4 Maccabees 16:16-25
“The Deaths of Heroes,” After Jesus: Before Christianity, (Westar)
Today we come to the end of the first part of our book After Jesus: Before Christianity, which we are “reading” this summer as a way of understanding how people who lived in Jesus’ time answered the question, “Who is this man and why does he matter?” That’s a question we also ask and answer, so to hear from our ancient spiritual ancestors informs our journey. The first part of the book has been putting Jesus into a historical context, teaching us what it was like to live when he lived. More than anything we’ve learned that his world was violent – full of warfare and coercion to insure that Pax Romana made life easy for the elite few. Today we look at a final thought about why this violence was so formative for those who followed Jesus, the tradition that heroes died a noble death.
We start with Socrates, who died 450 years earlier but was still revered as a hero of Greece. Socrates taught the young men of Athens that democracy was a bad idea because the people as a whole couldn’t possibly make wise choices in the way that a few smart men could make them. Since democracy was the new thing of his time, he was tried and convicted of “impiety against the gods of Athens and corrupting the youth of the city.” Since he told his accusers that he wouldn’t stop until he died, they sentenced him to death. He gathered his followers around him for a final meal, drank poison hemlock and died.
Socrates’ death was considered noble because he stood up to tyranny, to those who wanted to silence him, and he showed great self-control by facing his death without fear, a sign of his great character. After Plato’s writings made Socrates’ death well-known, he was revered as a great role model by generations to follow. His good name was preserved by his noble action.
The people of Israel, who were the core of Jesus’ followers, told other stories about faith heroes who died nobly. Our scripture today tells a story from the time of the Maccabees, a family who led a revolt against Antiochus Epiphanes, who attacked Jerusalem in 168 BCE. Everyone knew the story of the brave mother whose seven sons were captured in battle and one after the other were tortured to death while she watched. Our scripture today records her words, encouraging each one in turn to die rather than to turn against their nation which God commanded. Their resistance to a conqueror is loyalty to God and their history as a nation. To die nobly is in itself an act of defiance and patriotism.
Finally in the first century people told stories of those who died nobly at the hand of the Empire to preserve the possibility of their nation rising again in the future. So many nations were conquered and each one had many heroes from the battles they endured. They give their lives for the glory of their people and the hope of their rising again as a people.
When we look at the earliest reports of Jesus’ trial and death in the Gospels, we can see how those who heard the stories connected them to the tradition of noble death.
First Jesus eats a last meal with his disciples. He shares bread and wine and words of explanation and wisdom he wants them to remember. He tells them that like the bread his body will be broken. Crucifixion breaks a body in terrible ways. He tells them that the wine poured out is a new covenant in his blood. Every Roman meal ended with wine poured out as an offering to the Emperor. To forget to pour the wine is like forgetting to sing the national anthem before a sporting event. It’s scandalous. But Jesus doesn’t pour the wine – a sign of defiance toward the one who will soon murder him. And he tells people to remember and retell the story every time they eat. For the next decades his followers end every meal remembering that Jesus spilled blood is their wine. Every time they eat they multiply the defiance toward Roman control. By remembering over and over how Jesus died they keep his heroic act alive. He remains the hero.
Jesus’ death is like that of noble heroes because he is innocent. His trial demonstrates his nobility, his fearlessness in the face of danger, and his thorough goodness. He doesn’t deserve to die. He is loyal to his truth, his teachings, his cause, and his God. Rather than renounce what he has said in an attempt to save his life, he is silent before his accusers. He’s steadfast and brave. In some versions of the story the soldiers notice how bravely he dies and express their admiration.
Later explanations will amplify the meaning of Jesus’ death, but these early ones see him as the great hero, facing the power of Rome and standing up for both the people of Israel, his people, and for his teachings, which like Socrates he refuses to recant. They remember his wise parting words. They remember how strong he was at trial and in death. They remember him at every meal, giving their offering of wine not to the Emperor but as a memorial to Jesus. He gives them hope for a different kind of life than Rome imposes on them. He is the one who died for their cause and for their new way of living into a better future.
As we try to understand how much this meant to them, we can think about who are the ones who die a hero’s death in our time. Who would we name?
The soldiers in Ukraine?
Those who died protecting our own country?
Or in wars and prisons in other nations fighting for freedom?
Emmet Till? Martin Luther King Jr.?
George Floyd? Trayvon Martin? Breona Taylor? So many nameless others?
Matthew Shepherd?
The victims of mass shootings? El Paso? Synagogues? Schools? Night clubs?
Before we finish this project, we’re going to see how Jesus started as a hero and came to represent much more. But all that starts with seeing what he represented to oppressed peoples, living in constant danger, hoping for something more. It helps us to consider who are the heroes who die for something bigger than themselves today.