay down his life for his friends.”

I wish all my Christian readers Happy Easter!

Olusegun Adeniyi, Abuja