Back to the television in the airport. On the news are sound bites from a speech by the president of the United States. He's on the deck of an aircraft carrier, proclaiming victory in a recent military effort. Not only was the mission accomplished, according to the leader of the world's only superpower, but American forces are now occupying this Middle Eastern country until peace can be fully realized within its borders.
This puts a Christian in an awkward place.
Because Jesus was a Middle Eastern man who lived in an occupied country and was killed by the superpower of his day.
The Roman Empire, which put Jesus on an execution stake, insisted that it was bringing peace to the world through its massive military might, and anybody who didn't see it this way just might be put on a cross. Emperor Caesar, who ruled the Roman Empire, was considered the "Son of God," the "Prince of Peace," and one of his propaganda slogans was "peace through victory."
The insistence of the first Christians was that through this resurrected Jesus Christ, God has made peace with the world. Not through weapons of war but through a naked, bleeding man hanging dead on an execution stake. A Roman execution stake. Another of Caesar's favorite propaganda slogans was "Caesar is Lord." The first Christians often said "Jesus is Lord." For them, Jesus was another way, a better way, a way that made the world better through sacrificial love, not coercive violence.
So when the commander in chief of the most powerful armed forces humanity has ever seen quotes the prophet Isaiah from the Bible in celebration of military victory, we must ask, Is this what Isaiah had in mind?
A Christian should get very nervous when the flag and the Bible start holding hands. This is not a romance we want to encourage.
Bell, Rob, and Don Golden. "Introduction: Air Puffers and Rubber Gloves." Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2008. E-book.
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