While Christmas 2023 in the land where it all began might not be “merry” as is usually associated with Christianity’s celebration, that in itself can be a lesson for all of us to continue striving for a world where there is “peace in the land”, since we can see with graphic clarity the destruction that war can wreak. Christmas, of course, is supposed to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ in the humblest of circumstances in Jerusalem over two millennia ago.
He offered a new philosophy of love and compassion for all mankind, which is summarised as the Golden Rule precept from his Sermon on the Mount: “In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.” This rule of conduct is a summary of the Christian’s duty to his neighbour and declares a fundamental ethical principle.
In the same Sermon, Jesus also instructed, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” Unfortunately, many have not made the connection that it is perhaps through observing the Golden Rule that the Kingdom of God might be achieved. Surely neither side in the war between Hamas and Israel would want to be treated as both have treated the other. It would appear that the guiding philosophy in the land of Jesus’s birth is the Old Testament’s “An eye for an eye”, which, in our Guyanese parlance translates into, “Do fuh do nah obeah.”
In fact, in Israel, the story of what God commanded in that spirit be done to a people who had ambushed the Israelites is invoked to justify their scorched-earth policy in Gaza today. “Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
And Saul gathered the people together, and numbered them in Telaim, two hundred thousand footmen, and ten thousand men of Judah.” He attacked the Amalekites but spared their king and their fattest animals, which displeased God who insisted that his commandment be obeyed to the “T”. Saul then had to consummate the total genocide of the Amalekites. That this story is the basis for the top rap song for youths in Israel shows how deep the “eye for an eye” concept predominates.
Now it is not our intention to get involved in textual exegesis and hermeneutics of the Bible. But this Christmas – when its words so conflict with Jesus’s central message, it does beg the need for some overriding perspective to ensure that Gandhi’s observation – “an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind” – be reflected on. We do believe that in our small country of less than one million people, however, a perspective is evolving that we can share with the rest of the world – if we can be true to it. This would represent true soft power.
And most pertinently, this perspective does not come out of mere words but from the hard-learnt lessons of lived experience in our history. The Dutch first enslaved Africans and brought them to labour on their plantations to enrich themselves and their country. The mass genocide of the Africans was justified by any number of quotations from the Bible to “show” that their enslavement was justified. That belief, however, was jettisoned through the struggle of Africans following the abolition of slavery to have the question, “Am I not a man and a brother?” answered.
The Indigenous Peoples, and the Indentured who followed Africans were also treated abominably and exploited by Europeans. But together we are evolving a society in which, by and large, we are respectful of each other and would not tolerate the Amalekites’ option here. Let us resolve to deepen this oneness as a people even as we respect our differences.
Merry Christmas.
