Tales of the God-men

I am still ruminating on this, but I need to hash it out a little bit in order to fully process it.

At the church we've attended the last two weeks, I have appreciated the approach of pastor Dave White when laying out his lessons from Philippians. He has offered historical context to his exegesis, and that is always refreshing while trying to study the scriptures.

This last Sunday, while studying Paul's exhortation to humility in Phil. ch 2, Dave reminded us that in the ancient world Christianity's call to think of others before ourselves was in fact a radical proposition. In a world whose seminal work was the Iliad, one's honor is worth dying for, one's glory the only lasting thing you might have in this world.

It was for glory that brilliant Achilles traded his life, greatest of all the Achaean's, and most to be pitied. He had two natures, for he was a god-man; a goddess for a mother, but a man for a father, because Zeus feared the prophecy telling him that Thetis' son would be his undoing. Blessed more than any other man, nearly completely invulnerable, still Achilles was doomed to die, and so he desired the only eternal thing he win for himself; glory from the field of battle.

It was Agamemnon's unjust denial of Achilles' honor that nearly poisoned the Greek campaign for Achilles would withdraw, to the ruin of the Greeks, until the field was set for his most glorious victory, the slaying of Hector, breaker of horses. Unfortunately for Achilles, this great victory would only come after he had lost more than he would have willingly sacrificed, and Achilles himself doesn't last much longer.

Achilles influence on history is significant; apart from being the hero of the most formational work of literature in the Western tradition, he was is inspiration for the first brilliant hero of Western Civilization, Alexander the Great. Alexander, claiming Achilles as both inspiration and ancestor, aspired to god-hood, and set the bar for every great leader that followed him. Julius Caesar, striving to over-take Alexander's legend, also made claims of divinity, as did Augustus after him. Soon, to be Caesar was to be a god...men carrying the mantle of the original god-man, Achilles, hoping to grasp at immortality through their own glory and honor.

Of course, this is common knowledge...but as I reflected on what we know about one of the two most influential God-men in our history, the differences were stark and illuminating. Christ preaches humility of self, and love for those around us as a motivation for our actions. Just how radically different from the lengendary Achilles is the second God-man to change the world.

"who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing tobe grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men."