The Sunday Mail
This Sunday marks the beginning of Holy Week, a period when Christians introspect on the importance of commemorating the crucifixion, death and resurrection in glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Tendai Manzvanzvike (TM) spoke to Christian Healing Ministries for all nations (CHM f.a.n) founder and senior pastor Anselm Mvenge (AM) on their Easter commemorations.
TM: How does CHM f.a.n commemorate Easter? Is it different from what other ministries do?
AM: We don’t compare ourselves with other ministries. The Bible and Christ are our standard. Good Friday, Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday are within the perimeter of the Apostles’ Creed, summarising the crucifixion, death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:1-58)
TM: You are a former Anglican priest and in the Anglican Church and other so-called traditional churches, Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the 40-day Lent period. Do you still follow these?
AM: I have the apostolic succession anointing because I was ordained as an Anglican priest. However, I take that which is biblical, and that which is not biblical, I don’t take. I no longer use ashes, because when you use ashes, you are emphasising on the physical, reminding the person that one day they will die – from dust you came, from dust you shall return. Our emphasis is not on death but on life. The power of the cross destroyed Satan and death.
Isaiah 61:3-4 explains the use of oil instead of ashes. Isaiah was prophesying the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ who would cause an exchange: beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. The Lord Jesus quoted the same portion of scripture when he declared: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, He has anointed me…”
Ashes signify death and oil life or anointing. The yoke is broken because of the anointing oil. (Isaiah 10:27, NKJV). In addition, Christ is Greek for anointed, so we anoint believers with the life of Jesus Christ, which all believers receive as a result of Christ’s crucifixion, death and resurrection.
TM: Why oil and not other liquid forms?
AM: The Bible, in both the New and Old Testaments, talks of anointing with oil and not any other substance. Saul in 1 Samuel, was anointed by Samuel with oil to kingship, so did David.
In Mark 6:13, Jesus Christ commissioned the disciples to anoint the sick with oil; in James 5:13-16 reference is given to anointing the sick with oil for healing. In the New Testament there is nowhere that ashes were used for believers. Oil is symbolic, but the anointing actually flows from God through the anointed man of God.
TM: What do believers do during these 40 days?
AM: Prayer and fasting! But, we don’t do it ignorantly. It’s only the religious who celebrate in ignorance. Some are still searching for the Spirit of God, but as for me, I fast to be emboldened and increased.
As I celebrate the Holy Week, I am always conscious that God is going to give me a special present as He has done every Holy Week in the past, for His ministry and for the spread of the gospel.
We must also realise that as we read through the book of Acts, we don’t have anywhere we see Christians commemorating the Lord’s crucifixion and resurrection, because they were under persecution all the time.
They would actually be commemorating the presence of Jesus Christ through Holy Communion. So, when we celebrate Holy Communion, we also celebrate that reality. When I am holding that bread, it is the presence of Jesus Christ. When I am celebrating Holy Communion, there is more anointing than what normally happens. The demon possessed will refuse to take it. We are celebrating the very presence of Jesus Christ and after that we see that we are given more to minister to God’s people. The miracles I perform also rise each year.
TM: Holy Week starts today. What will be the church’s activities?
AM: I do a lot of teaching during Holy Week, like the lessons in our March devotional, most of them were drawn from the gospel of Matthew. I meditate on the life of Jesus – His words, His actions.
TM: Why the gospel of Matthew?
AM: Because, the gospel of John does not start with Jesus Christ’s baptism. Matthew was particularly writing to the Jews who were seeking for the Messiah. We also take Matthew to be one of the disciples of Jesus Christ. Luke was a Gentile.
I begin from His ministry after the baptism, because the baptism is very central. The baptism was going to be fulfilled by His crucifixion. The crucifixion is actually the baptism of Jesus Christ, which transforms us from the power of sin and Satan, to the righteousness of God.
In other words, the baptism symbolised how He was going to be killed in order to remove His old life, which is subject to Satan and then being raised again to a new life which He then gave to us.
So, when Jesus was crucified, he was crucified for our sin, which means, it is us who were crucified in Him. We are the ones who were convicted of sin and God is the judge and we were supposed to be judged and crucified for being separated from God, through sin.
But Jesus Christ became the advocate. He became the just judge, and the condemned criminal. In Him, God condemned us, and this God is in Jesus Christ, again – the judge who was condemned on our behalf. And, He was then raised, as a way of justifying us of our sins. So, baptism is a sacrament, meaning something we see on the outside, but representing the inner grace, that is, a change of heart.
TM: CHM will also be celebrating nine years since the formation?
AM: The nine years that we are celebrating now are because from February 2007, the Lord gave me grace to write the daily devotional. Initially, I was not sure whether I was up to the task, and be consistent every day and every month. So, on this 9th anniversary we are thanking God for His grace, because alone, I would have fallen, and I might have tried to copy what other devotional writers do. These messages that the Lord gives me will last forever, and they will also reach out to many people, a bigger congregation than I currently minister to.
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