Whipped Substitute

The following is a read aloud story for July 2004. This is one in a series of stories especially for Awana Clubs, homeschoolers, Sunday school classes, DVBS, mission conferences, or just reading them for fun. Print them out. Collect them. E-mail them to others. Use them. God bless! This month we tell the story of two Culina boys who go to their very first “Cocossi”. The Whipping Festival that turns into a tortuous party of purple welts and bloody stripes! Sizzling whips snapping and snarling and cutting the flesh! Nadine and I observed a couple of these festivals and just shook our heads in astonishment at how the Culina could give and take such painful punishment. And, yet, we realized here was a “cultural key” that gave us the opportunity to teach them about Jesus, our Whipped Substitute!

The old story teller, Douemi (Dough-way-MEE)
Missionary/ culture observer among the Culina Madirra for many years
Serving with New Tribes Mission, Sanford, FL

“Here they come! Here they come! And there are LOTS of them!” Aode (Ah-oh-DEH) shouted from his seat on the branch of a tree that gave him a good view out over the swamp. He and Obai (Oh-BY) had declared themselves to be the villages “first alert” of the approach of the up river clan. “It’s the Ettedeni (Eh-TEH-deh-knee)! And they are all painted up! Quick! Let’s get to our canoe and race to the village to tell the people the Dog Clan are arriving…and ready to whip!”
For weeks Aode and Obai’s village had prepared for the big Cocosssi (coe-coe-SEE), the whipping festival. The men had some months before killed a large manatee cow fish that had become entangled in an across-the-stream fish net. The giant mammal-fish had ruined the net in it’s struggle to be free, but in the end was speared to death. The hide of the peixe boi (PAY-she BOW-ee)
cowfish was thick and strong and the men soon had made it into strips. Once dried and worked well these strips were fastened securely to strong unbreakable sticks…and, thus, they turned into “whips”. Several days passed with people practicing swinging the whips with all their strength and pretending they could hear the leather cut into the flesh. Then messengers raced to the neighboring villages and a date was set for the Cocossi in the boy’s village. The women prepared pot upon pot of sour potato soup. Deer and wild pig were roasted and boiled in large pots of potatoes or bananas. It was PARTY TIME!!
And now the clans were coming. Obai and Aode’s arms were about to break from paddling their small canoe so fast through the swamp to the village…and their voices sang out the news, “The Dog Clan is coming! The Dog Clan is coming!” Several other clans from other villages would soon arrive. The boys rushed down to the mud hole where the village men were already packing thick mud on their chests to ease the pain of the stripes they would be getting. They laughed and bragged and some older men gladly displayed ancient welts across their chests from some other cocossi of the past. Then they put on women’s skirts and everyone teased his neighbor about their faminine apparel…but they had learned that skirts are good protection in case of a “low blow”. Finally bark-band caps were placed on the head. The faces were painted with red and black lines…and some were done very professionally and to perfection. Once everyone was ready they would form a line and begin the single file dance from the mud hole to the village center. Whoo! Whoo! Whoo! Whoo! Hearing their loud chants the boys almost wished they were participating too…but they were not men yet! Their time would come!
Hundreds of people from all the clans were milling around. A bold up river warrior stepped out and shouted,”I will whip Uazobi (Waw-zoe-BEE)!” And Aode watched as his shaman uncle stepped out to face the challenger. A lot of people blamed Uncle Uazobi for his magic curses that made their clan members sick. Uazobi boldly stood and lifted his arms high in the air to expose his muddy chest. His opponent circled with his whip and swished it through the air several times to frighten the one he’d whip. Then as the crowd all held their breath…CRACK!! The whip circled the body and bit across the chest! Uazobi fell to his knees gasping and beating at the stinging pain across his chest as an ugly red stain came through the mud. Then slowly amidst the cheers of his clan he rose up and lifted his arms again to let his attacker hit him harder than before…CRACK!! Down again gasping for air. Up again to expose his body to yet one more mighty blow. CRACK!! Uazobi had passed the test. Both Aode and Obai were shouting, “Manaco! Mah-naw-COE! His turn! His turn!” And Uazobi grinned maliciously at his opponent who now was forced to raise his arms and receive three blows from an angry bloodied man. Uazobi swung his whip with every little bit of force he could produce and drove his antagonist to the ground blow after blow. Both men had red bloody welts, but they would not quit and back and forth it went until one or the other was not able any longer to get up!!
Suddenly Aode felt a tap on his shoulder and turned to face a young man from the Dog Clan. “I challenge you to be whipped!! Step out and raise your arms!” Aode gulped big and loud and felt desparate. Even Obai had melted away in fear someone would challenge him! And the crowd was gathering around the challenger and wanting to see the two boys whip each other. Aode’s voice was weak and his bottom lip had begun to quiver as he tried to say, “I’m too small! I’m not a man yet!”, but the bigger Dog Clan boy was swishing his whip and laughing with a pitiless glee. Aode wanted to run. But the crowd was too tight around them. And now his own clan members were shouting, “Aode’s going to be whipped! Aode’s going to be whipped!” and more of his clan rushed to watch him get his initiation into cocossi. “Lift your arms!” the Dog Clan boy shouted!! LIFT YOUR ARMS!! Tears came to his eyes and he felt terrible. He couldn’t cry…everyone would call him a baby. But the boy was so big and it would hurt so much!
Just then Aode felt a hand on his shoulder…he turned to look into the eyes of his older brother. He saw the mud on the chest of his brother and the whip marks from some encounter he had already had. “Go, Little Brother! Go, sit down! I WILL TAKE YOUR WHIPPING FOR YOU!!” The Dog Clan boy now had panic in his eyes, but he had been the challenger and he knew he could not back out. Aode slowly pushed through the crowd to a safe distance. Saved. Saved by a substitute!
Did you know that you, too, have a whipping substitute? That Someone took your punishment for you? In Isaiah 53:5 we read, “He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; AND WITH HIS STRIPES WE ARE HEALED”. When you were lost in your sins and far from God, Satan stepped out to whip you. And you were small and weak and had no escape…until Jesus came and said, “I will stand in his place! I will take his punishment! I will be his substitute! WHIP ME!” And that is what Jesus did on the Cross. He died for our sins as our substitute so that we do not have to be whipped. Have you accepted Jesus as your sin substitute? Do you know Him as your Savior? “He who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes you were healed.” I Peter 2:24