Good Morning, Friends,
I read a book a number of years ago called The Lemon Tree. It was about a Jewish family who bought a house with a lemon tree in the backyard; it was just after World War II. This Jewish family came from Bulgaria, right after the Nazi Holocaust. They were looking for hope and a new home.
One of the chapters tells of what was happening in Bulgaria in March of 1943. In March of 1943, Bulgaria (which was aligned with the Axis powers, with the Nazis) received the orders from Berlin that they were to begin fulfilling the Final Solution to the Jewish people in Bulgaria. The Final Solution was that they were to deport all 49,000 Jews from Bulgaria. They were to send them to Treblinka.
The order came down to the King of Bulgaria and to the Parliament, and though they didn’t want to fulfill it, they didn’t see that they had any options. So, they passed on the commands. But when the people in Bulgaria began to hear about this, they had another thought about what would happen to their Jewish neighbors. By March 10, the railroad cars were already lined up, hundreds long, for the first wave of those who were to be deported.
The order was given for the Jews from several villages to gather at the elementary school where they would be placed on the trains. Pravda was one of those towns. The Jewish people were told to bring only what they could carry, and they were taken to the elementary school. They stood there behind the chain link fence, and they knew what was going to happen. They began to cry out to their neighbors and to tell them goodbye as many of them stood there weeping, with their belongings in their hands and their children in their arms.
Orthodox Bishop Corel came to see them. As he walked by the chain link fence, he saw what was taking place, that he had heard rumors about. He placed his hands on the fence and said, “Children, the Christians of this country will not let this happen to you. I will not let this happen to you. I will place my body on the railroad tracks, and they will have to run over me to take you from this place. This will not happen to you.”
He and the people in that town began to speak out. Others began to speak out. It was taken to Parliament and there were a handful of politicians, just a handful, and they began to speak out. They said, “We can’t do this!” They were relieved of their office and would never be allowed to serve in politics again — but the people refused to allow the trains to leave. There is a sign in Pravda that marks this, to this day.
Months later, the German ambassador to Bulgaria, June 7, 1943, wrote this, back to Berlin. He said, “I am firmly convinced that the Prime Minister and the Government wish and strive for a radical solution to the Jewish problem. However, they are hindered by the mentality of the Bulgarian people who lack the ideological enlightenment we have.”
Yes, they lacked the ideological enlightenment. Instead, they were enlightened by the teachings of Jesus, who said, “You do unto others as you would have them do until you” (Matthew 7:12). Because the Christians were willing to stand up in Bulgaria, while 6,000,000 Jews were being slaughtered across Europe, the 49,000 Jews in Bulgaria were spared. Not a single one of them was killed by the Nazis — because there were people who took seriously the Golden Rule, and they had the moral courage to stand up for what they believed.
I wonder: would you? Would you stand up for someone else? To make sure that they were treated in a way that you would want to be treated? Would you have the moral courage to say, “No. Not here. Not now. This won’t happen.”
The Golden Rule. God gave this to us as a gift, and God calls us to practice it when it comes to our businesses, when it comes to our relations with our neighbors, when it comes to our closest family members — and when it comes to those around us in our nation, and around the world.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,
Bruce Jones, Pastor
Imagine Church
