When it comes to conflict, leaders need overwhelming force. That is the price of victory. It is not usual to find this tactic offered as a counter in spiritual contests. ‘Overwhelming victory is ours,’ Paul says in Romans 8.37 ‘But I thought Christianity was about submission, about recognising defeat’, you say. Well, true enough.
So it was on Good Friday. The fist of imperial Rome had shown itself. The whole fabric of the Roman empire had required the elimination of a maverick leader of slaves What happened to Spartacus a hundred years before happened to Jesus. But Jesus had not gone to war. The contest had been between two minds. Jesus, the Son of God, had encountered Pontius Pilate in a struggle of wills. The overwhelming force of Rome had made itself felt.
By what we call Easter Day things looked different. Change persisted. A change did not come at once. A string of emperors had managed the Mediterranean world before the result of that contest was seen for what it was. By the time of Constantine in the fourth century the balance of power had shifted. That did not automatically make for a better world but it eased the pressure on maligned and penalised Christian believers.
Something deeper and more profound had also occurred. The good teacher had submitted to execution. This was an event beyond the computation of powerful men. It put men in a new light. It did what was beyond their capability. It defeated the old enemy. It brought salvation to the sons and daughters of men.
A dream-world? A denial of reality? Pie in the sky? We have to consider that possibility. Men and women do not welcome too much reality. There is every reason to blame self-deception for our shifting place in a world of shadows. But think what these conquerors and their successors have achieved. Defeat for the powers of darkness for one thing. A victory parade for the faithful for another. No possibility of evading the love of God.
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