December 15: International Day of Reconciliation

 

December 16: International Day of Reconciliation

The Day of Reconciliation was created to mark the end of apartheid in South Africa. It was officially created in 1995 to foster unity and reconciliation across the country. The reason the date was selected is that it is significant to both African and Afrikaner cultures. On that date in 1864, the white Afrikaner government celebrated a decisive military victory over the indigenous Zulu people.  For blacks in South Africa, December 16 marked the founding of the resistance movement in 1961.  The government purposefully selected a date that would be meaningful for both groups.

The intensity of the hatred of those two groups towards one another pales by comparison to the intensity of the divide between God and humanity.  The greatest need for reconciliation lies there.  From birth, we all face the just wrath and judgment of God.  Any hope for reconciliation is beyond us.  There is no peace between God and us.  Here is the amazing nature of our reconciliation to God.  God holds all the cards.  He is the offended and we the offenders.  We have rejected Him.  We repeatedly pull His face towards us so that we can spit in it.  We spurn every loving advance by God.  Who makes the first move toward reconciliation?  It is God Himself.

The best discussion of this critical issue is found in 2 Corinthians 5. Long before December 16, 1995, God made His peace with us.  The full cup of His wrath was poured out on the head of Jesus.  Everything about our relationship to God can become new.  And “all this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”  Let that truth sink in.  The God who has every reason to be angry, is not angry anymore! As insidious and evil as apartheid is, the hate-filled divide between us and God was greater.  And God, in His great love, made peace with us through Jesus Christ.  What now?

We have the ministry of reconciliation!  Every day is the Day of Reconciliation!  The message that we bring is this:  If God has made His peace with you, have you made your peace with God?  That is only possible, “in Christ.”  Believe in Him.  Receive Him.  Be reconciled to God!  And share that message with your family, your friends, your neighbors, your co-workers.

Let today remind us of that ministry.  Be reconciled to God yourself, and then share that message far and wide.  The International Day of Reconciliation is as old as humanity itself.  Let’s celebrate the original Day like never before.