Lazer Beam from a Pandemic Catacomb!

Marching home from Near Eastern victories in 165AD, Roman legionnaires carried more than a sack of loot. They carried a viral infection which mushroomed into a 15-year plague in which 5-10 million, roughly 10% of the Roman Empire, perished! It was the Antonine Pandemic which killed 2,000 per day totalling twice that of COVID-19's current global death toll of 4.55 million! Public Health historians believe it was either Smallpox or Measles.

Our pandemic is not the worst there's ever been. Our families can get through it the same way they did!

Desperate to wipe out the disease AND a highly upopular new religion in one stroke, Emperor Marcus Aurelius ordered Christians to pray to pagan Roman deities to relieve the sick. But, true believers don't pray to idols! And, few followers of Jesus capitulated their faith. The emperor sent thousands to die as victims of wild beasts in the colosseum's grisly spectacles.

When politicians concoct a slurry of issues intentionally flavored for religious voters and spiked with hate for minorities, watch out! Don't guzzle it! When you see a flak jacketed insurrectionist bashing a capitol policeman's head with a fire extinguisher just feet from another waving the Christian flag, something's wrong! That's spiritually incongruent! Don't vote for it! Even raising campaign funds by selling Bibles ought to make us wonder. Anciently AND today, mingling religion and law leads to government enforcement of worship. Persecution of innocents inevtably results.

Round-up squads searched neighborhoods and alleys around the Forum and Titus's Arch for the pestilential sect who angered the gods by refusing to burn incense to Aurelius in the Emperor cult. Six stories below them, second century disciples of Christ hid in the tunnels where they laid their loved ones in chiseled niches to await their promised Resurrection. Nero (54-68AD), Aurelius (161-180AD), Decius (250AD), Valerian (257-258AD), Diocletian (283-305AD), and many local governors sentenced the faithful to ungodly punishments. "They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they died by the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins, in goatskins, desititute, afflicted, and mistreated. The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts, mountains, caves, and holes in the ground." (Hebrews 11:37-38, HCSB) The martyrs and their blood stains disappeared one-by-one. Power-hungry emperors enforcing false worship with death decrees are now only marble busts and ancient documents. That long-ago pandemic finally rupturerd the last Roman skin with its oozy sores! But on the

subterranean walls of the catacombs, inscriptions and paintings still shout out the secret Source of the Christians' amazing endurance: Jesus! It looks like a fish. But, it shouts "Jesus!" A fish (ixthus) on the wall shrieks the acrostic's

proclammation: "We're down here! We believe Jesus is the Son of God! He's our Savior! We're willing to give our lives for the One Who sacrificed His for us! But, you'll have to find us, first! And, we're not going to make it easy for you!" "Who is the one who conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?" (1John 5:5, HCSB) Professing Jesus as Savior put those Roman Christians' lives at

risk. Being devoted to Jesus was illegal; it was treasonous! What could be worth giving up your life? "This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. The one who has the Son has life...Believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life." (1John 5:11-13, HCSB) The only thing worth giving up a 75-year life is gaining a 75 million-year friendship with Jesus!

How many temptations does your friendship with Jesus overpower? If your faithfulness collapses before alluring media and your favorite pleasure, how could you ever have faced the second century lions? How would you ever choose twenty-first century prison or lethal injection rather than surrender your convictions of Christ's claims upon your life?

Discovered in 1578, more than 60 catacombs dot the map surrounding old Rome. Law required them to be outside the City Limits. It is estimated that 8 million burials were made there between 72-410AD. Scratched on slabs, carved into utensils, painted on the soft stone tuffa, the Christian emblems suggest the outlook of faithful Christians under legal and disease duress. Besides the ixthus, other faith depictions are there, too. The real Good Shepherd cared for His hiding flock and their trust showed up in the underground art. Also present were anchors, sheep, doves, the ark, and palms. Conspicuously absent is the cross. Early Christians were preoccupied with a living Savior Who carried them through trial. Inscriptions are full of hope and joy; nothing about pain and suffering and gloom. Not a word expresses doubt, fear, or horror. The last of Christ's Twelve quoted Him this way: "In me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world." (John 16:33, HCSB)

In contrast, one must wonder why many conservative American Christians today are fascinated with dark contrived reports of government overreach, populous control, stolen freedoms, and sabotaged science. Where is the Early Church's bouyant dependence upon the conquering Cavalryman mounted on a white steed soon to fracture the firmament and rescue His faithful looking up in positive expectation? (Revelation 19:11-15) We're called to deliver gospel peace. Passing conjectural fear to others puts us on the wrong side! Why woud we do that?

From thousands of Christian emblems, perhaps the Goat Shepherd from Priscilla's Catacomb (200AD) best symbolizes the Early Church's focus. Obviously echoing all the other Shepherd paintings by representing Jesus as a gently attentive Protector, this fresco includes the judgment context of Matthew's Second Coming scene. "When the Son of Man comes in his splendour with all his angels with him, then he will take his seat on his glorious throne. All the nations will be assembled before him and he will separate men from each other like a shepherd separating sheep from goats. He will place the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who have won my Father’s blessing! Take your inheritance—the kingdom reserved for you since the foundation of the world!'" (Matthew 25:31-36, Phillips)

Jesus is pictured between a sheep and a goat, right hand clearly affirming the sheep's enduring Savior faith which has provided him an inheritance in God's kingdom. That's the gospel. That's the beaming lazer which illuminates every true believer's most-shadowed hardship and even pierces the tomb! No pandemic can dim the gospel. Jesus assures me of my inheritance! The gospel is a beacon leading me home! Just one additional message from 19 centuries ago and six stories below that Roman sod must be shared. The Goat Shepherd surprises us! Blessing the sheep with His right hand, Jesus remorsefully clings to the squirming goat He carries about His neck but must put down and allow its wishes to run from the Shepherd. "Our Savior...wants everyone to be saved and to come to know the truth. [But]...There is one God, and there is one who brings God and human beings together, the man Christ Jesus." (1Timothy 3:3-5, GNT) "My people are bent on turning from me. Though they call to Him on high, He will not exalt them at all. How can I give you up...How can I surrender you?...My compassion is stirred." (Hosea 11:7-8, HCSB)

So that's it! The lazer beaming from 19 centuries back and six stories down is the gospel that saves and inherits those who receive it. It's a beaming searchlight on a black night, too. It's a love longing for sinners even though they do not love the Savior back. A beaming lazer of love like that, brightens even pandemics!

I intend to walk the light path of friendship with Christ. How about you?

Your friend, Dave

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