Excerpt from a letter from Emperor Trajan to Governor Pliny
“Romancing the Martyr” in After Jesus: Before Christianity (Westar)
I have a vivid memory of seventh grade Sunday School the day my teacher asked us, “If a Russian with a machine gun came to our classroom this morning and asked if you were a Christian, would you say yes?” The implication was that to be faithful to Jesus, we must be willing to die for our faith. To be fair, that teacher was a progressive role model for me. Her question had a lot more to do with growing up in the ‘60’s during the cold war than with faith. But we were all willing to die for Jesus, a noble death. After all, he died for us.
As we near the end of After Jesus: Before Christianity, our authors are tying up loose ends in reporting their research. They want us to know that the image many of us have of early Christians as willing martyrs, isn’t very accurate. Let’s unpack that a little.
It is true that followers of Jesus died at the hands of Rome. Jesus died at the hands of Rome. They executed him as a possible revolutionary. They executed thousands of his neighbors, some with cause and many without. They executed tens of thousands of people who had nothing to do with Jesus. Execution was entertainment in public spaces, including fighting gladiators and folks fed to wild beasts. Execution was sometimes private entertainment, as was torture. Execution and violence was a primary way Rome kept control of a vast empire, and people tolerated it – to save their own lives and because in general Roman peace meant prosperity for people in power.
Our reading today is an excerpt from a letter from Emperor Trajan to his governor Pliny. It seems in the areas of Bithynia and Pontus which Pliny governed, people were turning in their neighbors for belonging to Jesus groups. They even circulated a pamphlet naming those who followed Jesus. Pliny felt obliged to question these people, not because they followed a Jesus religion but because Jesus was executed as a revolutionary and so those who counted themselves in his party were potential revolutionaries. It’s true that they could exonerate themselves by making a sacrifice to the Emperor, who was seen as a god. We commonly see this as a test of faith. Romans would have seen it as an act of patriotism and national loyalty.
Our authors suggest that those they called christianus would also have seen it as a political act. They were following Jesus whose teachings and life witness contradict the violence and oppression of Rome. Jesus says God is opposed to those things and invites people to live by a different world view and value system. Their faith in the teachings of Jesus makes them opponents of Empire and a threat to Rome. But they aren’t a direct military threat. If they can prove that they aren’t plotting insurrection – perhaps by sacrificing to the Emperor – Emperor Trajan suggests they be left in peace. After all, you can’t kill everyone in the empire and still have slaves and workers. Violence is necessary, but excessive violence is self-defeating. Rome prefers to officially ignore these folks if possible. For sure the Emperor says not to pay attention to anonymous tips and pamphlets.
If Jesus followers weren’t being rounded up for mass executions like we’ve presumed, why are there so many stories of martyrs popular in the second century? Remember Thecla who was supposed to be martyred but God kept rescuing her? Surely enough people did die horrible deaths for there to be some credibility to death stories. But the stories just aren’t about graphic death. They are also about resistance. People condemned who show great courage and honor – a Roman value. People who rush into fire, slit their own throats, fight to the death in the arena. These people don’t die cringing in fear; they stand up to their executioners and gain a moral victory. Since many people were dying anyway in this culture, maybe the stories became popular because they stick it to Rome. You can kill us, but we’ll die with honor and you’ll be embarrassed by how nobly we die.
Twenty-first century thinking says, “Jesus died for you, so you must be willing to die for him.” It’s relatively easy to say that since hardly anyone is ever actually called to do that. First and second century thinking may have said, “Rome kills randomly. Jesus was caught in that, but he died honorably. His presence with us will give us the strength to do the same if we are also executed.” At the same time the teachings of Jesus are inviting people to live in a nonviolent, supportive community very different from their culture. They honor Jesus and themselves by dying courageously if they have to, but otherwise they keep their heads down and take care of one another.
We’ve spent four months learning about what it was like to live in the first and second centuries and how people who followed Jesus thought about what that meant. Next Sunday we’ll finish this book. Then what?
Here are some of the things we’ve learned…
Life in the Roman Empire was violent and hard. Jesus helped people live in a counter-cultural way which made it possible for them to deal with hardship. They cared for each other and used the teachings of Jesus as a model for everyday life.
These people said a wide variety of things about Jesus and applied his teachings to thought and action in many different ways. Each group emphasized what worked best for them.
What mattered to them was what they knew of Jesus’ words and actions, more than theories about who Jesus was.
Some of what we’ve always heard is essential to Christian belief didn’t exist until centuries later.
So what’s next? Does any of this matter to us in this time and place? Since these folks found Jesus’ words and actions life-giving and life-changing, we should probably pay attention to them. I’m going to preach next on the stories that tell us what Jesus said and did.
This study gives us permission to think about Jesus as a model in our own moment in history. We’re going to begin that on October 29. The council is inviting us that day to stay after worship, to enjoy potluck brunch, and to have a conversation about what matters to us in our own time. How does what we know about Jesus shape what we believe and what we do? We’ll find some energizing ways to talk about those things, hoping that our conversation gives us identity as one group of Jesus-followers and focus for how we put our faith into action.