This Sunday is the start of the Sundays after the Epiphany, and most of those Epistle readings will have a careful look at the latter chapters of 1 Corinthians. For the first Sunday of this season, the reading will be from Romans, and for the last Sunday, it will be from Hebrews.

What is known as ‘The First Sunday After the Epiphany’ is actually better known as ‘The Baptism of Our Lord’. This Sunday’s text is from Romans 6[:1-11], and within this ‘Sabbath Day’s Journey’ we will start to look at Rome—actually at some of its leaders—to see what those leaders had to say against Christianity. This is part of the big climax within the book of Acts, since it ends with the kingdom of God being proclaimed in an ‘unhindered’ way within the Roman empire [see Acts 28:31].

The focus of this writing for the next several weeks will essentially be ‘Christianity versus Rome’. And this perspective may be helpful for today’s popular perspective of Christianity, as Christians have to deal with both people and ideas that are considered by many to be very great.

It is a great underestimation to say that Rome was simply a great city. Last Sunday, with the text from Ephesians, we looked at the great city of Ephesus with its ‘Wonder of the World’, the Temple of Diana (Artemis). But to call Rome simply a ‘great’ city is almost an injustice. This massive city was by all accounts the center of the known world at that time.

Last time an overview of Ephesus was given from the Concordia Self-Study Bible. What follows is an overview of Rome from the same work:

Rome: In the Time of Paul

In terms of political importance, geographical position and sheer magnificence, the superlative city of the empire was Rome, the capital.

Located on a series of jutting foothills and low-lying eminences (the “seven hills”) east of a bend in the Tiber River some 18 miles from the Mediterranean, Rome was celebrated for its impressive public buildings, aqueducts, baths, theaters and thoroughfares, many of which led from distant provinces. The city of the first Christian century had spread far beyond its fourth-century B.C. “Servian” walls and lay unwalled, secure in its greatness.

The most prominent features were the Capitoline hill, with temples to Jupiter and Juno, and the nearby Palatine, adorned with imperial palaces, including Nero’s “Golden House.” Both hills overlooked the Roman Forum, the hub of the entire empire.

Alternatively described as the glorious crowning achievement of mankind and as the sewer of the universe where all the scum from every corner of the empire gathered, Rome had reasons for both civic pride in its architecture and shame for staggering urban social problems not unlike those of cities today.

The apostle Paul entered the city from the south on the Via Appia. He first lived under house arrest and then, after a period of freedom, as a condemned prisoner in the Mamertime dungeon near the Forum. Remarkably. Paul was able to proclaim the gospel among all classes of people, from the palace to the prison. According to tradition, he was executed at a spot on the Ostian Way outside Rome in A.D. 68 [St. Louis, Missouri, USA: Concordia Publishing House, 1986; page 1714].

There are two events, prior to St. Paul’s coming to Rome, that are worthy to point out. The first was shortly after Paul was in Ephesus. He was there for two years, and there is a brief summary statement of the Lord’s words spreading and increasing. But then the following statement is made [and what is given here and what follows is a somewhat-literal translation]:

And when these things were fulfilled, Paul purposed in the Spirit, passing through Macedonia and Achaia, to go into Jerusalem, saying ‘After I become there, it is necessary me, also Rome, to see [Acts 19:20-21].’

The second event is amazingly similar. After St. Paul is arrested in Jerusalem in Acts 21, he is allowed to speak in front of a Jewish crowd, but they refuse to listen to him, and they want him dead after he says that the Lord Jesus told him to go to the Gentiles. Then he is allowed to speak in front of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish leaders; but a great ‘standing’ [against authority; see Acts 23:7 & 10] happens, and the commander thinks that Paul might be torn apart by them, so he is protected by him, and Paul has the following happen to him:

And in the following night, coming to him, the Lord, said: ‘Be of good courage; for as you did solemnly witness the things concerning me into Jerusalem, so it is necessary, you, also, to witness into Rome [Acts 23:11].’

What makes these two events even more interesting is that Jesus, in the Gospel according to Luke, has two ‘necessary’ statements that deal with the purpose of Jesus on this earth. One is at the beginning of the work, when the writer records the words out of Jesus’ mouth. Here is Jesus’ response to Mary, his mother, when she states the great distress while searching for him for days:

Why that you were seeking me? Did you not know that in the things of my Father it is necessary for me to be [Luke 2:49]?

At the end of that gospel account, when Jesus is with two of his followers, and they are ‘on the way’, and they point out to Jesus how disappointed they were with what recently happened regarding Jesus’ death and resurrection. And then Jesus responds with the following words:

These things it is necessary, is it not, for the Christ to suffer and to enter into his glory? And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he explained to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself [Luke 24:26-27].

There are some things that are necessary. We usually put those things on ourselves and not God. That is usually because we think of things in a negative way, in a ‘law’ way. And this is the typical perspective of Christianity, that it just is a bunch of laws for people to follow.

Sometimes we try to make things better, to make things more positive. But the only one who can truly do that is the Lord. It does not matter that St. Paul said that it was necessary for him to go to Rome before the Lord did. The Lord of heaven and earth was involved in the entire act of salvation from beginning to end. And he made an important stop along the way at the cross to make a payment for all sin.