From the Ruins of Robben Island

In 1964, Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment on Robben Island, a windswept rock off the coast of Cape Town. The anti-apartheid movement appeared finished. Its leaders were jailed or exiled, its organizations banned. South Africa's system of racial oppression seemed as permanent as the prison walls themselves. The tree of justice had been cut to a stump.

But something grew in that barren place. During twenty-seven years of imprisonment, Mandela studied Afrikaans — the language of his captors. He listened. He chose, against every instinct of retribution, to envision a different future. When he finally walked free in 1990, he did not emerge with clenched fists but with an open hand extended to former enemies. He invited his prison guard to his presidential inauguration. He established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, where victims and perpetrators sat in the same room, and something no one thought possible began: wolves and lambs learning to dwell together.

Isaiah prophesied that from the stump of Jesse — a royal line that looked thoroughly destroyed — a shoot would emerge, and upon Him the Spirit of the Lord would rest. This coming King would not judge by appearances but would bring justice for the poor and peace among natural enemies. What Mandela glimpsed imperfectly, Christ fulfills completely. No stump is too dead for God. The Almighty specializes in growing kingdoms from what the world has written off as finished.