Smiling Past the Lions

Quo Vadis is a movie that was put out in 1951 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, starring Robert Taylor and Deborah Kerr as the primary love interests and my favorite Peter Ustinov as the Emperor Nero. The movie runs for nearly three hours, and is set in ancient Rome during Nero's glory days when he somehow thinks it would be a great idea of burn the city of Rome.

Along with the Caesarian story of the Roman senate and power struggles, there's a contrasting story of underground Christianity, of a despised group of people who put their faith in some guy who had been crucified outside a city called Jerusalem thirty years before. 

When Rome burns, the enraged people want a scapegoat, and Nero gives the story that the Christians are the incendiaries.

Thus begins the entertainment in the Circus Maximus, the Colosseum, and the crowds gather to watch the spectacle of hundreds of Christians being herded onto the arena floor... just before the hungry lions are released.

As an older movie, there is very little that is graphic, but given the factual historical details of many parts of the story (Nero's burning of Rome, the Christian persecution as they are fed to the lions), the story still wrenches deeply. It's an immersive story, and each time I've watched it, I hear the same question form in my mind: Would my faith stand in that situation?

One of the key moments in the movie that never fails to give me chills is when the first group of Christians are pushed out onto the arena floor. They're terrified and weeping, and the crowd is deafening and the lions are at their gates, roaring and hungry.

In the storyline, Peter (yep, the same disciple that gets out of the boat and walks on the water toward Christ) appears in the crowd. He raises his hands, and silence falls, and he speaks words of encouragement to the Christians. 

Nero gives the order for his arrest, and two guards grab him, but his encouragement has done its work. The Christians, rather than weeping, begin to sing. The sound grows as more Christians join in, and the entire arena is full of the praise and worship of those who are about to meet Jesus face to face. 

The crowd who has been screaming for blood is bewildered. No one can understand this. Why aren't the Christians terrified? The attitude change takes all the fun out of it. Nero is angry and confused and curious. He gives the order that the arena not be cleared before he has a chance to inspect the lions' leavings.

And then the lions are released.

Later that night, Nero returns with some of his soldiers and he inspects the bodies left over (again, there is nothing grotesque shown; it is all in words). As he looks at body after body, his bewilderment and confusion grows, because each one is smiling.

What on earth would cause them to smile?

Nothing on earth. It's the One Who is in heaven as each one steps from earth through the veil into the glorious presence of the One Who meets them and takes them by the hand. "Well done, My good and faithful servant. Enter into your reward."

James 1:2-8 is a familiar passage to me. It's one I've got memorized, it's underlined in my Bible, and it's one I turn to often. Even so, the Holy Spirit did new work on my heart this morning as I read the words again: 

"Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, Who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does."

James should have been a meat-packer. This paragraph -- the whole book -- is packed with meaty portions of protein. I was going to try to get through the first chapter, and then realized, there's no way -- there's just too much to study and think about. So I was going to divide the chapter in half, and again decided I couldn't. So I'm just going to stick with this paragraph -- which is still a main course feast.

James starts his letter with a gut-punch. He's writing specifically to Jewish Christians scattered throughout the nations, many of whom are undergoing martyrdom similar to what's happening in the movie described above.

Consider it pure joy whenever you face trials of many kinds. 

I'm not sure I've ever faced a trial with pure joy. I've faced trials with grudging glances heavenward: Really, God? Do I have to? I've faced trials with tears and pain. I've faced trials with doubt and anger. I've faced trials with fear. (That's my biggest pitfall, and boy, does the enemy know it. He plays on my fears all the time; it's a continual battle that I will likely fight all my life). 

I don't know if I've ever faced trials with pure joy. 

James isn't asking for a masochistic joy in our suffering; he gives the reason for the joy in the next clause: "...because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance."

Why is perseverance important? 

"Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."

As I consider the word "complete," I see in my mind a line of fire that slowly moves as it forms a circle, a ring. There is no entrance and no exit to the ring; there's no starting point or ending point. There is only an eternal circle. Nothing can get into the center, nothing can go out from the center. It's done, perfect, finished. Lacking nothing.

Lacking nothing... unless.

If that ring remains open, if it's not complete, doubt can creep in, right? Doubt weakens resolve, it weakens faith. Remember Peter stepping out of the boat? His circle of fire is nearly complete. He's seen what Jesus does; he's been with Him nearly every step of the way. Miracle after miracle, bit by bit, that circle forms. Now he sees another miracle: Jesus, standing on water not far off the starboard bow, telling Peter to come. So, step by careful step over the deep water, he walks toward Jesus, he perseveres... until he doesn't. The waves and the wind get to him; the realization of what is happening breaks his attention from the Lord to Whom he is walking... and he starts to sink.

What does Jesus say to him as He catches him? "Oh you of little faith, why did you doubt?"

James says: "If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, Who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him."

It's a promise: Wisdom will be given to him. But the promise is conditional. "When he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does." 

Back to Peter on the water: The waves of the sea that are blown and tossed by the wind are really, really, really evident. They're imposing on the walk he's making toward Jesus. They're overshadowing his vision, they may even be obstructing his gaze. They're making themselves super obvious.

Faith isn't easy to hold onto, is it? It's not something you wake up to one day and say: "You know, I think I'll have faith today. You know, I think it'll be easy to believe today."

Faith is the watery path between Peter and Jesus. Faith is the struggle between the doubt and the assurance. Hebrews 11:1 says: "Faith is the substance (tangibility) of things hoped for (things not yet within your grasp), and the evidence (concrete proof) of things not seen (not proven)."

Mind blown.

In other words, those Christians on the floor of the arena in Rome had faith -- concrete proof -- in Jesus. The wind and the waves were large and looming for them, but their eyes were fixed, in the struggle, unswervingly on Jesus. 

Faith put them in the arena. Faith finished its perfect circle of fire as they stepped out of this life into heaven with Jesus. According to the movie, they died -- smiling. Smiling past the lions.

We might not have to face the sharp end of a lion today, but most of us have undergone trials at some point. This last year alone has introduced and metastasized trials of sickness, fear, pain, hatred, division, unbelief, dismemberment of the body of Christ -- on and on and on.

How do we meet those trials? 

Do we smile in pure joy? 

Quo Vadis is Latin for Whither goest thou? Or in more modern English, Where are you going? In the movie, the Lord speaks to Peter and tells him to go to Rome, because the people there need him, and Peter doesn't understand at first. "Quo vadis, Domine?" he asks. "Where are you going, Lord?"

Here's the crux of the matter: Faith doesn't allow us to see where we are going, but the whole point of faith is this: We see Who we are going with.  

Hand in His. Step by step. Eyes on Him. 

With pure joy!