Constantine’s Conversion
One of the winners of the parable contest (held by Peter Rollins) is by John Janzen:
The Emperor Constantine, facing the biggest battle of his reign, looked into the setting sun at the Lilvian Bridge and saw a vision of the Cross of Christ. As he gazed at the cross he heard a voice say “By this sign, conquer.”
The next day he gave up his reign as Emperor, surrendered all his many possessions, and went to live and work among the poor.?? And forever after he was known as one of the greatest heroes of the faith for his obedience to the voice of God.
Here are Rollins’s thoughts about the parable:
“I chose this short parable for second place as I liked how it took a central moment in the development of Christianity and employed it to explore the importance of interpretation. The apocryphal story from which this parable draws its power concerns an event that took place before the Battle of Milvian Bridge in 312. It is said that Constantine witnessed a huge cross in the sky with the words ‘By this sign, conquer’. Constantine took heed and commanded his troops to adorn their shields with a sign of the cross. They won this important battle and, as such, Constantine converted to Christianity.
“In this parable we are asked to reflect upon whether Constantine really understood what it meant to conquer by way of the cross, or whether his military might and earthly power caused him to misunderstand what it really means to conquer by way of the cross.”
This is a great parable but it is not practical. Can you imagine what would have happened if George Bush had followed this parable instead of going to war not to mention what would happen to Health Care if Obama followed this parable.
Nothing in the Bible leads me to believe following Christ is supposed to be practical. “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.” ……Whether that ends up being a literal or figurative statement, it’s certainly not practical to the world.
“The next day he gave up his reign as Emperor, surrendered all his many possessions, and went to live and work among the poor.?? And forever after he was known as one of the greatest heroes of the faith for his obedience to the voice of God.”
I like this.
If true, the original apocryphal story does give away Constantine’s dilemma. He wanted to be a conqueror … instead of more than conqueror.
Plumbers tend to think problems can be solved with a wrench; policemen, with a gun; doctors with medical treatment. Constantine, in the story, thought his problem would be solved by the sword and the right sign.
And so, as the story goes, began the history of the church in Mohammed mode. Okay, maybe not quite as bad as “Convert or die,” but setting the wrong precedent for more than a thousand years.
Self-sacrifice never seems practical. But it’s the only way to be like Christ.
I am not so different from Constantine. I can find all knds of ways to “interpret” God’s mission and will through my own vision and desires. I can even be busy doing “church work” and reading Scripture this way. I can even do this if have a faith that can move mountains or if I surrender my body to the flames.
Everyone knows Christians are called to run governments, not bother themselves with mundane tasks like feeding the poor. That’s why we spend so much time debating politics!
For someone who sees those few years of Constantine’s rise as the crucial mis-step in the life of the western church, the parable arouses deep and sorrowful longing for a different world than we have now. It seems that there we lost everything, the only thing of worth that we had: the upside-down, backward way of Jesus.
It seems to me that a failure to reject worldly power and to accept Jesus’ self-sacrificial refusal to acquire his own vindication is a fundamental rejection of God. If God’s greatest revelation to us is Jesus on the cross and raised by the power of the Father, and we reject that way, then I don’t think that we can claim to trust God. We are instead telling God that we will seek our vindication from some other source, some other god.
And I have very little hope that the radical trust that God desires will catch on among those who have a stake in the great empire of the West.
Like Jeremiah, I fear that perhaps it is too late to fix things: 1500 years of idolatrous ambition may have brought an irrevocable judgment on us. Just like Israel, we were called by God to be blessing to the nations, and just like Israel have, almost without exception, chased after idols. Meanwhile, many among us are shouting, “The temple of the Lord! The temple of the Lord!” in self-serving narcissism.
I agree we are not called to a practical Christianity however Government is inherently practical. Maybe that is why God did not want his people to be controlled by a government.
Jeff W, when the people of Israel wanted a King, God said they had rejected Him. I often wonder if we do not follow in their foot steps today.
Are we not Practical Christians if we do not “surrendered all [our] many possessions, and [go] live and work among the poor”
Are we living in the time of the “falling away?”
Is there any doubt in anyone’s mind that we are to care for the poor, needy and weak? Our minds are very clear on that, imho. What I wonder is if our hearts are ever going to be totally ready to put that clearly understood truth into constant, sacrificial action? I pray we can come to the time we don’t need to even mention it in conversation because it is such a normal part of each Christian’s life.
“By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
An addition to my first response here seemed to come blasting into my prayer time in preparation of today’s lesson in a study of 1 John a group of us are doing via an online Faith board. The study is based on Francis Chan’s blockbuster book, Crazy Love – which in turn takes us through 1 John as an example of where we’ve been missing it and how we can ‘catch’ it. During that prayer the thought came about this blog. Maybe an in-depth, verse by verse study of 1 John would help us bring our hearts to action on what our minds know we must do.
Kathy, how do you enroll or access the online faith board for Crazy Love?
I love this parable. To me it is strikingly similar to Jesus’ parable in Matt. 13 about the weeds among the wheat. Ultimately both parables are about our temptation to want to run human history. Once we have been “enlightened” to good and evil, we suppose it is a “righteous” task to make human history turn out right (as Lee Camp puts it). But this is precisely the kind of faithless move that God scorns in Matt. 13. It indeed require much in the way of faith for us humans to lay history firmly in the hands of God.
Serena, email me your addy and I’ll give you the details, ok? I think my email is in the Highland directory – phone number definitely is. Will be more than happy to share the info with you!!
This might get you started:
http://crazylovebook.com/
and
http://www.m-b-c.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=319&Itemid=
Look for the Transformation study on 1 John. Both are used in the study. Give me a call when you can.
In Him,
K
Forget it, it’s been fixed.