Living with Enemies: Ignatius of Antioch
This is the third post in a series exploring the lives of people attempting to live a life true to Jesus’ example and teaching in the midst of serious enmity. The first posts focused on Jesus and Paul.
For some, the office of Bishop today connotes intricate power plays, excessive riches and a bourgeois life lived at the expense of a flock of naive believers.
Although even today this does not quite conform to reality, in the time of Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, nobody could possibly think of a Bishop thus.
Bishop Ignatius, a disciple of John, a disciple of Jesus, led a church in Antioch, in modern day Turkey, during a time when the Roman Empire regularly persecuted Christians.
Christians were seen as a threat to Roman domination, since they would not offer their ultimate loyalty to Caesar, but rather to Jesus.¹
When Ignatius was about 70 years old, the Emperor started a new round of persecution, and out of fear for his church, Ignatius presented himself to the Emperor, presumably to spare the others.
He was immediately condemned for refusing to offer sacrifices to idols, and was lead to Rome. There he died, torn apart by wild beasts in the amphitheatre accompanied by the screams of an ecstatic crowd.
On his journey to Rome, Ignatius wrote:
May I enjoy the wild beasts that are prepared for me; and I pray they may be found eager to rush upon me.
What?!
This sounds like a man who is not completely stable in his mind.
He even told other people not to try to save him from martyrdom, that he actually desired it!
But perhaps Ignatius was not so much a madman, as a man who was condemned to die and simply embraced his death.
As an old man, he was likely not to live too long anymore, and he saw dying for refusing to renounce Jesus as a way of imitating him, as a way of witnessing to him, and as a way of finally going to be with him.
He wanted to prove to the world that even wild beasts could not keep him from Jesus, so that they might wonder who this Jesus was that inspired such loyalty.
So in the Christian ‘life with enemies’ according to Ignatius, there is an important place for desiring to witness to Jesus, even if it is through death.
And despite his resolve to endure, Ignatius still feared he might not have the strength to endure when the moment would come near and asked others to pray that he might endure.
On the way to Rome, Ignatius wrote letters to some of the churches in the region.
Despite being bound in chains, led by ten cruel ‘leopards’ as he called the soldiers accompanying him, he still encouraged the believers to
Be gentle in response to other people’s anger; humble in opposition to their boasting; to their cursing, return your prayers; in contrast to their error, stay strong in faith; and for their cruelty, show your gentleness.
This way, he said, they may see we are their brothers and they may still get to know God.
Returning good for evil is not only a way which can stop evil, as we saw with Paul, but Ignatius believed it can positively transform those people perpetrating evil to be reconciled with you and God!
When asking the believers in Rome not to stop him from being martyred, he wrote:
Do not stop me from living, do not try to keep me in a state of death
In Ignatius’ situation, to die was life and to live was death.
Read the next entry in this series on ‘atheist’ Polycarp of Smyrna.
Notes
- Given the track records of Jesus on the one hand and the various Emperors on the other, it’s not hard to see why Jesus is more appealing than the Emperors.
