Features
Hosannah: The triumphal entry
The week before Jesus rose triumphantly from the tomb, He left the comforts of Bethany and went to Jerusalem. Along the way, Jesus sent two of His disciples to get a colt that had not been ridden before, not a stately steed but a donkey, ready and willing to serve his master. Upon this humble animal the King of Kings rode.
A crowd of believers gathered to give Jesus a royal welcome. As He descended the Mount of Olives and entered Jerusalem, they laid clothes on the ground and waved branches of palm trees. They called out, “Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.” His followers rejoiced with such loud voices that some Pharisees asked if He couldn’t quiet them. Jesus answered, “If these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.” He was heralded as King of Heaven and Earth before offering His perfect life. He would bring victory over death, sin, and suffering. His was the greatest of all conquests. Although some passed by, preoccupied or skeptical, and gave Him no regard, those who had “eyes to see” saw their Saviour that day. They welcomed their King. And He received their praise. Humbly, ever so humbly, He accepted their devotion and fulfilled ancient prophecy.
The next day, Jesus cursed a fig tree for its hypocrisy. Its leaves, so healthy and vibrant, belied the fact that it bore no fruit. Unlike the fig tree, Jesus was everything He said He was. No hypocrisy was in Him. He Himself said, “I am the true vine.”
As our Lord entered into Jerusalem amid waving palm branches and shouts of adulation. He made His triumphant entrance riding upon a colt over the carefully placed clothing of believers. In His honour the great multitude cried, “Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.” With celebrating crowds and pleas for deliverance, the Lord was surrounded by devoted followers who looked to Him for rescue and salvation. But He was the only one who knew of the loneliness ahead; He alone understood that some of those who stood with Him one day could reject Him the next. Just days later, His mortal life would end on the solitary, cruel cross of Calvary.
Sometimes, when all is well and friends abound, the tide can turn, people change, and, it seems, in an instant we’re alone. Once we revelled in the support of friends; now we feel abandoned. We look around for those who will stay with us through thick and thin. Many among us have felt the shallowness of the crowd, the fickleness of fans. The athlete who is cheered on one play, is booed the next; the actor who wins the critics’ acclaim for one role is vilified for the next. At times it may seem that no one can be counted on for long.
Fortunately, most of us know true loyalty because we’ve experienced it. If not, we can sow seeds of loyalty. We can be more trustworthy and reliable, welcoming these virtues into our lives. Loyalty and all its associated qualities are to be cherished and nurtured: We can be faithful to family, friends, and others in good and not-so-good times. We can be steadfast in our devotion to truth. We can be fair and treat people mercifully. In word and deed, we can be loyal not only to those who are present but also to those who are absent.
Jerusalem stirred with passion that Sunday before the Passover. Travellers had clustered there bringing sacrificial lambs. Coins clattered in coffers where pigeons were sold and in the temple yard, merchants were busy earning silver off the celebration. But above the hubbub hung a question, “Would the prophet from Galilee come?” “What think ye, that he will not come to the feast?” they asked one another.
Even as they wondered, Jesus Christ’s apostles had fetched Him a young donkey for His entry into the city. It was to be His last, and so He paused for a moment at the Mount of Olives, looking across at the golden city, and He wept—not for Himself, though He knew His death was imminent, but for Jerusalem, a city whose walls and children would be ground into the earth. Then He proceeded.
Word spread ahead that He was coming and as He did, the babble of voices united into an uproar of adulation. “Hosanna, to the Son of David,” they cried. “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord.” Even before He made it to the gates of the city, crowds were thronging the way, waving palm fronds and myrtle, spreading their garments in His path.
They were giving Him a Messianic welcome. For this moment, at least, they were His people, and He was their king. He came not with armies, but riding a gentle animal, and they believed they adored Him.
Where was this crowd just five days later when Jesus hobbled to Golgotha, bent under a cross? History does not tell us. Their shouts had been carried away on the wind, their palm fronds withered, and so Christ went alone to be crucified.
As we contemplate a lonely Saviour on a hillside cross, we may feel critical of this crowd whose love was so brief, but it should teach us something deeper. It is the human tendency for even the most righteous enthusiasm to wane. We are inspired, see with clarity and then the fog rushes in. We seek to proclaim our love of the Lord and then circumstances teach us forgetfulness. We mean to amend our character, and then the urgency leaves. We shout for the Lord one day and turn our backs the next. When we hope that we would have been one to rush out and carry His cross, we need to examine whether even now our shouts swell and ebb on a fickle wind.
He alone could descend below all and bring life and salvation to those who would humbly seek it. The Lord taught: “He that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.”He invites us to come unto Him, to taste the sweetness of forgiveness and “gather fruit unto life eternal.” His promises are sure, His peace everlasting.
Far from the pulsating, indecisive crowd is One who slumbers not nor sleeps as He watches over us. His love is perfect, His fidelity unsurpassed. Quietly, and with unwavering loyalty, we can let Him in.
By Samuel Enos Eghan
Features
The Cop, press and lost fingers
The job of a policeman, whether he is short or tall, is not a cheap one. He is supposed to keep the peace, protect society and monitor the activities of local magicians and money doublers who are specialists in making civil servants lose their pay within seconds.
By far the most difficult job of the policeman is when he is expected to arrest a murderer who is not only armed but also has a record of appearing and disappearing at will. Even if the tough cop is in the company of other policemen all armed to the teeth, his stomach will turn to water when the criminal suddenly appears.
He is terrified not because the criminal is a better marksman, but because nobody dies twice. The problem also is that a criminal might be prepared to die in a bid to shoot his way to freedom. But is the police-man prepared to risk death in the course of duty when he has a family to rear.
If he had just acquired a new girlfriend with whom he is enjoying life, should he not run away with his tail between his legs and tell his boss that the criminal is uncatchable?
Before some policemen go on patrol duties, they actually pray solemnly. “God send me into the wilderness and bring me back safely with my nose intact because I’m worth more than a common rat. I also do not want to die like a stray dog. If a bullet is targeted at my forehead, Holy Spirit please let it go over the bar, because six children is not a small palaver. If I die, who will look after them? Lord keep me safe day by day. Amen!”
The Sikaman policeman’s job is a risky one because he is not properly equipped with even a trained dog to help track down criminals easily. So he has to use his own nose judiciously in sniffing out suspects while making sure a bullet doesn’t catch him square on the jaw.
My friend Sir Kofi Owuo, a.k.a. Death-By-Poverty was telling me journalists are in an even riskier profession. Apparently, he had been reading about the palaver of journalists in places like Algeria and Columbia. Algeria, even women journalists are not spared assassin’s bullet. You’d see them lying in front of their homes with their heads full of bullet holes.
In Columbia, no journalist is safe. When a journalist is leaving home, he has to tell his wife. “Darling, when I don’t come back by 7 p.m. check the mortuary
The drug trade in Columbia has made journalism a profession not worth practising. If you write on cocaine and the harm it is inflicting on society, you’ll certainly receive a phone call.
“Hello, Mr Journalist, your article yesterday was great. Congratulations! We never knew you were such brilliant writer, championing the cause of society. Again we say congrats! But you know something, by your article, you want to take the bread out of my and that of my family. You don’t want us to beak. We are aggrieved beyond measure”
“Oh, I was just… “You’d try to say something
“You don’t have to explain. The harm has already been done by your award-winning masterpiece. We have an appointment with you. You’ll hear from us.
Rest In Peace!” After such a phone call, you just have to pray to your soul, sing a hymn or two and get prepared fort appointment with death. For, death will surely come
I think pressmen in Sikaman would also have start informing their families appropriately before leaving for work now. “If I don’t come back early, I’m probably at the Ear, Nose and Throat Department of Korle- Bu checking a leakage in my left ear due to a gendarme slap from an AMA official. If you don’t see me there, track me down to the emergency ward. If you see a newly-made cripple, I’m the one”
What about referees? These days they are guarded during football matches so that the risk they bear in terms of lost teeth is minimal. Formerly, it used to be a job full of woes and tribulations.
You were expected to oversee a match in such way that would favour a particular team. If that is not done, you’ll get back home and your wife will not recognise you. She’ll mistake you for Frank Bruno who had just lost a bout. When she finally recognises you, she’ll fix some hot water to massage your poor face.
I hear that these days, apart from the protection referees receive, some are well-armed with Damfo Dzai, a kind of jack-knife that can carve a rowdy supporters face in several designs.
My Press Secretary and part-time bodyguard Devine Ankamah, was telling me if he happens to be a referee, he’d surely carry a Kalashnikov AK 47 rifle with him, complete with loaded magazine, before officiating matches. According to him, that is the only way to do the job without fear or favour. Anyone dares will lose his jaw.
Anyway, risky jobs require good remuneration. As Kwame Korkorti once said, risky jobs require risky salary. A policeman would require a good pay so that when a criminal targets his left ear it would be worth the ‘amputation’. Same for journalists and cameramen.
But go round private workplaces and factories and you’d see really risky occupations where workers are receiving salaries they can’t see with the naked eye.
In fact, in some private workplaces, environmental safety is completely absent. Workers breathe in fumes, poisonous gases and risk lung and respiratory problems. Their employers do nothing about protecting them against these hazards. Check out their payer.
In other places, workers have their fingers chopped off on the job, some losing as many as four fingers in stretch. The compensation they get can best be described as “wicked”. Their employers live big, chop big, ride big but are not willing to pay more than ¢120,000 for lost fingers.
Actually the more fingers you lose, the more money you get. So if you intend losing your fingers on the job, it is advisable to lose as many as possible so that you can get more cash. Those who have lost one finger have not benefited much and are encouraged to lose more next time around.
Sikaman Palava is undertaking to investigate some of these cases of very risky jobs in private setups and companies where workers are being exploited to unnecessarily but not offered protection against health hazards, and not properly compensated when they sustain injuries.
This article was first published on Saturday, September 28, 1996
Features
Position yourself for God’s blessings
Motivated by the impending 40-day fasting and needless to add prayer programme, preceding the Greater Works Conference scheduled for August in Accra, I would like to draw attention to how believers can receive blessings from God.
There is a scripture in Hebrews 11:5 that “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: and before his translation, he had this testimony that he pleased God”.
This clearly shows that in order to receive blessings from God, you must please God. How can one please God? You can only please God by obeying him and walking in line with God’s word. Just like how children who obey their parents, enjoy special treatment, so does God deal with his children who obey his word.
There are ways by which people receive blessings from God and holiness is an important criteria in the whole equation. Holiness is a process and not a one day event.
It is a mindset borne out of walking in obedience to God’s instructions i.e. his word. In order to have a mindset of living to please God, requires studying God’s word coupled with praying and fasting.
This helps us to develop trust in God by knowing his nature, what he likes and dislikes. This is what will enable us to live to please him and for our faith in him also to increase.
The Bible says in Hebrews 11:6 that “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him”
Fasting is one of the required criteria for blessings to be released and it goes with prayer because fasting without prayer is just a physical exercise. Fasting enables a person’s inner man to be in tune with the spirit of God and also becomes spiritually empowered to hear from God and also obey God.
Fasting enables a person’s spirit to feed on God’s word in a much more focused manner as compared to studying God’s word in normal times. As a result our spirit gains the upper hand to dominate the body and the soul, so that we are more conscious of the presence of God in our lives which causes us willingly the desire to live to obey God.
Holiness which is a prerequisite for pleasing God, can only manifest in our lives if we are able to overcome the desires of the flesh and this only happens when the flesh is subject to the spirit.
Apostle Paul said that “But l keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should not be castaway”, according to 1 Corinthians 9:27.
In order to bring the body or flesh into subjection so that believers will be able to live to please God, we have to study, God’s word in a certain state of mind which fasting and prayer appropriately provides.
Our minds are the battle grounds for decisions that either please God or the Devil. In order to please God so his blessings can be released upon our lives, we must continuously engage our minds with thoughts that is in line with God’s word.
Philippians 4:8 says that “Finally Brethren whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things”. May God help us to live to please him by meditating on things that please the Lord, so we shall be blessed in all aspects of our lives. God bless.
NB: ‘CHANGE KOTOKA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT TO KOFI BAAKO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT’
By Laud Kissi-Mensah
