by Eugene Higgins
To the Bastille!
One of the finest historical-fiction books ever written is, “A Tale of Two Cities,” by Charles Dickens. The closing words are touching in the extreme. Only a Philistine could fail to be moved when reading them. If, however, notwithstanding your lack of any Phoenician antecedents, you simply have become jaded by frequent repetition of the “It’s a far, far better thing that I do”lines, then back up three or four paragraphs. Read again Sydney Carton’s mantic words about the “long lines of the new oppressors” perishing by the very “retributive instrument” they were using to kill him and other innocent people. Read again his vatic and visionary words concerning those for whom he was about to die: “I see the lives for which I lay down my life, peaceful, useful, prosperous and happy, in that England which I shall see no more”; and, “I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of their descendants, generations hence”; and “I know that each was not more honoured and held sacred in the other’s soul, than I was in the souls of both.” It’s enough to make you want to run out and do something heroic.
Climbing the steps to the guillotine that day, as the 22nd victim, just ahead of Carton, was a timid, frightened, 20-year-old seamstress who drew strength from his calm courage. Her words to him in the prison, just moments before, are significant. Thinking Carton was Evremonde, (the man whose place he had taken), she said: “I am not afraid to die, Citizen Evremonde, but I have done nothing. I am not unwilling to die, if the Republic which is to do so much good to us poor, will profit by my death; but I do not know how that can be, Citizen Evremonde. Such a poor weak little creature!”
She could not figure out how her sacrifice was going to make any significant contribution to the new Republic that was supposed to be so wonderful for people like her. She was not objecting to dying, if it was going to help things. She just couldn’t see how it was possibly going to be beneficial.
And of course it wasn’t. That was the very point Dickens was driving home. The bloodbath and carnage during “The Terror,” (September 5, 1793, to July 27, 1794), was senseless. Her sacrifice, which would cost her everything, would accomplish nothing. She endures it, assuming that the people in charge must know something she doesn’t. After all, they were so much brighter and wiser than she – a seamstress, “such a poor, weak, little creature.”
Here in the US, just now, the natives are restless – and growing increasingly more restive. You may chalk it up to our being nothing but obstinate and obstreperous Americans. And you may be right. But watching businesses, livelihoods, decades of savings, elderly folks’ retirement funds, and essential incomes crashing and burning has all been a bridge too far. That is especially the case in some places where leaders of a certain “persuasion” seem determined to extend this as though it were the Battle of the Somme and it did not matter what the casualty count was, so long as they gained a few inches of territory. Like the seamstress in the Bastille, we could not figure what the profit was in our sacrifices, but we assumed the authorities knew better, despite their Byzantine methods. However, since many of those authorities believe fervently in the godless policy, “the end justifies the means,” a lot of people are starting to call in question what those ends really were and are.
That having been said, history as well as scripture provide for Christians some cautionary reminders. The people who took the law into their own hands in France, and stormed the Bastille, ended up committing equal atrocities as those against whom they were rebelling. The Apostle Paul realized he had shown disrespect to the high priest (thereby disobeying scripture) and sincerely apologized for his ill-chosen words. Timothy was to exhort the saints to pray for “all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life [not a clamorous and fractious one] in all godliness and honesty.”
What are Christians to do in times like these? If the restrictions that are in place were aimed at believers in a specific way, that might call for us to take a stand in obedience to God and His Word. But, so far, the limitations in most places have either been across the board, affecting Christians and non-Christians alike, or they have involved a gradual widening of the number of people allowed to congregate. We may disagree with the definitions of essential and non-essential, but it would be hard to prove that this was primarily discrimination against believers.
The Lord Jesus could easily have claimed exemption from the Temple tax. How absurd for the “Son of the Father” to pay a tax that was supposedly for His Father’s House! But His words were, “Lest we should offend…” Paying the tax involved no injustice, no law-breaking, and so, to avoid needlessly stumbling anyone, the Lord directed Peter to go and make a “withdrawal” from the Maritime Branch of Heaven’s universal bank and pay it.
There is, of course, offence related to the Christian life that is legitimate, inescapable, and to be expected. Galatians 5 speaks about “the offence of the cross.” Peter indicated that, to some, the Lord Jesus is “a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence.” What we must guard against is our causing offence “needlessly.” Notice how Paul wrote about “offence” in these four passages, using in each of them the same Greek word or a related form of that word. Perhaps they answer four questions for us.
Who:
- Whom should we consider when it comes to offence-avoidance? “Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God” (1 Co 10:32).
When:
- When should we guard against giving offence? “And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men” (Act 24:16).
How long:
- How long should this be our concern? “That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ” (Php 1:10).
Why:
- Why is this important? “Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed” (2 Co 6:3).
Here is a summation of these 4 passages: To the best of our ability, and guided by scripture (not the mercurial standards of society), we should consistently(Acts 24) and perpetually (Php 1) guard against offending anyone (1 Cor 10) so that we do not cause needless reproach to fall on our service and testimony (2 Cor 6). Also, before we storm the Bastille or take up arms against a sea of troubles, we need to remember that just as the “one size fits all” restrictions were devastatingly harmful and woefully short-sighted, so we would be replicating that mistake by imagining that every assembly of believers, irrespective of location or size, ought to adopt a uniform behavior. Is an assembly located in a city or in the suburbs? Is it a large or small assembly? Is the hall in which the believers meet big enough to allow for spaced seating? We have had thrust upon us an issue that will require wisdom and discernment lent by God. But His promise is: “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (James 1:5).
The day may soon come – and come far sooner than any of us expects – when we will have to choose between obeying God or man. I cannot speak for you, but knowing something of the weakness of my own heart, I can only pray that I will be “found faithful” (1 Cor 4:2). However, before we mount the scaffold, let us be sure that it is in obedience to the Word of God and because of devotion to our risen Lord. Only then could it possibly be a far, far better thing than we [might] have ever done, as we make our way to that far, far better rest than we have ever known.