Why do we call Jesus King and Lord? Why do we have a Sunday each year in the church calendar that is “Christ the King” Sunday? What does it mean for me to say that I accept Jesus Christ as Lord? These are questions that have haunted me ever since I had to give written answers to theological questions to the Board of Ordained Ministry as part of the review process for ordination as an Elder in the United Methodist Church.
It has only taken about 25 years for me to finally have some sort of reasonable and authentic answer to these questions. It goes to a book we used for the Adult Sunday School class The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church’s Conservative Icon by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan. In this eye-opening and theological world shaking book I found out something that I either didn’t know or didn’t pay attention to and that is many of the titles we use for Jesus were in Paul’s time titles reserved solely for the Roman Emperor. Borg-Crossan write:
“…almost all the sacred terms and solemn titles that we might think of as Christian creations or even
Pauline inventions were already associated with Caesar Augustus, the first undisputed ruler of the Roman Empire, from 31 BCE to 14 CE.
Augustus was Divine, Son of God, God, and God from God. He was Lord, Liberator, Redeemer, and Savior of the World…Words like “justice” and “peace,” “epiphany” and “gospel,” “grace” and “salvation” were already associated with him. Even “sin” and “atonement” were connected to him as well…All those assertions, terms, and titles were at home within Roman imperial theology and incarnated in Caesar the Augustus before they ever appeared in Pauline Christian theology and were incarnated in Jesus the Christ.” (Pages 93-94)
All of a sudden the titles and terms I have been using all my life for Jesus were being portrayed in a very different light, the light of radical faith and subversive practice. You see Caesar brought about peace through violence. The title “emperor” is actually better understood in the Roman context as the “All-Conquering One” and in the light of a military victor as world conqueror. To be “Son of God” for a Roman Emperor was a title that came after Julius Caesar who was the first divine emperor and therefore every emperor after him would be known as “Son of God.” And just to carry this out further, Caesar was also known as “God Incarnate” which more accurately should be “God Who Is to Be Worshiped.” And the emperor is seen as God when living so therefore God incarnate. This is what is known as Roman imperial theology. One critical thing needs to be mentioned, worship of Caesar was mandatory for all people in the Roman Empire. The only person/God to have the titles of Emperor/Caesar/King was Caesar. They only person/God that could be referred to as “Son of God” and “God incarnate” was Caesar.
So we now know what is meant when we call Caesar Lord, Emperor, God; we mean the one who in Roman imperial theology was the bringer of victory and peace. It was ascension by way of violence. It was the thought process: “worship and sacrifice to the gods; with them on your side, you go to war; from that, of course, comes victory; then, and only then, do you obtain peace.” (Borg-Crossan pages 105-06). Because Caesar won and peace has come Caesar is now our god! This is the way of the world and of every empire, this path of peace through victory. It is the norm of civilization that to have peace one must be the victor and to maintain peace one must have violence or its very real threat.
So to call Jesus “the Lord” or “the Son of God” or “God incarnate” would have been to displace Caesar’s rightful place in life and worship worship and in your loyalty. When Paul greets his congregations in his letters he writes things that are subversive and radical. things like:
“…call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours…” (1 Corinthians 1:2)
“…to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ…” (1 Thessalonians 1:1)
These and many other statements like them are all statements of faith but also confessions of loyalty and acts of subversion. The first Christians were making a radical break with the world around them and defiantly proclaiming that “we have no king but Jesus” as a direct contradiction of the chief priests at Jesus’ trail who proclaim “We have no king but Caesar.” (John 19:15 NRSV) Christianity at its earliest was a faith that proclaimed openly and clearly that they worshiped only God and Christ and that God and Christ had their loyalty and allegiance not Caesar. From the start Christianity has been a faith of subversion.
You see we Christians proclaim a vastly different way for peace in our world. And the foundational difference between Caesar as Lord and Jesus as Lord is found in the difference between how peace comes. With Caesar you get peace through violent victory and with Jesus you get peace through nonviolent justice. As Borg-Crossan wrote:
“Caesar not only proclaims but incarnates peace through violent victory, just as Christ not only proclaims but incarnates peace through non-violent justice. There will be peace on earth, said Roman imperial theology, when all is quiet and orderly. There will be peace on earth, said Pauline Christian theology, when all is fair and just.” (Page 121)
So to confess Jesus as Lord; to call Jesus King; to proclaim Jesus as Son of God, as God incarnate, to confess to the world that you are a partner of Christ is to say that your loyalty and allegiance lay not with a nation, political party or person but with Christ. To confess your partnership with God and Christ is to proclaim to all that there is no king but Jesus. And to partner with God and Christ is to live as a subversive because your goal is peace through nonviolent justice; your slogan is peace on earth when all is fair and just. To be Christian is to be a subversive because you are not loyal to the powers of this earth that want to bring peace through violent victory, maintain peace through violence and injustice. There is not a form of government or an empire or nation that does not believe that security and peace can only come through violence and the threat of violence. To be Christian is to say that they are wrong, that there is another way the way of justice for all; the way of Christ our Lord and King.
From the start we have been subversives, radicals. From the moment Jesus began teaching about loving your neighbor and serving others Christianity has been a faith in opposition to the ways of the world. Every parable Jesus told about the Kingdom of God was a proclamation of what his kingdom would be; a place where justice ruled and all were equal. So on Christ the King Sunday and every day let us remember our radical, subversive roots and confess once again our loyalty and allegiance to Jesus Christ our King, Son of God, God incarnate, our Lord and THE Lord.
No comments:
Post a Comment