Good Friday evening I watched a movie I hadn’t watched in a while,
Que Vadis. I wrote in a different posting several months ago that I
watched the original movie when I was 10. There is a later one but not so good.
The 1951 movie was one of the stepping stones to my becoming a Christian. It is
about the Christians of Rome during the time of Nero. And yes there are important
scenes of the Christian suffering in the arena as well as the burning of Rome.
But for those interested it does include a romance.
Something, different struck me as I watched the movie, something
I hadn’t noticed before and the reason I noticed was because of President
Trump. It was Nero and his character, played extremely well by actor, Peter
Ustinov. As the movie jacket puts it “He is Caesar, madman, murderer an
imperial ruler of the spectacularly doomed, of the glory that was Rome.” No,
Trump isn’t that bad, not yet anyway, but I saw some traits portraited in Nero’s
character that reminded me of Trump, the something I hadn’t thought about
before.
Of course, there was the egotism, the desire to be seen by
all and to be lauded by everyone. That was something I had already observed as
most have. And there was the many who catered to those desires including the
man who had some nobility yet learned to turn and twist Nero’s desire for
praise and adulation into usefulness, preventing him from further evil. The
movie portrayed that character as Petronius. He was historically an attendant to
Nero concerning fashion and he did kill himself when he realized Nero was going
to kill him. Also true to history he sends a letter to Nero defaming him and
telling Nero how awful his music and poetry was. [i] However, the movie took some liberties
since Seneca also was a role and his historical suicide commanded by Nero was portrayed
more as Petronius’. Seneca did not commit suicide in the movie.
That trait that I discovered in Nero’s character and saw
some of Trump’s in Nero was Nero’s desire to be a great builder and to tear
down everything he saw as useless, buildings and organizations that failed to acknowledge
the greatness or importance of Nero. He wanted to rebuild them with his own
impotent image. The scenes of Nero showing his associates his newly planned
Rome and the horrific scenes of the fire Nero set to destroy the old Rome were,
yes, horrific but enlightening. Nero was a coward; he blamed the fire on the
Christians. He was also a madman he enjoyed the reality of their deaths. When buildings
and organizations were sacrificed to bring Nero glory and attributes of
divinity he smiled and sang. He wrote poetry, awful poetry.
Part of my devotional reading for the last several months,
have included the history of Israel and the prophets Daniel and Jeremiah; an
interesting combination since Jeremiah prophesizes the defeat, the exile, and
the return of Israel, while the exiled Daniel, the godly Hebrew wiseman of
Babylon, prays in repentance for that time of return to come. One cannot miss
the fact that Jeremiah constantly proclaims God’s coming judgement on sinning
Israel, that sin which includes the burning of children to the pagan god
moloch. There were many idols in Israel. But Babylon had their own idols and one
an idol created by Nebuchadnezzar. That one was intended for worship or death.
This is not off the subject of Nero or Trump or building memorials to self. Recently
Trump posted a video of what would be, he said, was his library only he had
decided it would be a hotel. It was extensive and full of aircraft. But in one
large room seemingly for speakers was a large golden statue of Trump and that
is not the first time that golden statue (idol) has shown up.
What do we as Christians hang onto in the midst of idolatry? First notice that
this idolatry is about self. Grasping for human desires and exulting the self;
refusing the hard parts of life. And this sin belongs to all of us, to myself
greatly. Oh, this isn’t about refusing the goodness that God gives, the joys as
Lewis or Tolkien might think of it, good meals, friendships, okay, pipes for
some, good books, restful nights, gardens, etc. But it is turning away from glorifying
the self. It is seeking and holding onto God’s will in our lives. It is caring about
the needy, the broken, the frightened, (there are a lot of frightened people in
our world today.) It is remembering that it is the presence of Jesus, it is His
word, His strength, His forgiveness—it is all His, cling to that, hold on, not
to self but to Him.
