Recreating Christ in the Image of Caesar, Part I

According to various church traditions, Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus (aka Constantine "the Great" or even "Saint Constantine"), accepted Christianity as his religion after gaining victory over Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge—where the would-be emperor allegedly had a vision of the Chi (X) Rho (P), the first two letters in the Greek word christos, meaning Christ. Eusebius, an early church historian, wrote one of the only description of this story. In his account, Constantine saw a vision in the heavens of the cross along with the words In Hoc Signo Vinces meaning "In this sign, you will conquer."

Constantine is claimed to be the first "Christian Emperor" due to his issuance of the Edict of Milan in 313—mandating religious tolerance—and effectively "legalizing" Christianity (along with all other religions). However, much of the evidence that Constantine was "Christian" is highly suspect, if not plainly inconclusive. For example, the closest historic link we have to Constantine, his triumphal arch in Rome, erected to commemorate his victory over Maxentius—the one he supposedly attributed to Christ's power—contains not one, single Christian symbol. Instead, the arch is adorned by several reliefs with depictions of Apollo, Hercules, Diana, Silvanus. In fact, the shields and standards of Constantine's soldiers do not even display the Chi (X) that Eusebius tells was commanded in a dream the night before. Constantine even continued to accept the title of Potifex Maximus, head of the Roman pagan priesthood, after his alleged conversion.

Prior to Constantine, from the time of Christ to the reign of Marcus Aurelius (160-181AD), there is no historical account of Christians serving in the Roman military. In contrast, the early church theologian Origen (185-251AD), in his six-part treatise Against Celsus, conceded the charge of Celsus, a pagan philosopher, that Christians do not "hold public office, fight in the army, or swear the oaths of allegiance to the state."

Nevertheless, by the fourth century, the Constantinian Shift was complete. The Constantinian Shift is the historical-theological transition from the nonviolent, Kingdom ethic of Jesus and his early followers to the violent, triumphalist ethic of "Christendom." This term was coined by renowned Anabaptist theologian John Howard Yoder.

The mosaic pictured above is one of the more blatant examples of this shift. Its is from the Byzantine period, and is featured in the Archepiscopal Palace in Ravenna—the then capital of Roman Empire. It was commissioned by Bishop Pietro II in 494-495. The mosaic depicts Christ as a Roman Legionary and wearing a purple tunic, the symbol of royalty. Unlike a Jewish Rabbi, Christ is pictured beardless like a Roman emperor. Far from the Hebrew peasant born under Roman occupation and crucified on a Roman cross, Christ is here recreated in the image of the emperor.

In part 2 of this post, I will show how the Reich Church of Nazi Germany recreated Christ in the image of the "Fuhrer."

Living Out the Sermon on the Mount

Jesus taught his disciples saying,

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you." (Mt. 5.38-42)

Julio Diaz loves his mugger and wins him over with the power of love.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89164759

yoder quotes

one of the books i read during my 40 day media fast was the original revolution by john howard yoder, a collection of essays discussing the topic of christian pacifism. **everyone must read this book**

i wrote down some of my favorite quotes and thought i'd share them with the blogosphere. enjoy...

"jesus will therefore be describing a morality of repentance or of conversion; not a prescription of what Every Man can and should do to be happy; not a meditation on how best to guide society, but a description of how a person behaves whose life has been transformed by meeting jesus."

"this (christian pacifism) is not a set of moral standards to be posed on everyone or on the unconvinced."

"the ethics of discipleship is not guided by the goals it seeks to reach, but by the Lord it seeks to reflect."

"what jesus meant by fulfillment was thus a quite literal filling full, a carrying on to full accomplishment of the intent of the earlier moral guides."

"nonresistance is right, in the deepest sense, not because it works, but because it anticipates the triumph of the lamb that was slain."

"here we must point out that this attitude, leaving evil free to be evil, leaving the sinner free to separate himself from God and sin against man, is a part of the nature of agape itself, as revealed already in creation."

"God's love begins right at the point where he permits sin against himself and against man, without crushing the rebel under his own rebellion."

regarding the new covenant..."once all men are seen as potential partakers of the covenant, then the outside can no longer be perceived as less than human or as an object for sacrificing."

read the book for yourself. it's brilliant.

-dave-

Nonviolence: A Matter of Forgiveness; A Gift of the Holy Spirit

Today we went to church with one of the guys we're living with at Casa San Dimas here in San Francisco. The sermon was on Mark 2:1-12, the story of the paralytic who is lowered through the roof in Capernaum. The twist of the story is that when the man is lowered in front of Jesus, instead of healing him right away, Jesus says the following crazy thing (don't worry, he heals him afterwards! ;-) :

“Why do you question these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.”

-Mark 2:8-11

I had left our house this morning to head to church after reading a book on nonviolence titled, "Is There No Other Way" and, needless to say, had the topic of Christian nonviolence on my mind when we walked into church. The passage from Mark that was being preached on brought back to me a memory of another thing Jesus said long after the healing of the paralytic and shortly after his resurrection. Bear with me here I swear this'll make sense in a minute:

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.”

- John 20:19-23

This must have resounded with the disciples and perhaps would have been difficult to hear, for earlier in Jesus teachings, when he taught them how to pray he had said:

(Following the Lord's prayer) For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

- Matthew 6:14

And perhaps they had remembered what he had said to his enemies while dying on the cross days before:

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

- Luke 23:33-34

People have been asking me over the last few months as I have explored the issue of Jesus and non-violence, "What got you so interested in this issue? Why do you think it's so important? Shouldn't you be focusing more of your attention on more 'doctrinal' issues like salvation, sanctification, etc?" These are valid concerns, and were my focus strictly on "non-violence" itself, perhaps these concerns would be justified. Yet I feel that non-violence strikes at the heart of a much deeper issue that has more to do with how we respond to God's forgiveness, Jesus cross, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit than it does with nonviolence as a stand-alone ethic.

I've heard it preached, and I can't remember from where, that the one thing that Jesus asks us to share with him in is His cross. Jesus tells his disciples to , "take up their cross and follow me" and after he was taken up to heaven many of his disciples literally did so under persecution from Rome. At the essence of what it means to be a disciple is emulation of the teacher. Over and over again at church we are told we should become more like Jesus. The WWJD movement said it well with their simple reasoning for situational ethics, "What would Jesus do?" Many Christians are willing to do this when it comes to healing the sick, clothing the naked, and visiting those in prison yet they stop where Jesus words are perhaps the strongest and most difficult: "If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld." Here in John 20, not only has Jesus given us the power (through the Holy Spirit) to heal the broken but he has given us the power to forgive sins. Over and over again throughout his teaching ministry Jesus reminds us of the importance of our forgiveness of others (including our enemies) and how this forgiveness we offer is balanced spiritually to how God forgives us. This is why the gift Jesus offers to his disciples of the ability to forgive sins must be complimented with the teaching that, "If you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses." To put it bluntly: "You have been forgiven your sins and I am bestowing onto you the ability to forgive others their sins as well as the ability not to. Yet if you choose not to forgive others their sins, neither will I forgive you yours." Jesus reinforces this dynamic in the parable of the ungrateful servant (Mat. 18:21-35) and perhaps more importantly (if we're discussing how a disciple should be like his teacher) we see this radical forgiveness exemplified in its fullest in Jesus death on the cross for even his enemies as we see in Luke 23.

And so to put it simply, the reason why I feel that non-violence is vitally important to the Christian life has less to do with nonviolence per se and has much more to do with what Jesus taught concerning his forgiveness and our God-given spiritual gift and obligation to forgive others in response. If we have been forgiven much than how much more should we be willing to forgive our enemies even when they take our lives and the lives of our families? Non-violence and forgiveness as a response to violence is a scriptural value, important not only as a Christian ethic, but also as a response of the Christ-changed heart showing the fruits of the Spirit.

The Lord's Prayer, Community, and Non-Violence

This morning our team gathered for prayer, scripture, and communion. One of the girls on our team, Nettie, prefaced the communion with a short reflection on The Lord's Prayer, which we had just recited. She pointed out that when Jesus taught us to pray he taught us to pray as a community sprinkling the prayer with words like "us", "we", "our" instead of "me", "I", etc. In regards to the communion, this is a relevant reminder of our unity when we gather around the Lord's table and it reminds us that our actions have consequences to the whole and effect the community, not just the self. When we eat, we eat together so that all are provided for (give us this day our daily bread), when we sin, we are forgiven in the same measure we forgive others (forgive us our trespasses), and we ask God to keep us from temptation (not just to protect the self from temptation).

One of the most common arguments/disclaimers I hear made by opponents of Christian pacifism/non-violence is that "Jesus clearly wasn't speaking to nations (communities) when he told us to love and forgive our enemies, he was only speaking of the individual Christian's responsibility." The Lord's Prayer offers us perhaps the best defense against this argument. Contrary to what opponents to Christian pacifism say, Jesus always meant for his teachings to be carried out in the context of community. They were never meant to be understood strictly as personal moral teachings. The Lord's Prayer emphasizes this when it teaches us to ask God to forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. This section of the prayer compliments the ethic of loving our enemies that is taught in Matthew 5.

In a previous post of quotations I have stumbled across as of late I left something that St. Augustine had said about loving our enemies. Augustine goes as far as to say that "your sins will not be forgiven if you do not offer them with mercy (toward those who have sinned against you)." Next time you gather with your community, remember what the Lord's Prayer calls us to do and ask yourself, "Are we (my community, my church, my nation) forgiving others their trespasses? Are we loving our enemies?"

Also... on capital punishment and the early church

Also of note: This is a section of a piece Athenagoras (133-190) wrote in defense of the Christian faith. The context is that Athenagoras is defending Christianity against the claims the Romans were making that Christians were cannibals (because of the Eucharist). His argument is to show that Christians in fact hold life in extreme regard, even abstaining from capital punishment and abortion.

"What man of sound mind, therefore, will affirm, while such is our character, that we are murderers? For we cannot eat human flesh till we have killed some one. The former charge, therefore, being false, if any one should ask them in regard to the second, whether they have seen what they assert, not one of them would be so barefaced as to say that he had. And yet we have slaves, some more and some fewer, by whom we could not help being seen; but even of these, not one has been found to invent even such things against us. For when they know that we cannot endure even to see a man put to death, though justly; who of them can accuse us of murder or cannibalism? Who does not reckon among the things of greatest interest the contests of gladiators and wild beasts, especially those which are given by you? But we, deeming that to see a man put to death is much the same as killing him, have abjured such spectacles. How, then, when we do not even look on, lest we should contract guilt and pollution, can we put people to death? And when we say that those women who use drugs to bring on abortion commit murder, and will have to give an account to God for the abortion, on what principle should we commit murder? For it does not belong to the same person to regard the very fœtus in the womb as a created being, and therefore an object of God’s care, and when it has passed into life, to kill it; and not to expose an infant, because those who expose them are chargeable with child-murder, and on the other hand, when it has been reared to destroy it. But we are in all things always alike and the same, submitting ourselves to reason, and not ruling over it."

Athenagoras, A Plea For The Christians, Chapter XXXV

So many quotes....

I have a million things to post in here but no time to comment on them.

From the Holy Scripture:

"I beg of you that when I am present I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete."

- 2 Corinthians 10:2-6

" Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. 51 And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant [7] of the high priest and cut off his ear. 52 Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. 53 Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?”

- Matthew 26:50-54

"So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” 35 Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” 36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”

- John 18:33-36

From early Christianity:

"But now inquiry is made about this point, whether a believer may turn himself unto military service, and whether the military may be admitted unto the faith, even the rank and file, or each inferior grade, to whom there is no necessity for taking part in sacrifices or capital punishments. There is no agreement between the divine and the human sacrament, the standard of Christ and the standard of the devil, the camp of light and the camp of darkness. One soul cannot be due to two masters—God and Cæsar. And yet Moses carried a rod, and Aaron wore a buckle, and John (Baptist) is girt with leather and Joshua the son of Nun leads a line of march; and the People warred: if it pleases you to sport with the subject. But how will a Christian man war, nay, how will he serve even in peace, without a sword, which the Lord has taken away? For albeit soldiers had come unto John, and had received the formula of their rule; albeit, likewise, a centurion had believed; still the Lord afterward, in disarming Peter, disarmed every soldier. No dress is lawful among us, if assigned to any unlawful action."

-Tertullian, Concerning Military Service

"You are a debtor to Him who cannot be deceived. You also have a debtor. God says to you: You are my debtor and he is your debtor. I do for you, my debtor, what you do for your debtor. You offer me a gift when you spare your debtor. You ask me for mercy: then do not be slow in showing mercy. Listen to what scripture says: I desire mercy more than sacrifice. Do not offer sacrifice without mercy, for your sins will not be forgiven unless you offer them with mercy."

- Augustine, Sermon 386 on Matthew 5 "Love your enemies"