Volume 30, No. 13                                             
March 27, 2005

Legends and Relics

   Ever wonder where the tradition of Easter eggs came from?  According to one ancient story, they’re associated with Simon the Cyrene, the man forced to carry the cross of Jesus when He could no longer bear it himself (Mark 15:21)  The legend says Simon was an egg merchant who, after seeing the crucifixion, discovered all the eggs in his basket had turned miraculously into vibrant colours.  Other versions say the miracle happened when Jesus was resurrected.  

   Centuries ago, it was also believed that robins had a red breast because one of them picked a thorn from the crown of thorns on the head of Jesus.  A spurt of his blood supposedly dyed the bird’s underbelly, a condition that was passed along ever after.

   That crown of thorns, and other objects reputedly connected with Jesus and the apostles, were highly prized by medieval Christians.  We now know all those relics were almost-certainly fake, but they ended up in some very lavish places.  A thorny crown said to be the original was presented in 1238 to King Louis IX of France who put it in a specially-build chapel in Paris before moving it to the grand Cathedral of Notre Dame.  Housed in a jewel-encrusted silver container, the crown is still there, but only the plant stems have survived.

   The spear supposedly used by a Roman soldier to hasten the death of Jesus was given to Pope Innocent VIII by a Turkish nobleman in 1492.  The pope placed the shaft of the spear in one of the pillars supporting the famous dome of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

   As for the original cross on which Jesus died, an early legend said it was found in 326 A.D. by Helena, mother of Constantine, the Roman Emperor who made Christianity the official religion of Rome.  The Catholic church then began to distribute fragments of “the true cross”
in special containers called reliquaries, so the devoted could worship them as sacred relics.  By the 1500s, so many of the fragments had been sent out that Protestant leader John Calvin sneeringly calculated that all the splinters gathered together would be enough to fill a large ship.  Catholic theologians simply argued that a miracle had allowed the original cross to “multiply” itself.

   Even the tree on which Judas was said to have hanged himself was the subject of legend.  It was long thought that he used the redbud tree, and that its blossoms were red, either from shame or blood.  The redbud — whose flowers are actually more pink or lavender than red — is the official tree of Oklahoma, but only became so after forestry officials convinced the state’s garden clubs the redbud was not the tree Judas used.  In fact, it doesn’t even grow in Israel.

   Today, the Cross is associated with some new legends:  ideas now largely accepted as fact that will one day be proven false, even if it is on the last day.  One is the notion that, even if Jesus didn’t come back from the dead, He and his ideas are still worthwhile.

   Backers of this myth say the resurrection is merely symbolic but still valuable because it illustrates the power of love and personal sacrifice.  This is a comforting perspective that lets anyone warmly embrace Jesus and a two-carat Golden Rule, while discarding anything remotely  miraculous and all those terribly inconvenient teachings about obedience and responsibility.  Interestingly, the reassurance of a purely symbolic resurrection is seldom heard at funerals.

   The inescapable reality is that if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, you won’t either.  If He or his followers lied about the resurrection, or were deluded, all of Christianity is built upon a foundation of falsehood, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15.  If that’s the case, countess martyrs have died in vain, millions of believers have given all, all for nothing, and you’re wasting your time putting your hope in what amounts to little more than holy hype.

   If, on the other hand, you really do believe in the resurrection, “be strong and steady, always enthusiastic about the Lord’s work, for you know nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.” (1 Cor. 15:58)     
Be faithful, and be bold, even if the rest of the world does consider you a bit of a relic.

By Rick Gamble, published in Cross Current, the weekly newsletter of the Followers of Christ church family in Brantford, Ontario, Canada.  Reprint at will in not-for-profit publications.  To receive these free weekly articles via email, send a note to sgamble@bfree.on.ca