Lectionary: Lent 1(C)
Texts: Romans 10:5-13; Luke 4:1-13
The Heart of Empire
 |
| Jesus Carried up to a Pinnacle of the Temple (Tissot, James, 1836-1902) |
For any of us to say that is noncontroversial. We could yell
that in public, and aside from some strange looks directed our way, I doubt
anyone would take much notice or care that much. That alone shows how, at least
in our society, despite differences in beliefs and opinions, the presence of Christianity
is a cultural norm.
Now imagine the city of Rome at the height of the Roman
empire. The villas of the nobles and wealthy line the narrow streets winding
about the hills on which the city is built. There are images and statuary to
the gods at every corner. Approaching an entry to one villa, you see an image
of Janus in the entry while at the boundaries to either neighbor, you see icons
of Terminus. Inside you might encounter shrines dedicated to the many lares
and parentes honoring the household’s ancestors. As you move farther
into the house, you come to the kitchen where carvings and icons of panes
and penates keep watch of the pantry and the kitchen and dining area.
In public life the
major gods of the Romans were venerated and temples to them can be found on the
grounds of the city. The Temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, The Temple of Saturn,
the Temple of Hercules Victor, the Pantheon which venerated all gods, and so
on.
And then there was the imperial cult of the emperor, where a
deceased emperor could be elevated to godhood. The new emperor was then
described as “son of god”. There were isolated instances where the living
emperor would style himself as a god, but this was not always the case.
Directly related to the gods was the concept of paterfamilias
(father of family) and the household codes. There are several places in the New
Testament where we see the use of household codes in the text. We can see this
in Ephesians, Colossians, and 1 Peter. It is based on the concept of paterfamilias
where a father rules over the household. It can be traced back to Aristotle
where he describes the ideal structure of the state, in Politics, book 1. Here Aristotle appeals to “the
natural order” of things to describe how the right to rule descends from the
gods to the king to the fathers over his household, which consists of his wife,
children, servants and slaves.
The structure and stability of the state is directly
attributable to how each paterfamilias governs and rules over his
assigned domain. Venerating and appeasing all of the gods, especially the
household gods, was a critical aspect of maintaining one’s household.
In this setting, Caesar was the paterfamilias of the
entire empire, both political and religious. And because of how households were
viewed as part of the hierarchy of the state, Caesar was also the ultimate lord
of the household.
Christians in the Heart of Empire
To declare “Jesus is Lord” was an act of treason. It was effectively
declaring that Ceasar is not lord. It was a seditious declaration. It was seen
as striking at the very pillars that established the security and stability of
the state. Abandoning the gods of house and state was risking angering them and
inviting catastrophe to both domestic and national affairs.
When Paul writes to the Romans that they are to “confess
with your mouth the Jesus is Lord,” all of what I just described is implied. Paul
is exhorting the Romans to change their allegiance from Caesar and the empire
to Jesus and his beloved community. This allegiance to and belonging to the
community of Christ is what Paul means when he writes, “For ‘everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’” This is the meaning of salvation. In
Paul’s mind, salvation is not about a future event where the saved are taken to
heaven. It is about entrance into a new community and embracing a new way of
living with new allegiance, priorities, and values.
For the Christians in Rome who made the decision to baptized
and declared that Jesus is Lord, it meant their participation in public life,
their welcome in public spaces, their social lives and livelihoods were
impacted. Their declaration was not merely words but a literal rejection of the
empire and exit from their former ways of living. So, entry into a new
community was vital for their survival. That Christian community provided a
necessary lifeline where Christians could continue to survive and live.
I’ve mentioned in prior sermons that contrary to popular imagination,
early Christians probably did not face systematic, empire-wide persecution,
though many conservative Christian historians disagree.[1]
One could imagine how the populace of Rome might blame Christians, due to their
abandonment of traditional gods, for the conflagration of the city during the
reign of Nero. Regardless, the ostracization from social and economic life and
exclusion from participation in public life would have been difficult enough
and would have necessitated finding support in an alternate community.
When we read about the early Christians and their decision
to follow Jesus Christ, we need to understand what that meant. We need to know
that its significance and impact went far beyond merely joining a church and leaving much of the rest of their lives unchanged.
Jesus Tested in the Wilderness
We jump over to Jesus and the wilderness temptation. After
baptism, in the Lucan version, he was “led by the Spirit in[to] the wilderness,
where for forty days he was tested by the devil.”
The first test Jesus faces is where the devil suggests that
Jesus meet his need for food (after all, he had fasted for forty days) by
turning stones into bread. In the second test, the devil takes him up high
(Luke doesn’t specify where) where Jesus is shown all the kingdoms of the world
and is offered dominion over them for the cost of worshiping the one offering
it, the devil. And for the third and final test, Jesus is taken to the pinnacle
of the temple and the devil suggest the Jesus throw himself off the pinnacle
because there is a text in Psalms promising protection from physical harm.
In each case, Jesus counters the devil’s test quoting from
scripture, specifically from the text of Deuteronomy. It needs to be noted that
in the third test, the devil used scripture as part of the test, but it was not
a proper use of it. This should be reminder that because someone quotes texts
from the Bible, that by itself is not sufficient evidence for an argument. When
a text is quoted, we need to evaluate if it is being quoted properly, in all its
relevant contexts.
What about these tests that Jesus faced and what might it
symbolize? One commentary reads, referencing Chrysostom, a church father from
the fourth century,
The tests might also suggest to the
Hellenistic auditor the threefold category of vice: love of pleasure, love of
possession, and love of glory.[2]
Now, there is nothing wrong with enjoyment and pleasure, of
having possessions, or experiencing success and even receiving adulation for
accomplishments. But we should not fall in love with any of these things. When
we do, they become our own household gods that we end up having to constantly
appease by striving for more and more of them.
Another commentary on these three tests suggests,
In these dialogues Jesus rejects
three methods of inaugurating the kingdom of God: (1) use of extraordinary
power to provide bread, (2) military dreams of world empire, and (3) a sudden
appearance in the temple…
The Messiah is God’s servant, and
the Sermon on the Plain (6:20–49) is Jesus’ alternative Messianism, the demand
for active merciful love toward the poor and hungry.[3]
In these three tests Jesus rejects methods of empire to
build and hold power. Jesus rejects manipulation of his powers, Jesus rejects
the use of military and political might, and Jesus rejects self-aggrandizement and
religious manipulation.
Jesus gave up and rejected the way of empire to bring about
change in the world. Instead, he inaugurated a different community with values
and priorities opposing the world’s.
Following Jesus, Rejecting Empire
When we claim that Jesus is Lord, we should be following his
way, and that includes giving up empire and rejecting the methods used by the
world to acquire, maintain, and control power. If we say that Jesus is Lord,
then like our ancient forebearers of the faith in Rome, we should be saying
that our allegiance is not to any nation or leader of this world, but to Christ
alone.
The fact that, at least in this current society that we are
in, we face no hardship for saying, “Jesus is Lord,” says one of two things.
Either our society is so much like God’s kingdom already, or the church and
Christians have become nearly indistinguishable from the world. Since I’m sure
all of us can agree that it is not the former, we can say that it is closer to the
latter.
We need to change how we read these texts. We need to
acknowledge that we are part of the empire, comfortably living in it and
enjoying its benefits and privileges. We need to read scripture as being
written to warn us. We are the rich ruler asking Jesus how we can get into his
kingdom. We are the ones that are being asked to give up everything to follow
Jesus. We are the ones who look at Jesus yet longingly look back to what we are
being asked to leave behind. We are the camel trying to go through the eye of a
needle.[4]
The beloved community of Jesus is composed of those who are
presently poor, hungry, weeping, reviled and rejected.[5]
It is not enough to merely pay lip service to helping the poor and hungry. It
is not enough to merely speak words of comfort to those who are weeping. It is
not enough to merely stand with the reviled and the rejected.
We need to find ways to be in solidarity with them. To be in
solidarity with them means finding ways to create a community where they are
valued and respected as full members and citizens.
Salvation Begins Here
When Paul wrote about salvation to the Christians in Rome,
he meant (quote from Romans Disarmed: Resisting Empire, Demanding Justice)
–
… an end to the imperial rule of
death. It meant resurrection, and it meant life: life for those who were
enslaved, life for those who were hungry, life for the poor who were naked,
life for those who were dying because of the economic and political violence of
the empire…
Unless we are willing to name the
injustice of sexual abuse, economic oppression, human trafficking…, the
exclusion of the stranger, we have no way of understanding either the word of
hope that the gospel brought into these situations of pain or the radical
nature of Paul’s language in Romans…
Paul wasn’t talking about sin or
injustice in general. He was naming the experiences to whom he wrote, those who
lived, Rome in the middle of the first century CE…
It is only when we share in the
suffering of these people that we truly understand the need for repentance,
that we truly understand the sins for which we must ask forgiveness.[6]
During this Lenten season, I encourage each of us to find
ways to give up empire, resist it, and demand justice. I encourage you to take
to heart what it means to declare that Jesus is Lord. I encourage you to find
ways to move your allegiance from entities of this world to the kingdom of God.
God is never on the side of the aggressor and oppressor. I encourage each of us
to find ways to join together with the suffering people in our world.
Blessed are you when people hate
you and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son
of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great
in heaven, for that is how their ancestors treated the prophets. (Luke 6:22-23
NRSVue)
In the name of God who is our Parent,
In the name of God who is our Sibling,
In the name of God who unites us in Love, Amen.
References
Aristotle. (2025, March 8). Aristotle, Politics,
Book 1, section 1253b. Retrieved from Aristotle, Politics:
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0058%3Abook%3D1%3Asection%3D1253b
Bartlett, D. L., & Taylor, B. B. (2009). Feasting
on the Word: Year C, Volume 2 (Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary).
Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.
Dunn, J. D., & Rogerson, J. W. (2003). Eerdmans
Commentary on the Bible. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans
Publishing Co.
Johnson, L. T. (2013). Reading Romans: A Literary
and Theological Commentary (Reading the New Testament). Macon, GA: Smyth
& Helwys.
Keesmat, S. C., & Walsh, B. J. (2019). Romans
Disarmed: Resisting Empire, Demanding Justice. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos
Press.
Kirk, J. D. (2022). Romans for Normal People.
Perkiomenville, PA: The Bible for Normal People.
Talbert, C. H. (2012). Reading Luke: A Literary
and Theological Commentary on the Third Gospel (Reading the New Testament).
Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys.
Wikipedia. (2025, March 8). The Myth of
Persecution. Retrieved from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Myth_of_Persecution
Wright, N. (2023). Romans for Everyone, Part 2:
Chapters 9-16, 20th Anniversary Edition. Louisville, KY: Westminster John
Knox Press.
