In the ancient world crucifixion was a regular and public means of execution, an open threat to potential rebels against state authority. Five centuries before the time of Jesus, Darius, the Persian king, crucified 3000 Babylonians; in 100 BCE Alexander Jannaeus, king of Judea, crucified 800 Pharisees; when Jesus was a boy the Romans crucified 2000 Jewish rebels. The earliest, secret, Christian symbol was the fish, “ichthus” in Greek making the initial letters of “Jesus Christ, God’s God, Saviour”. But the Cross also was for them a demonstration of the love of God- willing to face extreme suffering to challenge and overcome the powers of injustice in the world.
As Constantine brought his army to attack Rome in 312 CE he believed he saw a Cross in the sky, with the voice “In this sign conquer”. So his soldiers painted it on their shields, perverting it into a military symbol, later adopted by Crusaders against Islam, and today becoming an assertion of British “Christian” identity against immigration, appealing to the ancient myth of St George and the Dragon.
A strong sense of identity is important, even vital, but not if it becomes an excuse for denigrating and dominating others. Our reading was from Matthew chapter 3, where John the Baptist tells the religious leaders “Do not presume to say to yourselves ‘We have Abraham for our ancestor’, for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham” (in Hebrew “eben”- stone- becomes “ben”- son- with the change of only one letter). They must never forget that identity as God’s “own” people involves a responsibility for others (a lesson for Zionism today?).
John’s words are also a challenge for today’s Church, which all too easily becomes absorbed in its own well-being, forgetting its task to work in the world. Congregations too often judge worship by its emotional impact on themselves, rather than seeing it as a “school” for discipleship in society.
Those who rely on national identity alone are criticised even more harshly by Jesus in the Gospel of John (chapter 8, verses 31 to 44). “You are from your father the devil” says Jesus, “for he is a liar, and the father of lies” (verse 44). Recent surveys indicate that people in the UK feel that society is becoming increasingly divided (see the Policy Institute’s report below), and that trust in one another has fallen to very low levels (see the Ipsos Report below). That has particularly affected political leadership.
Is this because people see a great deal of over-simplified “presentation” and “spin” in what governments say, rather than a concern to tell truth honestly, and so strengthen the electorate’s ability to make mature decisions? Or does the world today put almost impossible demands on elected representatives, expected to choose between rival economic ideologies, each of which claim to correct the weaknesses and failings of the current policies (for example Keynesianism in the 1940s and Monetarism in the 1970s)? So when the elected representatives inevitably prove to have “feet of clay” (see Daniel 2, verse 33) the temptation is to abandon politics as a waste of time and energy
References:
David Olusoga: Empire (TV series): https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002hytj
Divided UK: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/uks-sense-of-division-reaches-new-high-as-culture-war-tensions-grow-study-finds
Trust in Politics: https://www.ipsos.com/en-uk/ipsos-trust-in-professions-veracity-index-2023