Eastertide Perspective: Pax Christi

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Pax Christi

Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you.  As the Father sent me, so I am sending you."

John 20:21 (CEB)

Oh, Father won't You forgive them?
They don't know what they've been doin'
Oh, Father, give me grace to forgive them
'Cause I feel like the one losin'

From "Losing" by Tenth Avenue North

It is evening.  The Disciples are gathered in their meeting place, and the door is locked.  It has been two days since their Teacher, a man of peace, was sentenced to death and executed by crucifixion, like a violent terrorist.  Earlier that day, Mary Magdalene came to the Disciples and reported that Jesus' body was missing.  Two of them went to the tomb to check out the stuation for themselves.  Mary returned later in the day to announce that she had seen Jesus alive and well.  At least one of the Disciples believes her, but most of them just don't know what to think.¹

Suddenly, Jesus appears in their midst and says, "Peace be with you."²

When Jesus last spoke of peace to the Disciples, they were gathered in the same place three days earlier, shortly before Jesus was arrested.  Having told them that He would soon be leaving them, He said to them, "Peace I leave with you.  My peace I give you.  I give to you not as the world gives.  Don't be troubled or afraid."³  Later in the same conversation, He said, "I've said these things to you so that you will have peace in me.  In the world you have distress.  But be encouraged!  I have conquered the world."⁴

Jesus promised the Disciples peace before He was arrested and executed.  Now that He has been resurrected from the dead, He returns to them with an announcement of peace.

I do not know exactly what Jesus meant when He spoke about how the world gives peace, but I wonder if maybe He was speaking about the Pax Romana.  The term Pax Romana is used to describe a two-century long age of order within the Roman Empire that began with the ascension of Caesar Augustus in 27 BC.⁵  The peace of Rome was a twisted kind of peace that was maintained through fear and violence.

One of the means by which the Roman Empire maintained order was crucifixion, the method by which Jesus was executed.  Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan describe crucifixion as "a form of Roman imperial terrorism."⁶  In The Last Week, they write,
First and above all else, although the Romans did not invent [crucifixion], they reserved it for very special victims.  Next, it was not just capital punishment, but a very definite type of capital punishment for those such as runaway slaves or rebel insergents who subverted Roman law and order and thereby disturbed the Pax Romana (the "Roman peace").  Furthermore, as imperial terrorism, it was always as public as possible - it was a calculated sort of social deterrant and as such it had to be very, very public.  Its victims were hung up as a public warning.⁷

According to one early Christian theologian, the purpose of Jesus' coming to earth and suffering crucifixion was "to destroy the one who holds the power over death - the devil - by dying" and to "set free those who were held in slavery their entire lives by their fear of death."⁸  The Roman Empire employed the fear of death in order to keep people under control.  Jesus died and rose again in order to set people free from the fear of the death, thereby rendering the Roman Empire ultimately powerless over them.

The Roman Empire brought peace through means of violence.
Jesus brought peace by confronting Roman violence, absorbing it, and rising from it.

The Roman Empire brought peace by instilling fear into people.
Jesus brought peace by liberating people from fear.

Christ's way of doing things is not the world's way of doing things, and, if we are followers of Christ, then our way of doing things must look more like Christ's.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says to His followers, "You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.  But I say to you that you must not oppose those who want to hurt you.  If people slap you on your right cheek, you must turn the left cheek to them as well."⁹  He goes on to say, "You have heard that it was said, You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy.  But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who harass you..."¹⁰  As the Prince of Peace, Christ calls us to be agents of His peace by disengaging from the world's games of payback and escalation.

Christ does not want us to be afraid, and He does not want us to use fear against each other.  May Christ's peace be with us, and may we be agents of Christ's peace in the world.


Notes:

1. John 20:1-19
2. John 20:19
3. John 14:27 (CEB)
4. John 16:33 (CEB)
5. Wikipedia: "Pax Romana"
6. Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan.  The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus's Final Days in Jerusalem.  2006, HarperOne.  p. 146
7. ibid.
8. Hebrews 2:14-15 (CEB)
9. Matthew 5:38-39 (CEB)
10. Matthew 5:43-44 (CEB)

Jesus Appears to the Disciples was painted by William Hole in 1906.