In his Parable of the Sower, Jesus tells
us that some seed being sown fell on rocky places. Later he explains the meaning
of this: 20 The
one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the
word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet
he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and
when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately
he falls away (Matthew 13:20-21, New American Standard Version).
1.
State persecution and Church response
In his book, An Historian’s Approach to Religion (1956), English historian
Arnold Toynbee (1889-1975) rightly applies Christ’s Parable of the Sower to the
relationship between the Christian Church and the Roman State. Speaking of the seed
sown on rocky places, Toynbee praises the Church’s response to persecution
during Roman times (AD 63-313) with these words:
Of all the challenges that are
encountered by the sower of the seed, the challenge of persecution is the one
to which the followers of the higher religions [Christianity and Buddhism] have
succeeded in responding with the greatest measure of success. Though, in all
persecutions, there are, no doubt, always many weaker vessels who do fail to
stand the ordeal, the followers of the higher religions have been conspicuous,
on the whole, for their steadfastness and courage when put to the test.
The Christian Church was put to
this test by the Roman Empire; the Mahayana [Buddhists] by the Chinese Empire
[of] the T’ang Dynasty. Both churches responded by producing martyrs; but the
Christians in the Roman Empire seem to have been more steadfast…in standing a
more severe ordeal (92).
There are two details here which would be helpful for us
to note. One, violent persecution by the State is part of our history as
Church. Two, in Roman times, an inspiring number of Christians chose to respond
to persecution with courage rather than compromise.
2. Reason for State persecution
On the Christian side, there
was an intuition that Man-worship in its oecumenical collective form was the
most imposing, attractive, and specious idolatry still in the field, and that
therefore the Christian was called upon to show the utmost stalwartness and
intransigence in resisting it (94).
Toynbee believed that we humans worship ourselves by
making idols of our political communities. He said that our most impressive,
seductive, and deceptive political idols are empires.
Let us agree with Toynbee that self-centeredness is
certainly an important element in current human devotion to false gods. Let us
add, though, that self-centeredness is not the only or even most important
element in that devotion. When we worship our empire, we are really worshiping
Jupiter: god of politics and one of the six conventional but false and destructive
gods of Olympianity.
3. Pressing the
question of idolatry
It was…the common view of the
two parties [Church and State] that a point of principle, and this one of
capital importance, was at stake in the question whether the Christians should
or should not acknowledge the divinity of Rome and of Caesar. Therefore, in the
last resort, the Roman magistrate was bound to pass sentence of death on any Christian
who refused to make this acknowledgement by performing a symbolic outward
visible act of worship. The magistrate’s usual tactics were to press the prisoner
to clear himself by performing the rite, on the ground that this was only a
formality; and it was there that the magistrate was not on solid ground. For,
if the rite was really no more than a formality after all, why should not the
State waive its demand for the performance of it, instead of insisting on
punishing a refusal with death?...Would-be martyrs insisted on forcing the
issue and deliberately made it impossible for the magistrate to avoid imposing
the death penalty (103).
From the crucifixion of Jesus Christ in AD 30, the Roman
State declared the Christian Church illegal. This illegality provided the legal
foundation for the sporadic persecution of the Christian Church until 313 when
the Roman State acknowledged its defeat by the Church by declaring it legal.
The Roman State persisted in this negative policy because
it thought of Christians as atheists.
Roman Olympians believed in the six conventional gods of Olympianity as well as
others. They were even willing to add Jesus to their pantheon. Christians
insisted that Yahweh was the only god and there were no others at all,
anywhere, ever.
In response to this uncompromising, illiberal,
unprogressive attitude, the Roman State occasionally demanded that Christians
either perform some small public act of devotion to the Olympian gods or die.
Churches didn’t pick this fight. They didn’t walk away from it either. They
didn’t allow representatives of the Roman State to pretend that any act of
devotion to the Olympian gods, no matter how small, was simply a formality. No.
In truth it was a public repudiation of Jesus as Son of God and Son of Man.
Sorry.
Today, are our churches prepared to discern with such
clarity the idolatrous claims of our own empire? If our empire chose to pick a
fight with us for rejecting its claims, would we be prepared to act with the steadfastness and courage we once did?
Copyright © 2018
by Steven Farsaci.
All rights reserved. Fair use encouraged.
All rights reserved. Fair use encouraged.
