“When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. ‘Where have you laid him?’ he asked. ‘Come and see, Lord,’ they replied. Jesus wept. Then the Jews said, ‘See how he loved him!’ – John 11:33-36
I went back to the relocation site this week. A few representatives from churches and organizations in the area wanted to talk with the community organizer, Beno, about what they could do for the families that were relocated. And if I wasn’t moved enough from the sights I had seen the week before, hearing more statistics shook me beyond words.
Let me give you a little geography first to understand. Gauteng is the province of South Africa that I live in. Gauteng has three major regions or cities: Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Ekurhuleni. Chief Albert Luthuli Park is where the relocation site is located and it is part of Ekurhuleni. Althogether, Ekurhuleni holds 111 squatter camps similar to this one. That’s just in Ekurhuleni alone. ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN! This particular camp has about 3,000 homes, and it’s not the biggest one. By law, the government will provide for the needs of this community for three months. THREE MONTHS. And then after that? They are relocated again, or forced to find other means of housing after taxi stops and clinics are taken away. How does somebody live like this? Hundreds of thousands do.
Fran and I started talking about it yesterday while we drove past this Chief Luthuli Park. I kept on saying these statistics from our meeting with Benno, explaining how absolutely unacceptable I felt it all was, and asking where the hope was in any of it. I was angry. Fran’s response was a gift. She explained how I mustn’t stop being angry. I mustn’t stop crying. It is in our anger and in our crying that we are motivated to move.
In the piece of scripture I shared above, Jesus has traveled to see Mary and Martha after hearing that their brother Lazarus was dying. Jesus is so moved by the grief that everyone showed in this man’s death that he also wept for Lazarus. Jesus was weeping out of compassion and love for his people. And this weeping moved him to do more – it moved him to raise Lazarus from the dead.
I’ve heard some people say that they do not want to go and visit places where poverty exists. Many are fearful, and others think that they will be too sorrowful to do any good. But, it is in our crying, in this true act of compassion that we realize our humanity. We realize that we are not and cannot become numb to it all. And in all of that, we see the work that God has called us to do. God uses our sorrow to push us to do more.
As always, I invite your responses and thoughts to my reflections. Some of you may disagree with me, and that’s okay. I hope for at least some of you that this may encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and find what God is calling you to do right where you are.
