The other day I watched JFK for the first time, in it is a scene with Lee Harvey Oswald in a Russian embassy renouncing his American citizenship as an act of antagonism and protest against the US. It got me thinking about the call to follow Jesus, and how Christians were first perceived in the larger Roman world of their day...
What if becoming a disciple of Jesus was no less (but rather more) a defection from citizenship in this world, and this nation. This amounts to 'traitors in the midst' to the government in Rome! This is why Rome destroyed so many Christians they were a political threat...
What do you do with people who have dedicated themselves to the overthrow of the established order? They propose an alternative way of living that is based around loving service instead of power and control. Their lives are so beautiful and attractive that they (by simply being who they are) are inviting people to ignore the status-quo and shift into their paradigm... But they aren't approaching the city with swords, nor are they attacking with diatribes, they don't wish to leave and start an alternate community but proclaim their intention to subvert this one from the inside, and they are unwilling to compromise, they won't bow to threats of death, nor cave in to promises of reward... such a people must be eradicated, or else they will be the cause of the greatest political/social upheaval in world history.
This is why for centuries Christians went into the flames, in front of the gladiators, and in the midst of the wild beast, while jeering crowds or cool aristocracy looked on...
Repent, for the Kingdom of God is here!
- Jesus of Nazareth
1 comment:
Viva la Revolucion!
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