If you know me at all, you know that I’m a bit of a history nerd. Maybe a bit is putting it mildly. I just love it. Somewhere around the age of five I became obsessed with the battle of Thermopylae and the rest is, well, history.
So it’s no surprise that I love examining the historical context of scripture. For me, I don’t just want to know what Jesus was doing, I want to know what kind of environment he was doing those things in. And you don’t have to be any kind of historical expert to know that it wasn’t exactly a friendly one to him.
You can’t read the New Testament and not get smacked in the face with the might of Rome in its heyday. When they weren’t ruling the majority of the known world or masterminding the sadistic practice of crucifixion, the Romans spent a lot of trime trying to improve wherever they conquered.
Enter Pax Romana. Translating to “Roman peace” this came to describe the stability that the Roman empire offered the world it ruled. More of an idea than a single thing, it represented the incredible engineering advancements of the Roman world, constructions which still stand in ruins all over Europe today. Bridges, aquaducts, forts for passing travelers and troops, and yes, one really big wall to keep the Picts out of their hair.
We have the saying “All roads lead to Rome” for a reason. The infrastructure was insane. Viable roads reached farther than ever. Not only that, but increased military presence began stretching to farther travel routes, providing more safety for travelers of any social standing, not just the ones who could take their own protection with them.
And all this was built at the same time Christians were brutally persecuted by Roman rulers. The acts against believers were horrific. It didn’t just stop at crucifixion. Some christians were boiled alive. Others were used as target practice. Still more were used as crowd pleasing, warm up acts in the arena, being fed to lions in front of a roaring crowd before the gladiator matches began. Both these versions of Roman existed in the same breath.
And early Christians didn’t miss a beat. While their brothers and sisters were being killed for their beliefs, they were out spreading the gospel and suddenly the benefits of Pax Romana took on new purpose. All that infrastructure provided ways for the very message it hated to spread like wildfire.
This engine of modernization that so vehemently opposed christianity and all that it stood for was one of the biggest contributors to its followers being able to spread their message so quickly and thoroughly. It’s how Thomas went from being the apostle who doubted Jesus’ resurrection to the one first bringing the gospel all the way to India. Growth and travel that would have taken centuries before the Roman empire happened in the span of a single lifetime thanks to the very thing that wanted to destroy Christianity.
So what’s the point of this history lesson?
My point is that the world looks really messy. It is really messy. You don’t need me to tell you that. You only have to look at the news on any given day to see that. Every day we hear more news that fills us with revulsion and dread for the state of things, but the one thing we believers cannot afford to waste our time doing is panicking about the state of the world.
You are just as equipped through the harshness of the world as the early christians.
If the engine that was Rome could accelerate the spread of the gospel, what might God be doing with the harsh things of our world today? Because believe me, it is happening. It’s happening right now. The very things that stand in opposition to God are so subjected to his authority that they can’t help but advance his victory.
So, and I say this with a lot of love, we really need to stop wasting our time worrying about everything that’s wrong in our world and start looking at how we can use the avenues the world has to share the gospel. Will it get scary? Yep. Will bad things happen to us and others? Absolutely. But is there any enemy that can gain the upper hand over you when God is going before you? Not a one. So for goodness sake why don’t we live like it?
We have to keep present in our mind that as Christians we already live in complete and total victory. Full stop. We don’t need to try to fight for victory in this world because we are living the victory of the next. No matter how bad and terrible things get here, nothing will change that God is sovereign over everything.
Instead of panicking about the hard things of this world, we need to view them with the same hunger early Christians did, as opportunities to advance the gospel. We need that fire in ourselves because I promise you God can do just as much with the terrible things of our world today as he did with the might of Rome. Our mission is not to make our world safe. It’s to get as many people to the safety of God as we can.
Pax Romana was not a one time deal. God is making ways forward for you through all the hardship and opposition. All you need to do is stay faithful to his work.
We follow a mighty and powerful God. We might just try living like it.
Let’s find some joy,
A
Avalon Robinson Author 