It is tempting to think that every Christian’s testimony should follow a nice, neat pattern: a terrible sinner who did awful things becomes a Christian and life is transformed and all the awful things stop – or at least the obvious awful things. Wonderfully there are stories of such dramatic transformations. But for many of us it takes a while after we have put our trust in Jesus for us even to see that certain things we do or think in our lives are sinful. In those cases, it is only then that the process of change begins.
Rory Steyn’s story is one such. When interviewed at St Mary’s on Friday 3rd May he spoke of how he grew up as a privileged white man in apartheid South Africa. It was after he had joined the police force in February 1982 that he got on his knees and said, “Lord Jesus come and take over this life of mine that’s messed up.” Rory had become a Christian and yet his attitude towards black South Africans was racist and he worked for an institution which upheld apartheid.
Rory was interviewed at St Mary’s in front of a packed church. He spoke honestly and freely about his past and he explained how racism had been the air he had grown up breathing – so much so that he hadn’t questioned it.
The Lord wonderfully used Nelson Mandela in his life to change his attitudes. Rory had a number of roles in the police force before joining the presidential protection unit. Like many, when Nelson Mandela became president, he expected to lose his job. But despite Mandela thinking (mistakenly) that Rory had been involved in a dreadful bombing atrocity, he kept him in his post and treated him generously. Rory grew to love and respect “Madiba” (Mandela’s tribal name) whom he also called “Tata” (grandfather). Rory is an outstanding raconteur and he regaled us with priceless stories of Nelson Mandela demonstrating his affection for him and the enormous impact he had on him.
The other person interviewed with Rory was Karnie Sharp. Many at St Mary’s will know Karnie who attends the 11am congregation. She also grew up in South Africa; but her life could not have contrasted more starkly with Rory’s. Karnie is black South African. Because of her colour she was educated at a second-class school. She hated apartheid, the white police force and Christianity – which she regarded as the religion of the ruling white elite. Whilst Rory was working for the police force, Karnie was a youth member of the ANC literally dodging rubber bullets fired by the police force whilst on demonstrations.
Forty years ago the idea that Rory and Karnie would have shared a platform would have been unthinkable. And yet Jesus Christ changed both. He used Nelson Mandela to change Rory and he brought Karnie to St Mary’s where she did a Christianity Explored course and accepted him as her Lord and Saviour.
The final question for Rory Steyn was, “if I had to ask you the difference between the way Nelson Mandela changed your life and the way Jesus changed your life, how would you answer?” Rory’s answer was that Nelson Mandela never claimed to be the sinless son of God who was able to forgive people’s sin – he himself said he was not perfect. He died and was buried – his coffin remains in the ground. But Jesus’ tomb is empty because he rose from the dead. Nelson Mandela changed Rory, but that change won’t stop Rory dying one day. But, Rory explained, “the change Jesus brought about has eternal consequences for me because he gets me right with the God who created me, and I can’t do that… but Jesus said I have done it for you, just trust me.” Rory will die one day but because of Jesus, his death will not be the end for him, and he can look forward to life beyond.
People often say to Rory that it will be a tragedy if we get to heaven and Nelson Mandela isn’t there, because he was such a good man. But Rory said, we don’t get to heaven by being good – we will never be good enough. We only get to heaven on the basis of Jesus’s death for our sin on the cross. So the point of the evening was to stimulate us to think, “what about us?” Do we think we are good enough for God or do we see that we need not a Nelson Mandela in our lives, but Jesus Christ because his death is the key to our forgiveness and his resurrection the key to eternal life.
The full interview of Rory and Karnie is available on YouTube at https://youtu.be/pwNGXD3dmyQ