Jesus Christ (He is Lord of all)
August 19, 2014 marks the
two-millennia anniversary of the death of Caesar Augustus. In honor of the
anniversary, Rome's Scuderie del Quirinale museum has launched a display of
over 170 artifacts from the great man's reign. The adopted son of Julius
Caesar, this emperor defeated his rival Mark Antony at the Battle of Actium in
31 BC and changed his name from Octavian to the Latin equivalent of "The
Sublime One," then set about declaring himself the "savior" of
Rome who ushered in lasting "peace." He then set about releasing
propaganda in the form of statues, busts, cameos and coins that depicted him in
the guise of gods such as Jove or Apollo. "I found Rome a city of
bricks," he once boasted, "and left it a city of marble." Within
a month of his death the Roman senate officially deified him.
Mostly,
however, we remember Augustus because he called for the world-wide tax that
moved a Jewish carpenter from Nazareth to Bethlehem, where his espoused wife
had a baby. That baby, grown to manhood, declared himself the Savior of the
world and the true Prince of Peace. He ordered his followers to give Augustus'
self-portrait back to him by way of paying Roman taxes with Roman money. He
found the kingdoms of this world and left them the kingdoms of our God and of
his Christ. Within three days of his death his followers claimed he had risen,
and followed him as God.
Jesus Christ (He is Lord of all)
These
two worlds collide when Peter edges nervously into the home of a Roman military
officer. Peter discovers, much to his surprise, just how big the gospel is: Not
the provincial property of a single people but the worldwide savior of all
humanity. But a universal salvation does not amount to universalism.
Jesus Christ (He is Lord of all)
Pan
back for a moment: Cornelius lives in "Emperorville" and serves in a
cohort named for the master race (v.1). The centerpiece of Roman unity is the
cult of the emperor, a loose but ubiquitous set of practices built around
worship of any current occupant of the throne. Loyal citizens acknowledged the
Kaiser as the kurios (the Greek word
for Lord) and failure to do so
amounted to both blasphemy and treason.
Jesus Christ (He is Lord of all)
Our
translations miss the mark here. Peter does not say, in a parenthetical,
throw-away line, "He is Lord of all," but uses an emphatic
demonstrative pronoun: "Jesus Christ - THIS ONE is Lord of all." As
in, "this one to the exclusion of all others." The apostle goes on to
tell the whole story with all of its upside-down subversion of empire: Jesus
did not wreak great slaughter but did great good; Jesus did not defeat human
rivals but drove out the devil; Jesus did not kill rival claimants to lordship
but died at their hands; Jesus did not stay dead but rose again.
Jesus Christ (He is Lord of all)
This
is heavy stuff: Philosophers such as Epictetus and Suetonius used language like
"Lord of all" and "our ruler and god" to describe various
Caesars. Peter demands a clear shift in loyalties: Eat whatever you want, Peter
tells his Gentile host; skip circumcision and the Sabbath - but acknowledge
that only Jesus is God, the Savior, the One who makes peace.
Two
thousand years ago a Roman emperor died and stayed dead. He left behind an
occupied tomb and a mass of marble monuments. Two thousand years ago a Jewish
carpenter died. He left behind an empty tomb and a Church of living stones.
Ultimately, each person must choose between the two.
Kurios Christos,
Doug
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