JARA

In the market culture of Nigeria and certain parts of Africa, a buyer usually receives a bonus, commensurate to the amount of purchase.  Retailed foodstuff, particularly grains such as rice, salt, groundnut, and beans, are usually sold in standard measures of “cups,” “bowls,” “basins” and “bags,” described by different terminologies in the different language cultures.  In certain parts of Nigeria, the term for describing that bonus is jara.  For example, if you bought a standard “bowl” of rice, the seller could scoop you an extra handful of rice as jara.  If you bought two or three “bowls” of rice, you could get two handfuls.  It was not a compulsory part of the bargain, but it was the expectation of every buyer and the responsibility of every seller to give good jara.  Besides, it was an important incentive for retaining customers.

If you bought a “cup” of roast groundnuts, or a hundred naira worth of groundnuts, you expected about two spoonfuls of jara at least; but if you bought only five naira worth of groundnuts, you might get no jara, or the clever seller might quickly pick up three or four grains craftily concealed in a clenched fist (as if the hand were full), and dump them as quickly into your purchase (or pretend to have done so), before you started a case about your jara.  

In this market culture, the more you buy, the more your jara; the less you buy, the less your jara.  Every buyer gets jara, but nobody goes to the market to buy jara, and nobody asks for jara before they have bought something for which jara might be given.

We find in Matthew chapter 6 verse 33 that, in the market culture of the Kingdom of God also, jara is an important factor.  There, Jesus says, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things [jara] shall be added unto you.”  The unfortunate irony in our days is that we go to church neither seeking the King nor His Kingdom (or “his righteousness”) but seeking the “things” that should be “added” to us; we go to church looking for jara, before we have done “first” the things for which jara has been promised; or we give God two spoonfuls of dedication or some five naira worth of consecration, and expect two bags of jara.

It is fanciful to admire and desire ‘by faith’ the many “things” with which Heaven beautifies the lives of those who seek “first” the King and His pleasure.  It is Pentecostally fashionable to also ‘believe God’ for those material benefits which we see “added” to the people whose passion has been the “kingdom of God, and his righteousness”; but seldom do we remind ourselves of the hard currency for purchasing those “things.” 

We see today in a lovely mansion that aged man who invested the first forty years of his ministry labouring joyfully with nothing but a stone for a pillow in dangerous jungle huts, and we instantly desire his mansion ‘by faith’; we want his jara before we have made his accumulated investments.  It is not fair.  Or we see flying today in a private jet that evangelist who, in his earlier days, crisscrossed the villages of the region by foot, his log book bleeding with miles enough to get to the moon and back, and we want his jet instantly ‘by faith,’ before we have done “first” things first, seeking the Kingdom.  It is not fair.

This beginning of year is a time when everybody tells God about the “things” that He must do; the jara that He must add to their lives, even though, as always, they are prepared to buy nothing from His market.  In any market, it would be robbery to demand a bag of jara for half a bowl of purchase.  In the house of God today, however, that covetousness is called by the fanciful name of “faith.”

What jara are you expecting from God in this Year of Restorations?  What are you going to purchase or “seek” from His market in the “first” place?  How much are you prepared to purchase?   A spoonful? A cup?  A bag?  This leap year (with its jara day) is a jara year.  Ironically, this leap year is also a ‘weep year.’  It is up to you how much of the jara you may get.

In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus elaborately teaches us to “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on,” because being alive at this time is much more than “meat” and “raiment.”  He who feeds the little birds that neither sow nor reap can take much more care of you who are “much better than they.”  He who daily clothes the beautiful lilies better than any king has ever been arrayed, has your wardrobe in His budget too.  After all, being anxious does not add an inch to your height, nor does it solve any other problem.  Worry, according to Jesus, is merely the expression of “little faith” and the culture of godless Gentiles.   Be consoled that “your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things” – things, things.  But for you, “seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Amen. (Matthew 6:25-34). Welcome to the market economy of the Kingdom of God.  Your jara is up to you …

From The Preacher’s diary,
January 1, 2008.