Note: On Tuesdays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
Maybe it was a pejorative. Maybe they were the first to use it, because there wasn’t a word that encompassed Jews and Gentiles in the same community. Maybe it caught on because Christian is shorter than Christ-follower.
Regardless, the phrase gives you a Holy Spirit shiver: “it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called ‘Christians’” (Acts 11:26, NRSVCE)
Think of it: Peter, Paul, and the rest began to refer to themselves by this word. So would more people than we can count or name in the next two thousand years: Constantine. Mary of Egypt. Antony of the Desert. Jerome. Paula. Bernard of Clairvaux. Hildegard of Bingen. Teresa of Avila. John of the Cross. Vincent de Paul. Therese of Lisieux. Oscar Romero. Katharine Drexel. Josemaria Escriva. Your great-great-grandfather Franklin. Your great-grandmother Joanna.
You may feel you have more in common with some than with others. But each and every one of them were called Christians, and embraced His cross.
Antioch, where they were first called Christians, at the time was the third largest Roman Empire city (behind only Rome and Alexandria in influence and size). In the coming centuries it would be struck by fire, earthquakes, and invaders that razed it. Today, it has about 220,000 residents.
Christianity, when the term was first used, encompassed a few hundred people. In the coming centuries, Christians would be subjected to martyrdom, torture, and ridicule. Today, the Pew Research Center estimates they make up nearly a third of the world’s 7.3 billion people.
Christian.
It’s a powerful, scary, challenging word. But when we accept it and attempt to live it, it’s also comforting, beautiful, hope-filled word.
