Each day this Lent we’re looking at major “turning points” in Christian history – moments or seasons in which the story of God’s people took an important, often unexpected turn.
If you lived in the Roman Empire about 300 years after Christ, you would have every reason to believe that Christianity was on the Endangered Religions List.
A succession of emperors had decided that the empire needed the same language, the same court system, and the same faith in order to sustain unity. Christianity did not make the cut. Jesus' ragtag followers were seen as a counter-cultural movement that needed to be stamped out. Thousands of them died in the arena as a form of public entertainment.
Almost overnight, everything changed.
Christianity was suddenly granted official status and protection from one end of the empire to the other. Christ-followers came out of the shadows and began to meet openly. For the first time in church history, Christians were free to build buildings specifically designed for worship. What in the world had happened?
A young Roman general had had a conversion experience.
In October A.D. 312, Constantine was marching toward Rome at the head of an army of rabid supporters. His goal was to become emperor. Standing in his way was Maxentius, another claimant to the throne. According to one of his biographers, as Constantine neared the hour when he and his troops would plunge into a life-or-death battle, he looked up and saw a blazing cross of light in the sky. Alongside it were these words: “Conquer by this."
Constantine later reported that Jesus came to him in a dream. The Lord told him to put the sign of the cross on all of his warriors' shields as a way of guaranteeing victory. Obedient to these two visions, Constantine won the Battle of the Milvian Bridge and became the empire's supreme leader. In a rush of gratitude, he extended official protection to Christianity. The Christians' days of running for their lives were finally over.
It's an oft-told story about a watershed moment in the history of the Church.
It's also a story that has left historians wrestling with some important questions:
Did Constantine really see that vision and have that dream? It’s impossible to say. Did he truly believe what he professed to believe, or was he simply being politically expedient? Since God alone knows the heart, we can’t answer that one, either.
Should a “Christian emperor” use his authority to resolve doctrinal issues when pastors, bishops, and theologians become paralyzed by disagreements? We’ll tackle that interesting question tomorrow.
Overall, was this one of the best things that ever happened to Christianity or one of the worst? Historians agree that Constantine's conversion was a mixed bag. Even though followers of Jesus could now feel safe, church leaders suddenly had a new challenge: how to utilize immense power.
Over the centuries, the Church has all too often grievously fumbled that responsibility.
One of the saddest developments from the era of Constantine was an idea that had almost certainly never occurred to Christians prior to A.D. 312 – that "holy warriors" with swords in their hands and crosses on their shields should go into battle and fight for Jesus.
That had already been tried once before. And Jesus had made it dramatically clear it was a terrible idea.
As the disciples watched Jesus' enemies move forward to arrest him in the Garden of Gethsemane, they felt a sudden surge of righteous adrenaline. "Lord, should we strike with our swords?" Luke's Gospel account confirms they had at least two swords at hand. Was this the moment to use force to set things right? Peter didn't wait for Jesus' reply. He lunged with his sword and cut off the right ear of the high priest's servant, a man named Malchus.
Jesus' response was immediate. "No more of this!" he shouted. "Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword." Whereupon he himself reached out to make things right, but in a very different way: He healed Malchus' ear (Luke 22:49-51).
For centuries, Christians have gone to war for Jesus. But not because Jesus ever told them to do so. If we learn one thing from the accounts of his last week on earth, it's that violence never serves the cause of Christ.
Bible scholar Dale Bruner points out that whenever followers of Jesus resort to physical force, all they end up doing is cutting off the ears of other people, making it harder than ever for them to hear the Good News.
The Crusades have poisoned Islamic-Christian relations for more than 900 years. The Inquisition and the Salem witch trials have left a legacy of fanaticism. The Thirty Years' War between Catholics and Protestants left Europe disillusioned about the validity of Christian truth. The willingness of many clerics to turn a blind eye to slavery and the purging of indigenous peoples during the colonial era must remain a blight on the Church's conscience.
We are walking on dangerous ground whenever we conclude, "God is on our side in this war" – for the simple reason that it is impossible to imagine Jesus launching a war. It's hard to overstate the irony of transforming his cross – the very place where God was making peace with the world – into a rallying cry for killing people ("conquer by this").
Author Brian McLaren wonders what might have happened if the story of Constantine's conversion had been reported in a different way:
“Imagine that Constantine had seen a vision of a basin and towel with the words, ‘Serve by this,’ or a vision of a simple table with bread and wine with, ‘Reconcile around this,’ or a vision of Christ’s outstretched arms with ‘Embrace like this,’ or a vision of the birds of the air and the flowers of the field with ‘Trust like this,’ or a vision of a mother hen gathering her chicks with ‘Love like this,’ or a vision of a dove descending from heaven with the words, ‘Be as kind as this.’ But it was not so."
The opening line of St. Francis' famous prayer is always a safe place for us to land: "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace."
Does God want us to bet our lives that violence will make the world a better place?
No. Enough of this.
There are so many better ways to conquer the world.
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