The Snake, the Saw, and Pastor Niemöller: How Hatred Turns on Itself
THE SNAKE AND THE SAW
There is an old parable about a snake.
One night, it entered a carpenter’s workshop looking for rest.
As it slithered across the floor, it accidentally crossed a handsaw.
The blade made a small cut on its belly.
The snake assumed it had been attacked.
In anger, it bit the steel—only wounding itself.
Still enraged, it wrapped itself tightly around the saw, determined to crush its “enemy.”
But the saw only cut deeper.
Until the snake died.
The saw had never attacked it.
The snake destroyed itself fighting what it misunderstood.
PASTOR MARTIN NIEMÖLLER UNDERSTOOD THIS TRUTH
“First they came…”
His words were not merely about Nazi Germany.
They were a warning about silence.
A warning about division.
A warning about what happens when we permit injustice to be done to others because we imagine it will never reach us.
Many people vote believing the pain will fall on someone else.
Immigrants.
LGBTQ people.
Minorities.
Political opponents.
“The undeserving.”
But hatred is never selective in its consequences.
WHAT FOLLOWS IS ALWAYS CHAOS
When politics becomes about enemies instead of solutions:
• Trust collapses.
• Institutions weaken.
• Families divide.
• Democracy begins to erode.
• Society grows unstable.
• Eventually, everyone pays the price.
Those who elect chaos to hurt others soon discover that chaos does not recognise allies.
It consumes them too.
The snake hugs the saw.
The saw remains a saw.
The snake bleeds.
THE LESSON IS AS OLD AS SCRIPTURE
“Whoever digs a pit will fall into it.”
— Proverbs 26:27
“Whoever digs a pit may fall into it.”
— Ecclesiastes 10:8
“He made a pit and dug it out, and has fallen into the hole that he made.”
— Psalm 7:15
When we celebrate injustice because it happens to “them,” we merely prepare the ground for the day it comes for us - #OldManInTheMolue
CHRIST TAUGHT A DIFFERENT WAY
Love your neighbour.
Love your enemy.
Protect the vulnerable.
Stand with the stranger.
Not because compassion is sentimental.
Because it is the foundation of every enduring civilisation.
Hatred always promises victory.
More often than not…
It delivers only self-inflicted wounds.
Think of the haunting photographs from the end of the Second World War.
A nation that had once marched in immaculate uniforms, saluting its imagined racial superiority, was reduced to utter ruin. Civilians stood in long lines as Allied soldiers dusted them with DDT to combat the lice and disease that accompany war and devastation.
The contrast is unforgettable.
The arrogance remained only in memory.
The consequences remained in reality.
THE CONCLUSION
Three witnesses. One truth.
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