As a historical aside in remembering the Easter season, a piece of graffiti was found in Rome with the caption “Alexamenos worships [his] god.” On the right is the crude figure of a crucified naked man with the head of an ass. At the left stands (school boy?) Alexamenos with upraised hand.
The Jews had been accused of worshiping an ass in the temple in Jerusalem, so the graffiti may have been drawn early enough that Christianity was then considered to be a sect of Judaism.
We moderns find it difficult to identify with ancient attitudes toward crucifixion, a common and grotesque form of execution in the Roman world, but the stigma of shame is what is clearly evident in the graffiti against Alexamenos. The New Testament itself, among other documents of the era, also bears witness to the social shame of crucifixion. One can but imagine how one might feel with a family member crucified on a gibbet in the public square.
This element of shame in the central figure of worship was provocative and polarizing in the world into which Christianity came. And certainly a matter for reflection today.
“If any one would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow me” (Mark 8:34 ESV).
“The greatest among you shall be your servant. He who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” (Matthew 23:11-12 ESV).
Peter Rubel
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