The Solution God Provided
The Problem
When we translated the first chapter of the gospel of John the Canelas could not understand the meaning of “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” John 1:29.
I explained to our translation helpers how the Jewish people would slit the throat of a lamb, drain out its blood, butcher the carcass, put it in a fire, and burn it up. They corrected me saying, “No, no! Not “burn it up” but “roast it”. How can you eat if it is burnt up?”
When I tried to explain that the lamb was not for eating but for burning, they were upset and confused. “Those Jewish people must be crazy. Why burn it up instead of roasting and eating it?” I understood why they were confused. Canelas have no concept of ritual sacrifice. They only killed an animal to eat it, or to get rid of it, like a poisonous snake.
Praying and Waiting
We sent out newsletters to our ministry partners back home about this problem asking them to pray for wisdom to solve this problem. Each time we needed to translate a passage that talked about Christ’s sacrifice of Himself, we put it aside until God gave us a solution.
One afternoon we joined hundreds of Canelas who were gathered in the central hub of the village. About fifty young women stood shoulder to shoulder in a long line singing and dancing in place. The dance and song leader shook his rattle energetically, setting a strong beat. Dozens of young men, their bodies painted in red and black, waved spears and clubs above their heads as they danced and showed themselves off to the young women. The old men sat in small groups, smoking and talking. The older women sat behind the line of dancing women and gossiped. I dashed here and there taking pictures.
Shaming and Punishment
Suddenly an elder carrying a muzzle-loading shotgun walked into the merriment. He pointed his gun into the air and BLAMM!!
Instant silence. Everyone stopped and looked at him. He handed his gun to another elder, and then started to rant. I heard words like “Lazy! Good for nothing! Disobedient!” and I thought, Oh, oh, some of this old uncle’s nephews are going to get it. I had seen this ritual before.
At the end of his rant, he stepped into the crowd, grabbed one of his nephews by the arm and pulled him out to the open centre where everyone could see him. He said nothing, just looked the young man in the eye, then stomped heavily on his bare foot. The nephew winced and limped away.
The young men wondered who would be next as the uncle continued punishing his nephews in various ways, lifting some by their hair, rubbing peppers in their mouths, and even putting stalks of sawgrass in their armpits and jerking them out. Ouch!
I had witnessed this traditional Canela method of public shaming and punishing on other occasions. But then something happened that I had never seen before. The old uncle was about to yank another nephew off his feet by the hair when suddenly a young woman ran out of the dancing line, stepped in front of the nephew and faced the uncle.
The uncle looked at her and grabbing the hair on both sides of her head, yanked upwards several times, making her jump. She winced in pain and walked teary-eyed back to her place in the dancing line where she stood rubbing her scalp while the young man turned and walked unhurt back to his group. After that, no matter whom the uncle tried to punish, a young woman ran up and took the punishment for him.
The Solution
I knew what the relationship was between each of these young men and the young women. It was called the kritxwy [kreet-TSWUH] meaning ritual substitute—a person assigned to stand in for someone else. Every Canela has a kritxwy partner. Even I have one.
Once during a ceremony, it was my turn to sing a long song, and I forgot some of the words. When I faltered, I stepped aside and my kritxwy stepped up and finished my song.
I had seen this happen scores of times in all sorts of social situations, but I had never seen a kritxwy take the punishment for their partner. When I saw this event, however, I couldn’t wait to get back to my desk and translate all those passages that I had put aside. That night at Bible class I taught, Jeju Critxo pe mepahkritxwy ne tamari mepancwyrjape ty! “Jesus Christ is our Kritxwy and it was He who died in our place!”
The Result
When this teaching spread and people realized that Jesus was their Kritxwy and had taken the shame and punishment for their wrongdoing, it was like an explosion of understanding went off in the village. The Canelas suddenly began to appreciate the Good News, and many began to follow Jesus.
As God has done in many other cultures, He imbedded an analogy of His redemption into the culture and rituals of the Canelas many centuries before. Why? Because He has always loved the world’s indigenous peoples and wants them to know Him.