In his book Confessions Augustine describes a good friend of his Alypius of Thagaste who is convinced to go and see the Roman Games. This blood sport is not something Christ would have encouraged us to participate in or to even support by watching or attending. And Alypuis knew this all too well yet he goes under protest. He keeps his eyes closed to the mayhem and murder going on before him yet when the crowd bursts with an uproar his curiosity gets the better of him and he watches, and once his eyes are open to the experience and fervor of this blood sport he cannot look away, he has been made a convert of the most sinister of deeds and becomes a devoted fan of the games.
St. Agustine (6.8.13)
“He, not forsaking that secular course which his parents had charmed him to pursue, had gone before me to Rome, to study law, and there he was carried away incredibly with an incredible eagerness after the shows of gladiators. For being utterly averse to and detesting spectacles, he was one day by chance met by divers of his acquaintance and fellow-students coming from dinner, and they with a familiar violence haled him, vehemently refusing and resisting, into the Amphitheatre, during these cruel and deadly shows, he thus protesting: "Though you hale my body to that place, and there set me, can you force me also to turn my mind or my eyes to those shows?
‘I shall then be absent while present, and so shall overcome both you and them.’
They, hearing this, led him on nevertheless, desirous perchance to try that very thing, whether he could do as he said. When they were come thither, and had taken their places as they could, the whole place kindled with that savage pastime. But he, closing the passage of his eyes, forbade his mind to range abroad after such evil; and would he had stopped his ears also! For in the fight, when one fell, a mighty cry of the whole people striking him strongly, overcome by curiosity, and as if prepared to despise and be superior to it whatsoever it were, even when seen, he opened his eyes, and was stricken with a deeper wound in his soul than the other, whom he desired to behold, was in his body; and he fell more miserably than he upon whose fall that mighty noise was raised, which entered through his ears, and unlocked his eyes, to make way for the striking and beating down of a soul, bold rather than resolute, and the weaker, in that it had presumed on itself, which ought to have relied on Thee.
For so soon as he saw that blood, he therewith drunk down savageness; nor turned away, but fixed his eye, drinking in frenzy, unawares, and was delighted with that guilty fight, and intoxicated with the bloody pastime. Nor was he now the man he came, but one of the throng he came unto, yea, a true associate of theirs that brought him thither. Why say more? He beheld, shouted, kindled, carried thence with him the madness which should goad him to return not only with them who first drew him thither, but also before them, yea and to draw in others. Yet thence didst Thou with a most strong and most merciful hand pluck him, and taughtest him to have confidence not in himself, but in Thee. But this was after.”
And now we live not just in the age of information but in an age of entertainment, where anything is only a click away. Pornography, killings captured on video, animals maiming and killing people, carnage of every kind and every sexual desire ready to be satisfied all on-line. What was once shown on the evening news during Vietnam would not be shown now but that only slows the tidal wave of sickness and depravity overtaking us on a daily basis.How are we to remain unscathed and especially raise our children to know better than to succumb to these acts of wanton depravity? How do we keep them from not opening their eyes when the crowd goes wild and roars piquing their curiosity until they open their eyes and are converted to the modern games of depravity all round?
But it is always easier to cheer on the war than it is to fight in it personally isn’t it? To bear those burdens and wear those scars yourself? It’s exciting being the spectator but for most it is not as exciting being the victim, most spectators do not identify with the victim, only the aggressor. And therein lies the problem. It is the natural man’s instinct to sympathize with the oppressors and not the oppressed. But throughout his life, who did Jesus sympathize with most? The outcasts and the oppressed.
But he also came to free the oppressors and the aggressors, sinners of every make.When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. (Mark 2:17)This is how fascinating visceral sin can be, when you strip a person of their humanity they become an object. An object of ridicule, of murder for amusement or an object of sexual desires. To restore the humanity of every individual is to recognize them as a beloved son or daughter of God. And once you have that change of heart, you can no longer treat them as an object of your hate or of your amusement.
When most people see a prostitute they treat her like one, give her the treatment and respect due to a whore. And the same goes for an adulteress, but when Jesus met women who had fallen into these paths of life he did not give them that sort of treatment. He gave them the respect and love due to a beloved daughter of God. He told them to “go and sin no more” he forgave us our iniquities and pleaded with us to have a change of heart and to stop vilifying each other. He asked us to love our enemies and pray for those who curse us.
We were all made in the image of God. So when Jesus said “When you look upon me, you look upon the Father.” He was reminding us of that, so when we look upon one another in pain or in persecution, we are looking at God himself being hurt and persecuted. When we look upon a man being executed, we look upon God being executed. When we look upon the worn face of a woman used up by those around her, we look upon the drained face of our God. And when we look in the mirror we look upon the face of a child of God sent into this world to do something about it.
