I’ve recently been reading a book titled The Rise of Christianity (Princeton University Press/HarperOne, 1996) by Rodney Stark. The book is a series of sociological studies
on early Christianity. The book’s
subtitle is: How the Obscure Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious
Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries.
In one chapter Stark contrasts how Christians and pagans responded
during times of plague and how this difference affected the growth of the
Christian movement. Stark examines in
particular a major epidemic that struck the Roman Empire in the year 260
AD. At the plague’s height over 5,000 persons
per day died in the city of Rome alone.
Once the plague passed, a Christian pastor in Alexandria,
Egypt named Dionysius wrote a letter describing how the believers had cared for
the sick and dying and how many had sacrificed their own lives in such
service. He wrote:
Most of our brother Christians showed
unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one
another. Heedless of danger, they took
charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in
Christ, and with them departed this life serenely happy; for they were infected
by others with the disease, drawing on themselves the sickness of their
neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pains.
Many, in nursing and curing others, transferred their death to
themselves and died in their stead…. The
best of our brothers lost their lives in this manner, a number of presbyters
[elders], deacons, and laymen winning high commendation so that death in this
form, the result of great piety and strong faith, seems in every way the equal
of martyrdom.
In contrast, Dionysius also described how the pagans
responded to the same crisis:
The heathen behaved in the very
opposite way. At the first onset of the disease,
they pushed the sufferers away and fled from their dearest, throwing them into
the roads before they were dead and treated unburied corpses as dirt, hoping
thereby to avert the spread and contagion of the fatal disease; but do what
they might, they found it difficult to escape.
Stark concludes that it was the compassionate response of
Christians to the members of their own communities, as well as to strangers,
that significantly contributed to the spread of the Christian movement during
that time.
Reading the chapter I was reminded of the words of the old
hymn, “They will know we are Christians by our love.” As with the church of old, may the Lord gives
to his church today a heart of compassion, self-sacrifice, and service that will
become an effective witness to our community.
Grace and peace, Pastor
Jeff Riddle
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