The Bug in the System

Available for 29 days

A spiritual comment and prayer to start the day with the Reverend Canon Dr Mark Clavier. Good morning. On this day in 312, the eve of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, a Roman commander was told in a vision to mark his soldiers’ shields with the sign of Christ. Constantine, proclaimed emperor at York six years earlier, was facing the greatest challenge of his life. The next day he defeated Maxentius and became emperor of the West. No doubt Constantine thought he had found a powerful symbol. But the cross was an instrument of execution, reserved for slaves and rebels, and its message was subversive of imperial power. Early Christians confessed with Paul that Christ, who humbled himself to the point of death, even death on a cross, is the one before whom “every knee should bow... and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:10-11). Christ is Lord, in other words, and not Caesar. Many died in the arena for saying so. In embracing that sign, Constantine was, if unwittingly, introducing a bug into the imperial software. A century later, Augustine argued in The City of God that even the greatest earthly power is provisional. Christians have long held that no kingdom can be absolute, a lesson as pertinent now as it was in his day. Constantine’s symbol outlived his empire. Rome has fallen, and many powers since, yet the same cruciform bug remains waiting to subvert every claim to absolute authority, even in our own day. Let us pray. Almighty God, whose Son reigns from the cross, keep us from placing our trust in earthly power. Give us courage to confess Christ as Lord and grace to serve your kingdom with humility; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.