CHRISTMAS IS HERE AGAIN 2007 IS BLACK OR WHITE FIND OUT BELOW THE UNTOLD STORY.

BY TOM ONDITI
LUKAKA-ZAMBIA
19tTH DECEMBER 2007
 
As we approach the Christmas season when Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus let me remind my readers a story from the Bible. After Jesus was born in Bethlehem magi or wise men come from the east to worship him. They had seen a star marking his birth and traveled along distance to find him. When they found baby with his parents in a house in Bethlehem, they knelt down to worship and gave gifts of gold, frankincense any myrrh.

Mathew, one of the Gospel writers, penned this part of the Christmas story about 2000 years ago. And the story is still remembered, recited in slums churches in Africa and cathedral and commemorated on Christmas cards around the world.

Mathew, whose original job was a tax collector, knew the importance of writing down accurate records. Because he wrote the story as he had seen it and heard from others, we still have his written words in a book called the Bible.

Others saw the impotence of collecting and copying Mathews account and those of other writers. These old books, letters and scrolls were guarded and kept safe. Some ancient biblical manuscript has been found hidden in clay pots.

It is to see how Jesus of Nazareth, the greatest Jew ever, the prophet, leader champion of the poor and the outcast, was a messiah for all of us. He gave us the values that can change the world and turn it away from selfishness sin, brutality, and evil and transform it to a world of justice, respect and love. lf only we could understand him and his mission, accept it whole heartedly and do all to make it a reality what a difference world we would have. Did Jesus preach a Utopia? An impossible dream? Is Christmas just a fairly tale.

He was born into poverty, grew up surrounded by unit and later proclaimed that the new order would be according to the plan of God and not the plan of elite that rule by the perverted and unjust rule of a greedy powerful minority. Jesus said that all who would repent would be forgiven and brought into embraces of God the Father, Like in the story of the prodigal son in the Gospel of St Luke. Like the repentant man Zachaeous who promised Jesus he would repay four times that he stole. So too the corrupt traders and politicians would be inspired to change and make restitution of what they stole from the poor of the world. The good and holist would be advised to share their wealth, because all goods of this world belong to God and thus to all.