The future of the forgiven lies in accepting, in humility, that we are forgiven but that also requires visible signs of contrition, writes Michael Weeder.
The public conversation about forgiveness is often founded on the flimsy structures of cheap grace and a desire for a quick fix.
Okay, he confessed so let’s move on. The cookie jar remains empty and the culprit walks away, wiping the sweet crumbs off his smiling face.
Recently President Jacob Zuma bared his heart to the nation, seeking its forgiveness. The Constitutional Court ruled he had failed to comply with the recommendations of Public Protector Thuli Madonsela with regard to the upgrades to his Nkandla homestead.
I confess to a certain reserve about how confession and the related matter of forgiveness is understood and often demanded in the courts of public opinion.
This is partly due to my upbringing, especially the crime and punishment aspect of it.
The court of judgment would almost always be my mother’s bedroom, a crucifix nailed to the wall above the eiderdown-covered bed was a reminder Jesus had died for our sins and our personal sins still kept him on the cross.
Sister Blandina, our principal at St Augustine Primary School, had seared that thought on to our souls, at least once a month at the weekly assembly.
The creased, leather bound King James Bible was on the small bedside table. (The words of Jesus were printed in red, a fact that disturbed me whenever I read it during the evening prayers). A copy of Faith for Daily Living lay opened to the day of our hearing.
We, the accused – almost always my younger brother, Mark, and I as John and Denise seemed to fall outside the mater’s statutory limits for juvenile offenders – would stand next to each other at the foot end of the bed.
Our offences were presented in a matter-of-fact manner. There was room for a plea-bargain. If we told the truth, no punishment would be forthcoming.
The coup de grâce came in the form of the question, “Can Jesus hear you?” This was my point of surrender.
Mark stood firm in the face of such extreme appeal to the omnipresent Divine and held to his version of the truth.
Ai, comrade secretary-general Gwede Mantashe your recent rebuke to the stalwarts of the ANC reminded me of my mother. Under different circumstances that would be a high compliment.
Veterans of our movement, who survived exile, detention-without-trial and many, who today still bear the wounds of torture and the scars of battle, were warned “if they choose to take public platforms and look good by insulting the president, they’ll pay the price...” Are you the herald of Antonio Gramsci’s “the time of monsters”?
Your casual ending, “obviously,” served to underscore the ominous, dangling threat implicit in your public renouncement of our revolutionary elders and veterans.
It would seem by calling upon the president to do the right thing and step down they had not only insulted him but – and here’s maybe the more damning reason for your attack-in-defence of el presidente – they had refused to forgive him.
Yet they are only contextualising the words of Jesus to the woman caught in adultery. He had issued the verbal gauntlet that those without sin “be the first to throw a stone at her”. The Christian Scriptures records “they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders.
Jesus then told the woman that he too did not condemn her and urged her to “go, and sin no more”.
President Zuma, as leader, anointed by God through the electoral will of the people, yours has been the portion to lead us on the road of our destiny, as others before you, to be “... a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a people set apart, who have been called out of darkness into this wonderful light.”
Sir, you have fallen short of honouring this weighty privilege. The future of the forgiven lies in accepting, in humility, that we are forgiven.
But that also requires visible signs of contrition which would be most evident, in your case, when you step out of public office. Jesus, who hears and sees all our deeds, would want that.
* The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
**The Very Rev Michael Weeder is the current Dean of St George's Cathedral
Weekend Argus