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I Hated Him

I was sitting in my rotan armchair feeling quite confident. Sweet tea had been served and I could see my students relax as I complimented them on their English. Since all these students were new theological students, I suggested that they try to explain in English how they had become Christians. As we sipped our tea, a young Sundanese girl declared that she had become a Christian four years after her uncle became a Christian through his witness. Knowing that the majority of Sundanese people are Muslims, I was interested to know more and so I asked how her uncle’s faith had attracted her to Christ. She seemed to struggle for a while to understand my question so I tried asking the same question in Indonesian. It turned out her problem was not understanding the English words but rather my unawareness of her culture and context. She looked around her, smiled sweetly and replied in Indonesian, ‘I hated him’.

Our English lesson immediately transformed itself into a lesson in culture and mission with me as student rather than teacher:

Did she hate all Christians? – No.

Why did she hate her uncle? – He had become a Batak.

How had he become a Batak? – All Christians are Batak.

As I listened I learned that the Sundanese associate the Batak people with alcohol, pork, violence, money-lending at extortionate rates of interest, rudeness as well as Christianity. Bataks are considered foreigners in West Java because they follow none of the Sundanese customs, they do not respect the ways of God or his Prophet Mohammed. In the evenings when all the men gather together to pray to God, Bataks drink alcohol. On Sundays when all the village gather together for community work (fix a road, mend a roof, clean a drainage channel) they deliberately wear their best clothes as a sign they are not going to work and tell people they are going off to a church in another area. To become a Christian then is to become a Batak. To not pray with the community, to not work with the community, to show loyalty to people of another area above loyalty to your neighbours, to drink alcohol, to eat pork. And so this pretty young girl had formed a deep hatred for her uncle because of her commitment to her family, her tribe and her community.

As we talked, it seemed to me that this 18 year old girl was teaching me some of the major challenges of mission in Indonesia. First, she was making it very clear that the form of the Christian church in Indonesia was not communicating the love of God to the Muslim majority peoples of Indonesia. Second, she was suggesting that the terminology ‘becoming a Christian’ was filled with cultural and historical pain. Third, she was reminding me that though there are many challenges and frighteningly complex cultural issues in Indonesia, the power of God can overcome them all. At the end of the day, she had come to understand and believe in Christ because her uncle had responded with faith and love when he was hated and rejected by his own family. This living witness of the love of Christ, after four bitter years of rejection, had won her and her whole families’ hearts and they had become Sundanese believers in Jesus Christ.

[Note: The Sundanese people of West Java number around 32 million and are the largest of the hundred plus unreached peoples of Indonesia. The Batak people of North Sumatra form the largest church of Southeast Asia. Whilst many Batak peoples are Christian in name only many others are godly good people]