https://wyehuxford.com/2020/07/01/be-careful-about-calling-caesar-lord/
By Wye Huxford
A few months ago, I decided it was time for a revisit to those seven letters to seven different churches that are at the opening of Revelation. My idea in deciding to do this, in part, was that I’m confident when this current time of turmoil in our culture – over the pandemic, over justice, over politics in general – is over, we will be living in what I’ve been calling “a coming new world.”
When I read these seven letters, written to churches who were facing rather turbulent times, I wondered if I could learn some of the “potholes” the church might avoid in order to please Christ on the one hand, and make an impact on the world on the other hand.
One of the potholes I discovered – present in some way in each of the letters – is the temptation to confuse politics and faith, a temptation often born out of fear. The Emperor Cult was a big deal in the late first century, and the pressure had to be intense to conflate one’s faith in Jesus as Lord with at least nodding your head at the idea that Caesar was Lord.
This issue may be the most dramatic in the letter to the church at Smyrna. (Revelation 2:8-11) Smyrna was awarded the privilege to build a temple to the Emperor Tiberias among the cities of Asia Minor. John Stott, in a great little book, titled What Christ Thinks of the Church, ponders “Did the Christians refuse to sprinkle incense on the fire that burned before the Emperor’s bust? Of course they did. To do so would be idolatry . . . their unwillingness to conform was interpreted by the common people as a disgraceful and even treacherous lack of patriotism.” (page 37)
If you read this letter, you find Jesus using three pretty big words to describe what life was like for these believers: tribulation, poverty, and slander from the enemies of Jesus. It is easy to see how their refusal to call Caesar Lord could be the cause for all three of these difficulties. Never one to hold back the truth, Jesus also lets them know that there is more to come. We know from church history that Jesus’ words were true – the story of Polycarp is but one among hundreds that could likely be told. (If you would like to read about Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna in the middle of the second century, click here.)
It seems that perhaps fear of tribulation, the struggle of finding a job if you refused to say Caesar is Lord, and dealing with the nonsense talk of those who slandered followers of Jesus was a challenge for believers in Smyrna.
If you notice the way Jesus introduces Himself in this letter, it becomes apparent he wants to communicate to them that He knows what He is talking about. “The first and the last, who was dead, and has come to life, says this . . .” He is no arm-chair theologian who can repeat all the right ideas and assume that’s enough. He is a “been there and done that” kind of Savior. He never asks more of us than He Himself hasn’t already given.
In this coming new world, we will likely still need to contend with the aftermath of the global pandemic that, as of this writing, has claimed over 500,000 lives worldwide – 128,000 of those in the United States. We are faced with the even greater challenge of taking the gospel seriously enough to speak truth about issues of justice and fairness. But we can’t be content to just speak truth; we must act such truth out. That’s going to be complicated. Many suggest that the aggressive consumerism of the pre-pandemic world will need to be adjusted downward. That’s challenging. Higher education – the area of our culture that has prepared men and women for the sophisticated world of work for decades – is facing great challenges in terms of financial sustainability, accommodating masks and social distancing, and a host of other issues.
To Smyrna, Jesus said, “Do not fear!” And that is coming from the One who “was dead, and has come back to life.”
In this coming new world, we cannot allow fear to cripple our witness to the hope that is found in Christ. That will require making sure we aren’t calling our own “Caesars” Lord, but with great faith and commitment, declaring – perhaps on bended knee – that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
It doesn’t matter who our particular “Caesars” may be; the moment we conflate that Caesar with Jesus as Lord, we have stepped in a really deep pothole.