Sunday, December 20, 2015

Pax Romana or Pax Jesus?

In June the year before last,we had the privilege of visiting the UK. As part of our road trip we drove north to Hexam and visited the ruined remains of Emperor Hadrian’s great wall. It is quite something to stand on what is still a huge and solid stone fortification and stare East to West marvelling at how it winds on and on for countless miles protecting what was then the Roman Empire from the wild Scots hordes. My daughter had a grand time mocking her mother on her barbarian ancestry till we pointed out the obvious!
I stood for some time gazing south across England and imaging the channel and a whole continent beyond that. Back in ~120AD this was all Rome! This was an empire that spanned the known world. The legions and their families and slaves had lived in barracks on these windswept rolling hills all paid allegiance to Caesar as their Lord. Caesaris est Dóminus. 
Interestingly, about a hundred years before the wall was built, Jesus was born and Augustus Octavian had been emperor for a quarter of a century. He was King of kings – A gift from the gods! He ruled from Gibraltar to Jerusalem and from Britain to the Black Sea. He had done what no one had done for two hundred years before him: he had brought peace to the wider, Roman world – Pax Romana.
Says NT Wright: “Augustus gave peace, as long as it was consistent with the interests of the Empire and the myth of his own glory. There you have it in a nutshell: the whole ambiguous structure of human empire, a kingdom of absolute power, bringing glory to the man at the top, and peace to those on whom his favor rested.”

And yet, fifteen hundred miles away, in an obscure province, a young couple undertakes a dangerous journey, resulting in the birth of a child in the little town of Bethlehem. And angels sing: Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests. 
What a contrast! This young King in Bethlehem, born with a price on his head represents the dangerous alternative, the possibility of a different empire, a different power, a different glory, and a different peace. The two stand over against one another.
The difference between these two Kingdoms is stark. Augustus ruled by the sword, the shield, and the banners of his ruthless legions.  A humble manger, a criminal’s cross, and a tomb marked the kingdom of Jesus from Nazareth.  No greater contrast could be imagined.  The birth of Jesus Christ was simply revolution: the birth of a different king, ushering in a differing kingdom, and threatening the greatest kingdom of this world.
“Jesus represents the dangerous alternative to the power of Rome:  a different power, a different glory, a different peace, a different salvation. The birth of Jesus is divine insurrection and outright revolution.” (The Jesus of Suburbia by Mike Erre)

Octavian’s Kingdom is long gone, and Hadrian’s Wall lies crumbling. But the reminder remains that we must choose between two radically different two kingdoms.  Do we bow before the Caesars of our time, or dare we embrace the kingdom of Jesus? Which will it be this Christmas: Pax Romana or Pax Jesus?