Two Things to Remember Celebrating Ethiopian Epiphany!

Translated by Dereje Seyoum & Tessema Ijjigu
PM Abiye.doc/ January 20, 2021

I wish everybody a peaceful Epiphany!

When we celebrate the baptism of Jesus Christ, we must remember two things. The first one is for humility and the second is for change.

The Almighty God, who does all things, is found among the living. He was Baptized by the hands of John, in the river Jordan. He humbled himself and came down to John; he was found among men pretending to have nothing. Maybe then the people around Jordan’s river can consider him one of them. They might think he came from across Hebron and Jordan. They do not know that Christ who stands humble and weak among them has thousands of soldiers.

They do not know that he has sent John to baptize him. They do not know that He has chosen the river of Jordan. People did now that He was the Almighty that they were eager to see and hear about. You do not know the power in humility and the world of arrogance. The devil who fell proudly, Christ is free with humility and victory. And the devil thought the power was deceived by pride. Being born in Bethlehem in a stable is sign of humility. To be baptized in Jordan is both humbleness and humility.  The devil lacks both, humbleness and humility.

It is not a sign of weakness to ask for dialogue and reconciliation. It does not make anyone weak to look for peaceful resolution of conflict without going to war. Stretching the hands of peace for those who commit border intrusion, showing love to those who oppose diplomacy is not the sign of being powerlessness. The sign of power is humility and patience. The last resort of humility and patience is a strong arm. When that strong arm is stretched and put into use the only outcome is the destruction of the naysayers.

The work of Epiphany cannot be done during Palm Sunday. The work of the Crucifixion cannot be done on the day of Resurrection. This is what Christ taught us. Doing everything on time. There is a right time for every job to do. When that day comes no one can take it back. When that day comes everybody will face the consequences. When that day comes, villages will be destroyed, mountains will crumble and after all the fire will subside.

The holiday of Epiphany is the holiday of change. In the history of humans, the world was destroyed by rip. Water that was created for human life and important for life’s existence and holds one third of the world has destroyed the world. Noah and members of his family and some animals survived. When Jesus Christ was baptized in Jordan, he changed the purpose and the work of the river. He changed the use of the river that was a symbol of destruction to peace and eternal life.

We learn a big lesson from this. There are many things that are used for the purpose of destruction in our country. There are many tools used against the people to kill each other and to divide and pull each other apart There are laws, institutions, and systems in our country. As the evil intention and the wickedness of humans turned the water into rip, it is the evil nature of people that turned these laws, and institutions into power of destruction. We need to change these institutions and laws to bring safety and human rights, unity, growth, and development to the people of Ethiopia. Fire will be used to cook and burn houses. We must use fire to cook and build. To put fire for good use, you do not need to change the fire to water; but to change the use of the fire.

Many of the tools that most of the world has used for development, democracy, peace and prosperity, institutions, are found in our country. But they did not bring to us all the needed prosperity, growth, development and change.  It means we did not do our work properly to bring about the needed change. We must change at every turn and course. Jesus could have done his work in the blink of an eye. He lived for 33years and 3months to ensure the salvation of man. From Birth to Ascension, it took 34 years. This is to be a lesson for us. He changed every human being’s sin, poverty and death towards blessing, mercy, and eternal life. There is a lot of hatred and poison planted and sown everywhere for half a century in our country. The enemy has left us with a debt letter everywhere.

What we see today is the result of this debt letters in the form of suffering, violence, and migration. The humiliation that is going down on innocent people is the result of that debt letter. All the bragging we hear from the other side is the debt letter. What we must do is to destroy that letter of debt. It may take time. Patience may be required. It might make us look weak. We must work to convert every curse to blessing, every destruction to salvation and poverty to prosperity, and every death to life. The God of Ethiopia is with us.

There is a lot of destruction and evil that the enemy has planted and sow in the people. The enemy has made some of these structural, some are written in to law, some are engrained in to the system of governance. And others are included in the education curriculum. For some of the venomous and hateful ideas, the enemy has proclaimed national holiday, and some are included in songs and become folklore. For some they have established media forums and become party programs for political organizations. He has stopped for some institution. We must follow the footsteps of this debt letter and destroy it.

The change may require time. The truth is that it is inevitable. He has shown that, Christ, at his birth that his baptism was inevitable. His baptism proved that his teachings are inevitable. In His teachings we learned the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the ascension and the second coming were inevitable. There were people trying to stop this at every turn.  They were not able to stop it. Everything happened at the designated time. The salvation of Ethiopia is happening in the same process. The changes we are implementing are strengthening each other. The first is a foundation for the next change we are going to implement. There are those who are trying to stop in every step. They will not succeed. Rather get tired of trying. The change of Ethiopia is inevitable. Footstep after footstep the debt letter will be destroyed, the curse will be changed to blessings, the destruction to salvation ,and death to life.

The birth of Christ baptism, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension showed the sign of the coming eternal salvation and human suffering. Every chapter of His life’s work gave hope, salvation happiness, and the defeat of the devil. For those who have been waiting for hope from his birth to his baptism and crucifixion, the time for mankind to come to an end. They have brought so much joy too.

The centuries old challenges of our Ethiopia are being defeated day by day. Bright future is coming, and we should all be happy. We are destined for more joy. Those who march steadfastly will achieve victory. Even though the coming of Jesus was for all human’s salvation the likes of Judas were left behind. Therefore in order to achieve our wish and hope, we have to be victorious over all our challenges in our way. All the challenges that we meet on our way are the doors of our destiny. All of us must be prepared and make our spirits strong to cross our challenges victoriously.

We are celebrating Epiphany, we all should be filled with good wishes towards each other, look out for others who have been hurt for various reasons sympathetically, extending our helping hands for the poor, be ready for change and the march for prosperity mindful of the pandemic covid19.In Europe and America they have stated the vaccine for the corona pandemic. Until we start giving the vaccine our only choice is prevention. Let us continue our prevention methods and protect each other. I wish all of us to see the bright future and hoe ahead of us together.

Once again, I wish a happy Epiphany holiday.

May Ethiopia live forever by the efforts of her children!

May God bless Ethiopia and its people!

Translated by Dereje Seyoum & Tessema Ijjigu
PM Abiye.do