Easter: Defying the Cult of Order

Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:1-14

The Cult of Order

In the year 203 CE, a 22 year old Roman woman named Vivia Perpetua and her slave known as Felicitas were arrested along with 3 other people for the crime of practicing Christianity. Roman Emperor Severus was desperately trying to align all the many religions of Rome into one ordered system. In his mind a Roman could worship any god he or she wanted, as long as they were willing to show honor to other gods as well. Two religions opposed this practice: Judaism and Christianity. Jews were not new to Roman experience and seemed to be an unconquerable people when it came to changing their faith. Christianity was still a new faith, quiet and law abiding, and it wasn’t really a religion a lot of people understood. It grew during the persecution of Christians under Nero in the year 68 CE, but had settled into the host of other religious entities until Severus started persecuting the sect and outlawed the converting of people to Christianity.

Vivia Perpetua and Felicitas were given the same choice all arrested Christians were: You could curse the name of Jesus and be set free, or you would be executed in the Coliseum with the rest of the criminals at noon. Even though they seemed to have everything to live for – Vivia Perpetua was a new mother and Felicitas gave birth while in prison - both women refused to turn their back on Christ or curse him. They were both taken into the Coliseum to be killed.

Perpetua was a Roman Citizen, which meant she couldn’t be crucified or ill-treated by guards. She was chained to a post to be killed by the wild beasts of the day. Although she was mauled, her wounds were not fatal. A guard was sent to kill her in front of the gathered crowd (executions were at noon, gladiators were before sunset – so the lunch time crowd was the rough and angry mob of the streets there to watch the bloodletting). He stabbed her, but his sword did not do enough damage and the wound was not fatal either. Claiming the power of Christ over the powers of death in this world, she grabbed the soldier’s sword and slit her own throat – defying Roman justice by taking her own life. The crowd was stunned in horrified, confused silence. They could not understand why a young mother would stick to her religion with such surety when the rest of them felt such doubt about it all.

Felicitas was a slave and condemned to be crucified. She suffered mightily at the hands of the guards prior to her crucifixion and was tortured both prior to and after being nailed to the cross. Her singing and prayer during her suffering began to dampen the spirit of the crowd. They could not understand the strength a mere slave girl had to withstand such torture. The Roman Historian Eutropilius reported the crowd left the arena as she suffered – their desire to watch a ugly death stunted, the games were cancelled for the evening. She was found alive in the morning and killed by the arena master.

(Note: There are many different stories of Perpetua and Felicity, including Roman Catholic Dogma that names them as Saints and adds miracles to their tales, however this account is from Roman records and verified from scholars at Oxford as the most accurate account we have).

The Age of Doubt

Perpetua and Felicitas are credited with bringing Rome into the age of doubt. They defied the cult of order Romans lived by. In the Roman world, everything was neat, even, orderly and went entirely to plan. If things didn’t go as planned, the Emperor simply changed that plan so it did. Nothing was left to change. Nothing unexpected should happen. Romans - the folks who gave us the calendar, the aqueduct system, and paved roads – knew everything would be okay as long as it was orderly.

Then these Christian women died in front of them claiming death was not final, life was eternal and the son of God had rose from the grave to live again. That was certainly not an orderly thought. Christianity was downright disorderly! And powerful. They began to look around. Would they die for their gods? Certainly not! There were hundreds of gods that governed daily life – how would you even know which one to die for? Did they even believe in the gods anymore, or was it just the orderly thing to do? Why was Severus determined to fit all the religions into one system and why was the Christian God too big, too powerful, and too amazing to fall into line with the others? Suddenly common Romans, Centurions, plebeians and politicians all begin to wonder if there wasn’t something more. There was something those women had gotten from their faith in a resurrected Jewish Rabbi who preached love and life.

Doubt is not always a bad thing. It led Rome to question its orderly system of gods and policies and accept a change. In 313 the Emperor Constantine declared tolerance for Christianity, and later sought the make the Roman Empire a Christian nation. The Roman’s ability to accept and embrace Christianity is often credited to the age of doubt they went through as a result of the witness of the martyrs.

The Life of Christ

Easter Sunday is a day we celebrate Christ’s resurrection. It’s the day we as God’s sons and daughters defy the cult of order around us. Believing someone rose from the dead is not orderly, reasonable, or scientifically verifiable. It doesn’t fit into a “system” of thought at all (which is why I find “systemic theology” to be such a funny term). In a world where people are still governed by many gods – media, status, money, greed, work, achievement, vanity, etc – Easter Sunday stands proudly as a day to say “none of those things will add one day to your life but Jesus Christ is eternal and his love makes you eternal too”. Instead of scholars at the Jesus Seminar doubting whether or not the resurrection really happened, it is the people of the world who look to us with the eyes of doubt. They doubt their petty gods of rationalization and emotions are real or lasting at all. That doubt can open the door to their freedom from the tyranny of order into the flowing, pulsing, healing, eternal life in Christ.

Easter sermons are oh-so-easy to write. You can talk about life out of death, the women who found him and thought he was a gardener, Peter who ran to the tomb and was forgiven for his cowardice, the walk to Emmaus, the empty tomb, the rolled away stone, the angel…but this Easter I want to do something different. I was us to remember that the resurrection is a fact – an order defying, logic upturning, fact. And because it is a fact – the world will change. Carry Easter in your heart this year not as an empty tomb, a lily and some chocolate eggs. Carry it as a light shining out of a terrible darkness that Jesus is alive and because of that truth the world and its petty little gods will never be the same.

This Easter remember: We may not be called to die for Christ like Vivia Perpetua or suffer the pains of Felicitas. But we are called to live for Jesus and spread the light of peace, hope, and strength to overcome the pains of this world in all that we do and all that we are.

Christ is risen from the dead! Go and be among the living. Go and live among the dying. Go.