Bloody Monday, Good Friday and Ressurection Sunday!

Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning

 Psalms 30: 5b

Bloody Monday, Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday!

The morning of Monday 14^th April was a bloody Monday morning, as the horrifying news of the bomb blast at the El Rufai car park in Nyanya, outskirts of Abuja filtered in. It was a day like any other and many commuters were hurrying off to work or their businesses. Unknown to the over 70 people who lost their lives in the deadly blast all their dreams, hopes and plans for the future were about to come to an end never to be realized. All because some insane lunatic for reasons beyond the imagination of any right thinking person felt killing innocent people and injuring over a hundred others was a way of making a statement or proving some point. A bloody Monday it was indeed for these people .their families’ residents of Abuja and its environs and the entire Country.

In the past weeks and months Nigerians have experienced an avalanche of  bombings, attacks on public places and schools, killings, injuring of innocent people including children and abduction of young teenage girls from their schools. All of this has resulted in a sense of insecurity, fear and uncertainty. What a hopeless situation especially when victims and their families don’t get any justice or respite. So Monday’s attack was just another to start of the working week on a sad note few days later the working week ended on Good Friday. Good Friday - some two thousand years ago Jesus was brutalized and crucified. What was His offense, He healed the sick, raised the dead and set the captives free. For being good he was put to a shameful and painful death. It must have looked like a bloody Friday a sad day for Jesus’ family and disciples but three days later on Sunday morning the Lord Jesus rose from the dead providing forgiveness and redemption for mankind. Jesus’ resurrection that glorious Sunday morning was victory over sin, sickness, pain, injustice, death and the grave.

Good Friday and Resurrection (Easter) Sunday coming on the heels of the Nyanya bombing to me signifies hope in a seemingly hopeless situation. Today my heart goes out to the victims and their families. From experience I know that long after others have forgotten the incident and gone on with their lives those whose loved ones where killed will carry the pain of loss in their hearts. Their lives have been altered beyond what we can imagine. We live in a fallen world where sin and evil seem to have the upper hand. God has given man the liberty to make choices unfortunately some people use this precious gift negatively and make choices that infringe on other people’s rights causing much pain and suffering. The good news is that yes there was a bloody Monday but there is also a Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday the events of these two days are beautiful reminders that God is aware of all the evil and is still in control. We can have hope that just as there was a Good Friday there was a Resurrection Sunday. So for bloody Monday there is a Morning of Joy somewhere in the future for the victims and their families. God will ensure they get justice and heal their broken hearts!  

Prayer

Dear God, we bring before you today the precious people who lost their loved ones in the bomb blast last Monday. Father we ask that you comfort them and grant them peace as only you can. As they journey through grief walk with them. Restore their hope and joy and keep them safe in the hollow of your hands. We remember those that are in hospitals, Lord grant them healing and restore all they have lost. We pray for the peace of Nigeria and commit the battle against insurgents and terrorists to your able hands. The Bible tells us you are the Man of war please fight this battle and bring an end to evil in our land. For all the innocent girls abducted from their schools help our security operatives find them. Heal them of the abuse and trauma they have experienced. Lord let your resurrection power heal our hearts and our land and bring to life every dead situation. In Jesus Name Amen!

I Have No Man

'After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

² Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.

³ In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.

⁴ For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.

⁵ And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.

⁶ When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?

⁷ The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.

⁸ Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.

⁹ And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath'. 

John 5:1-9 (KJV)

                    

‘I have no man’ - those where the words of the infirm man at the pool of Bethesda in our passage. The question was will you be made whole? But obviously the fact that this man had no “man “no helper, no family member or friend that was willing to keep watch with him had become the issue. So much so that he passed the opportunity he should have jumped at to say yes! I want to be made whole! Probably for the first time a ‘man’ was asking if he needed help. Exactly what he had prayed and hoped for, but his circumstances made him think defeat, all he was thinking was I have no man.  For thirty eight years he had been sick.  The bible doesn’t  tell us if he had been at the pool for that long no matter how long the fact was he had no one to help him get into the pool when the angel stirred the water.

I have often wondered where his family, friends or neighbors were, couldn’t they have taken turns to be with him.  They probably loved him but unfortunately not enough to stay among blind, lame and sick people just to help him get into the water and get healed. And so this man became discouraged.  He was in a bad state physically and emotionally. Was it true that he had no man? After all we get to meet him when there was a man asking, 'will you be made whole'?

Beloved as a widow you can identify with this man because you have ‘no man’.  Your man has been taken away from you and you are alone without the cover of a man. When I lost my husband, I wrote down what I lost in losing him in other words what a husband represents.  Provider, security, friend, confidant, leader, counselor, pastor etc there are certain things that are traditionally a man’s role in the family and my loss would be intensified when such situations came up. It may be as simple as changing a light bulb or as major as which University or Secondary school the children should attend.