The Legacy of the Christ Bearer
The Legacy of the Christ BearerIn the bustling City of Antioch man and woman of the Roman Empire were up in arms. The ancient enemy to the East had made havoc in the boarder state of Armenia, and the citizenry had just a short time ago had no confidence in the decadent empire to rescue them from destruction. But then the gods had favoured them, or so they reasoned, by putting the divine Nerva in command of the Empire, followed by his enterprising and constructive heir Trajan. The Empire was alive again. After decades of decline the economy was on the rise, jobs were available. Corrupt governors were weeded out and the fabled Roman justice system was being restored. There was a renewed confidence and a renewed vigour. As the young men rushed to the standards and stood proudly to experience the glories of a valorous war, the mothers and fathers and essential service members prayed for their safety and praised their courage.
It was a time of hope a time of progressive thinking and optimism. Utopia might be just around the corner, and with a victorious Empire, a just state and a restored Republican government, sitting on a booming economy there was little room to doubt that the future looked Roman!
The merchants plied their wares with confidence of men knowing they would make a sale. People spent their money, keeping little in reserve, knowing there was more to be had from gainful employments and trade. The military headquartered in camps around the city was a vociferous consumer and laughter and drunken pleasure echoed from the better homes in the City and its environs.
Deep within the cozy walls, a small group of the poor and the downtrodden, with a score of merchants and a few slaves of the great houses gathered in a more somber mood. They wept great tears of sorrow.
“He did what?” One cried as the tale was told.
“He went to the Emperor himself.”
“And he was condemned.” Another added. A moan escaped a young woman nearby.
“Let us pray for his deliverance.” She pleaded
“And what good will that do? It is finished, over. The Emperor has decreed it. And it will be the end for the rest of us soon…” A gruff voice tinged with sorrow bemoaned. Yet a soothing voice came from one of the aged,
“Remember the words of our blessed Apostle Paul, ‘But I want you to know brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ; and most of the brethren in the Lord having become more confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.’” He let his voice trail off. The young woman nodded solemnly. This was Josephus, he had sat at the feet of Paul himself. Many in the room were calmed and listened to the weak voice of the elderly man. Josephus was an elder in the church, once a rising light within Synagogue scholarship, Paul had converted him. He became a Presbyter, an elder in the church at Antioch sometime after the demise of Paul, but he had been an intimate of Ignatius for most of the century.
“What shall we do, elder Josephus?” One young man asked,
“Let us pray that God would count us worthy to live up to the courage of our pastor and that of our Apostles. And let us rejoice that we are counted worthy, not only to believe on our Lord Jesus Christ, “but also to suffer for His sake”.
A new perspective
From our perspective, the death sentence given to Ignatius seems like the end of a chapter in the history of the church of Antioch. But even if Rome meant it or evil, God meant it for Good. Because as may have been said in such a meeting of the church in Antioch, this day was not the end, but the beginning of a chapter not just for the church in Antioch, but the church universal!
What a shepherd this man was, who “willingly laid down his life for his sheep”. There is an interesting parallel with the life of the Apostle Paul, a former pillar in the very same church Ignatius led. His people, and the Pastor himself must have seen the connection which was so obvious. On the road to Damascus, just a few decades before Paul was told by the Lord that he should be a chosen vessel to bear His name, “before the nations, kings and the children of Israel” (Acts 9:15). Paul was a Theophorist a Christ bearer. The Apostle passed on to his spiritual son Timothy the command to take, “the things that you have heard form me in the presents of many witnesses and commit them to faithful man who will be able to teach others also (2 Ti. 2:2). Now Ignatius in his epistle to the Magnesians calls this young man, --you guessed it—“Timothy the Christ-bearer” (Chap. 3). This was Paul’s mission, to bear Christ and recreate Christ bearers.
And Ignatius kept this solemn charge, he took what was passed to him and he passes it on even today through his writings, all of which he wrote on the way to his death. With humility of spirit he usually began by saying something like this:
I do not as Peter and Paul issue commandments unto you. They were Apostles, I am a condemned man: they were free, while I am even now a servant. But when I suffer, I shall be the freedman of Jesus, emancipated in Him (Epistle to the Romans)’
Yet with the Bible on his mind he penned letters to the churches in every city he passed. He gave practical instruction and encouragement that stilled the souls of an entire generation to persevere through persecution. And the church that followed the purge of Trajan was stronger by far than it had been before. Not a little of this influence can be traced to the brave Pastor, who for sake of the flock poured out his life’s blood.
The Christ bearer has an influence felt throughout eternity. The works of Paul and Timothy and Ignatius, Athenatius, Augustine, Chysostom, Anslem, Luther, Calvin, Wesley, Whitfield, Edwards, Spurgeon and a host of other lights of Church history have paved the path of our own Salvation and by God’s grace have been His instruments to hear his glory throughout the known world. Each man in the list above has been used to mold the very fabric of Christianity. Each man has changed the course of secular and sacred history with the faithful and persecution filled ministry they endured. And the first three, with a veritable cloud of companions have marched into the ranks of the church Triumphant through the Cross of Christ.
A new commitment
Our Lord said, “He who does not take up his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me” (Matt. 10:38). The Christ bearer is radical in his full blooded commitment to the Lord. He says with Paul, “For me to live is Christ, to die is gain” (Phil 2:21). There is no lesser commitment he is not willing to give.
There is no room in the Kingdom for the cowardly (Rev. 21:8), there is no room in the kingdom for the half hearted disciple, but “he who loses his life for [Christ’s] sake will find it” (Matt. 10:39).
The Church and the Roman world experienced the full power of the Christ bearer for only one reason. Namely, this man, Ignatius, was able to say:
Let fire and the cross; let the crowds of wild beasts; let tearings. Breakings, and dislocations of bones; let cutting off of my members; let shatterings of my whole body; and let all the dreadful torments of the devil come to me: only let me attain Jesus Christ. All the pleasures of the world profit me nothing. It is better for me to die in behalf of Christ, then to reign over the ends of the earth, “For what shall a man be profited if he gain the whole world and yet lose his own soul” (Epistle to the Romans Chap 5).
Can you make the same commitment? Are you a Christ bearer?
posted by Chad @ 8:49 AM
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