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October 8, 2024

Writer's picture: Chris DawesChris Dawes


Shakespeare describes the deadly family feud that prevents Romeo and Juliet from openly celebrating their love for each other. Their two family names are like polar opposites, seemingly doomed to conflict forever. But Juliet asks a profound question to her beloved Romeo during a secret rendezvous. 


“What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet.”


From Juliet’s perspective, Romeo’s family name meant nothing compared to the love and commitment they had sworn to one another.  However, from a Biblical perspective, names are extremely important because specific names mean specific things. Often, the Bible describes momentous events but does not give us the names of the people involved, so when it does reveal names, I think we should give it some extra attention and dig a little deeper to see if the Holy Spirit is desiring to teach us something special.


In Acts 9, we read more about Peter’s amazing ministry.


31 Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria experienced a time of peace. It grew in strength and numbers, living in the fear of the Lord and the encouragement of the Holy Spirit.

32 As Peter traveled throughout the area, he went to visit the saints in Lydda. 33 There he found a man named Aeneas, who had been paralyzed and bedridden for eight years. 34 “Aeneas,” Peter said to him, “Jesus Christ heals you! Get up and put away your mat.” Immediately Aeneas got up, 35 and all who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.


In this short passage of scripture this man’s interesting name, Aeneas, is mentioned three times. His name seemed familiar to me, and after looking into it, I remembered that nearly forty years ago, at college I was assigned to read an epic poem in 12 parts called “The Aeneid” written by a poet named Virgil. Virgil composed this work less than 20 years before the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ, over 2000 years ago. 


This poem was written during the time of Caesar Augustus who was the first Roman emperor following Rome’s civil wars.  He was the grand nephew and “adopted son” of Julius Caesar, who was assassinated by his own advisors and members of the Roman senate. Even though he was assassinated, he was deified after he died, and Augustus claimed divine status as well.


In his Gospel, Dr. Luke tells us Augustus was emperor when a “worldwide” census was taken. Joseph and Mary, who was very pregnant with Jesus, had to go to Bethlehem for this. In addition to paying some taxes, one primary reason for a census was to see how many males could be conscripted into the Roman military machine, if necessary. Augustus instituted the “Pax Romana”, or peace of Rome, but not without building a massive army and ruling with an iron fist. 


Augustus loved Virgil’s first bits of his magnum opus, “The Aeneid” and demanded he finish it because he could see its potential power as propaganda. Virgil drew from and expanded upon the popular earlier works of Homer entitled “The Iliad” and also “The Odyssey”, and was influenced by other great authors of antiquity. Virgil wrote about a semi-divine man named “Aeneas” who persevered through many struggles to become the founder of Rome. He possessed great courage, was heroic and handsome, and was loved by the ladies. In fact, a queen named “Dido” fell so madly in love with him, that when he left her to fulfill his destiny of military conquest and to found the city of Rome, she built a massive funeral pyre, stabbed herself to death and let the flames burn her to ashes. Aeneas was supposedly a “pieta” or pious man and embodied the kind of values Augustus wanted Roman citizens to embrace. Aeneas would not even allow true love to deter him from his divine duty as the prototypical Roman citizen. 


Augustus saw a chance to leverage the epic poetry of Virgil to permanently enshrine his reign and legacy in words so sublime, many people would consider them to be like holy writ. Virgil wrote Augustus and other members of his royal family into this story, even having characters “prophesy” his future reign and glory as the first Roman emperor. Some would say that Augustus used Virgil to write an epic “puff piece” of poetic propaganda.


Some say that Virgil was such a perfectionist, that he only wrote three lines of poetry per day, and that his work to complete this 12 part poem stretched on for over a decade. At some point, Augustus strongly encouraged him to finish, but while traveling, Virgil caught some sort of virus and died. Before he passed away, he made some of his associates promise to burn all of his manuscripts because he was dissatisfied with his work and because he would not be able to finish "The Aeneid" the way he desired. He was especially disgusted with book 8 for a number of reasons. Augustus, of course, ordered this not to happen, and though it was published far and wide, it explains why the poem seems to conclude abruptly. This is how it begins:


I sing of arms (military might)  and the man, 

he who, exiled by fate,

first came from the coast of Troy to Italy, and to

Lavinian shores – hurled about endlessly by land and sea,

by the will of the gods, by cruel Juno’s remorseless anger,

long suffering also in war, until he founded a city

and brought his gods to Latium: from that the Latin people

came, the lords of Alba Longa, the walls of noble Rome.



During the time of the Apostles, how indescribably powerful the military might of Rome must have seemed to Jew and Gentile alike. Not only did Augustus rule with an iron fist, he was “divinely appointed and anointed” to do so. That message was “baked into” the sublime poetry of Virgil and recited and perhaps memorialized in songs that may have been sung throughout the empire.


But there was a man in the town of Lydda, formerly Lud (where we get our word “ludicrous” interestingly) who was named after Virgil’s great character, Aeneas. Perhaps his mother and father named him Aeneas in the hopes that he would become a heroic man of destiny, undeterred by any challenge he encountered, always walking and forcefully advancing towards his goal: to establish something of permanence and great significance in his life.


But after an unknown illness rendered him bedfast and possibly even a beggar, I wonder if Aeneas' own name mocked him day after day for eight long years. He possessed such a regal name that conjured up so many stories of heroism. So many hard-fought battles came to mind when one mentioned that name, along with so many glorious victories. It was a name seemingly prophesying strength and honor. But none of those things seemed present when he was languishing on the ragged cot of a beggar, unable to “rise up” as Virgil’s Aeneas always did, no matter the enemy or the challenge. 


But in the eighth year of his infirmity, which is the number of new beginnings, Aeneas was born again and healed by the one and only true King, Jesus Christ! Peter spoke the word of the Lord, "rise up" and for the first time in eight long years, he did!


Instead of going on to build something earthly and have his name immortalized in a fictional poem, this Aeneas is given a divine commission to live out the rest of his days composing a far more enduring epic story of triumph, destiny, and power. This Aeneas was anointed to share his testimony of healing, resulting in the salvation and healing of countless people within the Roman empire, and every time he recited his own story, he glorified Jesus and helped to build an eternal “city on a hill”…the very city of God!


When Dr. Luke, who I’m sure was familiar with Virgil’s poetry, wrote about the “Divine Augustus”, for whom the Aeneid was written, he contrasts him with the newborn baby King, Jesus, who has a multitude of Heavenly armies heralding his birth in Bethlehem:  


“Fear not, for behold I bring you glad tidings of great joy which shall be unto you and to all people. For unto you is born in the city of David, a Savior which is Christ the Lord. This shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace and good will toward all people!” 


By faithfully recording these events in his book, Luke was shouting “There is an eternal King who has come, and soon, all earthly Kings will bow to Him, including Caesar Augustus. The army of King Jesus is vastly more powerful and His Kingdom and reign are not temporary, but eternal. When Virgil’s Aeneas is just a long footnote in history books, the people saved and healed through the ministry of Luke’s Aeneas will still be rejoicing around the eternal throne of King Jesus in Heaven!!


And now, long after Rome has come and gone, our King Jesus is continuing to build His Church and will do so until the “Kingdoms of this world become the Kingdoms of our God, and of His Christ!”

 

PRN:  Glorious Father, we thank you that you are teaching us what is truly important. You are revealing to us the great privilege You have given us as Your followers. There is no greater purpose and destiny than to know You and make You known. May we never look at wordly fame and fortune to give our lives meaning or significance, but instead, may we continually be about Your business until Your Son splits the sky and returns to this earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. In the name of Jesus, amen.

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