Caesar vs Jesus

This post contains some references to sexual assault and some might find it disturbing.

Recently, I have been thinking about the story the Roman historian Plutarch tells that the night before he crossed the Rubicon Julius Caesar had a dream in which his mother “submitted” to his sexual penetration. To us this sounds like a grotesque story of incest and rape, but those with Caesar interpreted this dream to mean that the world (his mother) was going to submit to Caesar’s power. Just like in some quarters in our world, in the ancient world sexual penetration was viewed as a conquest, imposing a man’s will on another person. It is tempting for us to downplay the brutality of Caesar’s dream and forget that he is describing a rape in which a woman freezes at his advance and simply submits to his will. Such activity was celebrated by the Romans as evidenced in how those with Caesar told him that the whole of Rome (and the world) which had given birth to Caesar would likewise submit to his power. I know that most of those who read this will be repulsed by this story both the dream itself and the blatant comparison of Caesar’s rule with rape. But this is how most of the pre-Christian world operated (and frankly some kingdom that were supposed to be Christian). This is the ideal of wordly rule that Jesus stands so sharply against.

When Christians think of Jesus we use passages like Isaiah 53, where God’s anointed is the suffering servant or Philippians 2 where Jesus lays aside his will to do what is best for humanity. Jesus’ entire ministry is is described as service, giving in to the demands and requests of others. And when Christians described their own lives, whether marriage (Ephesians 5) or discipleship (John 13-14) they did so in terms of extending Jesus’ style of humility and service to everyone in our lives. We cannot have a clearly dichotomy than that of Caesar who rapes the world and Jesus who serves the world despite the abuse.

In the abstract of ancient history this is a very clear division, Caesar represents the worst of humanity and the human desire for power and control described in Genesis 3 as the result of human self-centeredness and sin. But when we bring these notions into the modern world it becomes less clear to see the way of Jesus and far harder to follow that path. Take for instance much of the rhetoric from Christian Nationalists, who on the surface say things like we want the whole nation to obey Christ. This statement sounds wonderful, an entire nation that is submitting to the reign and rule of Jesus. But ask yourself, how are these individuals going to do this when right now at least 40% of Americans are not Christians and so not even trying to serve Jesus in their lives? The answer is of course force, they are going to adopt the mindset of Caesar to force everyone to act like they act and publicly believe what they believe. Of course the response they usually give is they are trying to eradicate evil from the world, and yes they are, however they are using a means that Jesus would not and did not approve of. Satan’s temptation in Matthew 4:8-11 is to use the type of force that Caesar uses in order to conquer the world, the temptation is not some form of idol worship alone, it is to use the means of government to get what he wants. Jesus utterly rejects this plan, of course, and goes on to live the life of the suffering servant. And it is this that Jesus means in John John 18:36 when he says “My kingdom is not of this world” he does not mean that his kingdom is purely in heaven or some other plain of existence (though this is what Pilate understands). Rather, Jesus means he does not come with armies to rape, pillage, and conquer the way Caesar and the Romans do (the typical human method).

Jesus wants us to be people committed to ethics and morality, he also wants us to be people who do not wrongfully impose our beliefs on others, and sometimes this is delicate balance and causes us to suffer grief because others will not follow our lead. But the alternative is to force people to conform to our will in the way Caesar does. This has been part of the problem with Christian approaches to politics in America over the last 40 years. Christians have been willing to sell out out moral standards simply to gain political power which we can use to create a “Christian nation”. We align with who will support one or two interests and align on behalf of our identity as Christians (not Americans), despite the fact these candidates will do irreparable harm. And so when these candidates and leaders fail, the reputation of the Church suffers. We are seeing this today, self identified “Evangelical Christians” have decreased by 4% over 8 years because of how this group of Christians have aligned themselves politically. This is not simply because of who evangelical Christians support but how they support their candidates, investing them with God’s presence and power. When we use language like “God’s will” to describe support for politicians and issues we are inherently giving to Caesar what is God’s and adopting Caesar’s view of government. Yes, Christians can take politics seriously, yes Christians can be influenced by our call to morality when we vote, but when we unite too closely to politics, when we begin to think that laws and government are the answer then we are moving away from Jesus and toward Caesar. Sociologists have increasingly tied the decline in Christianity in America to how Christians approach politics and the fact that we put more faith in political solutions for our country’s evils than in the Church. We need to take a step back and evaluate how we are using politics and whether we are committed to Jesus’ attitude of being a servant or Caesar’s desire of control through power.