Giant thousand seat amphitheatres showing the best performances. Circuses with chariot races so exciting one couldn’t help but place a bet. Giant bathhouses where everybody who’s anybody hangs out. A massive palace with its own pool fed by the Mediterranean Sea. Beautifully paved streets flanked by Corinthian columns. Indoor plumbing.
While this could be the description of any Roman city in its heyday, it just happens to be the landscape sprawled out before me at Caesarea, the capital city and harbor built by Herod the Great. It was here that Paul spent several years in prison for his proclamation of the gospel (Acts 23-26). This was the capital of the king, while another king, Jesus of Nazareth, was preaching among the Jews. Caesarea, with its allure of greatness, with its colossal architecture making a powerful claim: look at all of this wealth, all of these public works. They are the gift of the king, provided you continue to obey him.
Every circus race, every theatre performance, ever statue of the traditional gods or the Caesars demand certain obedience, or at least an apathy toward change. Peace will be kept, the pax Romana, provided you just stay in line.
It’s amazing that the impact of this message that can still be felt when you walk the streets of the Roman city, when you stand in its massive structures. And yet, the Christian message called all of this into question by calling the world to recognize that its true Lord and King was Jesus, the Messiah, the one who died on a cross and was raised again. This message breaks through the numbing effect of the city and created a crisis. It demands a choice. Who is Lord, Caesar or Jesus? In which city will you live, the city of God or the Roman city?
While one’s allegiance should never be divided, navigating how to live that out was never that easy, never simply an all out acceptance or rejection of the world. There are times where the lies of the Empire need to be rejected, where their ethics fall silent to the truth of the gospel and its claims. On the other hand, Paul is willing to recognize what might be kept, as he states in Philippians 4.8:
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
But as I stood in the midst of the city, I have to admire the early Christian testimony, how so many stood faithful to witness to Jesus Christ, to raise a small voice of truth that challenges the screaming messages the Roman city declared. These are the saints who have gone before us, the fathers and mothers of our faith, the living stones built on the foundation of Christ
I can’t help but wonder how my Christian witness is being raised in the messages of our world. With politicians spewing hatred at one another, with the deafening messages of sex, wealth, and selfishness, with the centrality of entertainment in every perceivable form electronic and otherwise, with violence so prevalent that a neighborhood shooting seems normal, with religion being used to support every perceivable agenda, what does it look like to proclaim Jesus, the crucified one, as Lord?
God help us find our voices and lifestyles to proclaim Christ like those who have gone before us. Thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven
Amen.
greaterthanalexander 