African sheep verses the Lamb of God.

During our first year in the then Transkei (now reincorporated back into South Africa,) we were invited to spend the weekend down on the coast with a Xhosa family, who as well as being members of our denomination, ran the local trading store there. As such they had a gas operated freezer for the store. Most places there have no electricity or gas power so they don’t have fridges or freezers, so when they kill animals for their meat it has to be all consumed there and then or else parceled out to family and friends (or sold) immediately before it can go off.

As such animals, usually sheep, are often only killed for weddings and funerals and such. For big events, (over 500 people) a cow or steer will also be consumed. But because of the cost of the animals and the inability to use all of it before it goes off, meat is rare in their regular diet. Thus when they kill an animal, they use as much of the animal as they can, including the internal organs. Some of these like the feet and liver will be fried over an open fire, others put into what they call a soup made up of the “Dirty meat” i.e. the otherwise indigestible organs.

When we visited this Xhosa family down at the coast that weekend, they had just killed a sheep, partially in our honour, partly for their own and shop use. I was asked by one of the nephews if in Australia we used the internal organs and such of animals and explained that apart from a few, we didn’t really use all the internal organs like they do there, I was stunned by his response and I quote, “Well! Meat must be cheap in Australia.”

There, because of its expense, thus scarcity, everything that can be eaten is. Some you wouldn’t eat if you knew before hand what you were eating. In one supermarket I saw a 2kg packet of chicken labeled “Walkie Talkies”. Upon closer inspection I saw it was a packet of just the feet and heads of chickens! Needless to say I quickly put it back.

This consuming of everything that they could, from an expensive item lead me to wonder if we as Christians treat the Lamb of God the same way.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son …”

As it is now the Easter event and Good Friday where we annually remember and celebrate Christ’s sacrifice, would you take the time to consider whether you truly treat this sacrifice as being very expensive and thus not to be wasted? Or do you pick and choose only the choice pieces and ignore the “dirty meats”?

Do you take full advantage of Christ’s sacrifice on your behalf or do you waste it by your ignorance and indifference?

That is the question each of us must ask, Do I? Do I? Walter