He Dwelt Among us! (Part-2)
Jn. 1.14

Welde-Tensae

Today, we say few words on what our mother church teaches on the occasion of the “Zewerede” week of the Lent. You may refer to our previous epistle in which we have sorted out the major hymns and readings of the Lent of which “ZEWEREDE” is one.

Let us begin with Jn. 3.16-26. Actually, the reading we have specified begins from verse 13. We are adjourning the three verses for another week, called Nicodimus, to come as we go along the Lent.

The verses sorted out have a lot of life to offer for us believers who have rested our hope on Christ distancing ourselves from others,those bent only on the ephemeral that begins and ends under the sun. There is a hope in Heaven for you and me; we ceaselessly work and pray for others to be hopefuls of the kingdom of ecstasy we are invited to win for this world is only transitional.

If this world is only temporarily given for us as a working site to win a timeless heaven as Christ comes again to judge the Quick and the Dead, what is the lesson we have to take from Zewerede?

We shall know that Christ is a manifestation of God’s love to us. As it is written in verse 16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that who so ever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” God did not try to win our hearts keeping himself at a distance; He has rather sent his only Son to be one of us, to share our flesh and soul, live like us minus our sins and teach us the glory we have to long for. The kingdom of God we hope to win is not something we have learnt about form secondary and thirtiary sources; it is what we have learnt from the horse’s mouth, from Christ, the Son of God! The best witness we could hope to have, the Maker of the kingdom Himself, has come to preach us what He has prepared for us provided we are leading a life worthy of heavenly reward. Christ has become one of us not for us to perish, as is the case with many defiant hearts, but to believe in Him and have eternal life.

Our genesis is a result of God’s love who wanted us to be in his own image. We transgressed as we broke the pact between us which was there to serve as a sign of the Father – children relationship. No loving child breaks his father’s order without securing the father’s word of approval God never left us in eternal condemnation away from his blessing. The Lord who has crated us in His own image has sent His only son to the lost children – you, me and our likes – to reinstitute us to our glorious status through His ministry and suffering. It is never to condemnation but to save us that the Lord Christ came to us as verse 17 makes it clear. A cause of condemnation is not His coming; it is rather failure to believe in Him, the Savior, who has come to terminate the condemnation as a result of which man had languished so much. Condemnation is preferring darkness, non – Christianity, to light, which is Christ and His mission.

Such a glorious mission which Christ has come for is witnessed not only by himself but also by St. John, His baptizer. We read form verse 25 on wards that Jews, as always, try to create a rift between St. John and Christ when they tell the former that many are leaving Him and joining Christ’s baptism. The saint who very well knows who he is and why he was there tells them baldly. He tells them he is not Christ; he is rather a man preaching only what is given from the Heaven, i.e., from Christ. St. John tells them that he is there before Christ only. Meaning, he is chosen only to clear the way for the groom and he is never the groom himself.

Thanks God, you and me are beings endowed with the insight to see things in and out. This gives us the capacity to learn a lot through Christ, St. john and even Jews who were bent on sowing seeds of division. We shall know who Christ has come for. It is for us; it is for you, me and them all. Condemnation or darkness which Christ has killed through His ministry and sacrifice shall not be reversed to rule over us due to our own licking of vomits, i.e. resorting to sin we have once forsaken.

For those who are yet to be housed in the bossom of the church, let them come to Christ happily. He is borderless; language, race, status and other factors are by no means deterrents to joining the Christian flock. Come to him, come to us and let us win the paradise together!

Having said so much on the selected verses of the ZEWEREDE gospel hoping to offer only a droplet of the ocean, let us move forward to ask how the selected hymn and epistles are related to the message of life the gospel's verses impart. Ps. 2.11< serve the lord with fear; and rejoice with trembling.>

This is the verse sorted out to supplement the message of the epistle during the ZEWEREDE MASS. St. David advises us to serve the Lord with fear. In the second line of the verse, his advice to fear is underscored with the use of the word “trembling”. And yet, we have to “rejoice.” Thus, our Lord is one whom we fear. He also causes us to tremble. Why so? It is because of His glory. He is the Lord of hosts who deserves to be treated with maximum reverence. He is our maker. He is a Lord whom creations – marine, terrestrial and celestial – rivere. He is the Lord whom angles worship ceaselessly. As creatures, it is due to us to revere the Lord. Even a son is expected to treat his biological father with the appropriate respect.

Yet, we rejoice to live as per His order because He is happy not to see us condemned. He wants us to be for the heaven, not for the hell. That is why He has sent His only Son to show us the Light we have to follow. If we were to live with a senseless fear or trembling that emanates not from loving a Father but from being condemned, He should not have sent Jesus Christ unto us to teach us and shed his Blood for us in the hands of heartless Jews, who refused to believe in Him despite they have seen His Divinity starkly through His graces, miracles and homilies which were so magnetic to millions other than them. The fear and trembling we have for Him is, therefore, a result of revering the price He has paid for us. It is not like the one subjugated people may offer to dictators who know only being given and no giving at all. Our lord is a giver. He has given us peace, love, salvation and all virtues of a peaceful soul through his ministry and sacrifice. As we fear or tremble, it is because we are wondered in the immensity of the price he paid to get us back in His camp where we, as children, shall dwell.

“Serve the Lord,” David says. How? Is it by sacrificing sheep and goats as was the case in the condemned Old Testament? No! It is rather by observing the commandments that God has reaffirmed through His Son. We serve the Lord when we respect our Lord and love our likes. It is when we preach peace through God instead of nurturing war, animosity and all other manifestations of evil. If we refrain from evil, it means we revere God who has ordered against it. It also means we love fellow human beings as much as we love ourselves. This fulfills the Law. And, we seal this by taking the Holy Flesh and Blood of Christ, which is a Christian’s logo of belonging to Heaven.

Another kind of service which a lover of Christ has to offer to the Lord is reflected through the life of St. paul as we could read from the portion of the Acts (25.13-71) devoted for ZEWEREDE. St. paul is busy witnessing Christ in front of Jews, their rulers and others despite the persistent persecution he faces. A Christian is,likewise, expected to carry the message of Christ however risky it might be when it is done amidst staunch opposes of Light who fear it because their dire their dirt hidden in darkness will be revealed if it confronts the light. This explains why St. Paul and other lovers of Christ are tormented by vassals of Satan who abhor the heavenly kingdom being preached.

The Jews have accused St. Paul because he refused to stick to their faith of which he himself was once a master. Now, St. Paul has seen the True Light, Christ, and he could not agree to live in the darkness of the Jews. While knowing that he is faultless, rulers not only put him in jail in the name of the law but also forget him as he is locked there.  

A fellow Christian may need to tolerate sufferings that surface in many different forms. He even shall work to try to take rulers who harass him to his camp as we see it through st. paul. Though junior rulers are talking about his right to be released, St. Paul appeals further to take the word of God even to more souls. We may not have the level of spirituality St. Paul has; we have to, however, testify in our level to our circles. Our tempters should also know Christ.

Before wrapping up our piece, let’s add few words on the epistles read for the day. In Heb. 13.7-17, we are advised to follow the example of our fathers. Who are our fathers? It is St. John whose gospel we have seen earlier; it is st. David of whose psalm verses are taken for hymn; it is St. Paul who is persecuted to witness Christ; it is those who have epitomized Christ in their words and acts. They have lived so because they haveloved the Son of God who has come to save them and all mankind. It is because they loved Him who created a spiritual bond between them as fathers and us as children.

These days, there are too many noises aiming to dissuade us from the Christ our fathers have preached as though He changed Himself from time to time. Christ being the same every time, we shall stick to the teachings of our fathers which they have relayed to us as pure as they got it from the owner.

If we live thus, “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble”, and he will reward us in heaven for it was to preach in words and deeds that He came unto us and He has become on of us. (Jm

As we fast this Lent, it should, thus, be heeding the Holy Messages regarding the purpose of Christ’s coming, which is Salvation. Let us submit to God, the Light and resist the Devil, the Darkness. Jm. 4.6-7. Amen!!!

May God Bless us, Amen.