For many centuries after Christ, Christian pilgrims in Europe found spiritual meaning in traveling to the Holy Land, especially to the birthplace of Christ. The rise and spread of Islam didn’t interfere with these peaceful pilgrimages. But as the year A.D. 1100 approached, things changed. Seljuk Turks, aggressive and warlike converts to Islam, seized Jerusalem from their fellow Muslims and began to take control of what had once been the eastern part of the Roman Empire. And reports reached Rome that Christian travelers to Israel were being harmed.
In this context, Pope Urban II launched what became one of the most shameful eras of Christian history – the crusades. When Urban launched the first of these “holy wars” he promised his soldiers spiritual rewards in heaven and also the temporal benefits of having more land. He said: “Enter upon the road to the Holy Sepulcher; wrest that land from the wicked race, and subject it to yourselves.” In this and the subsequent six crusades that followed, all regard for the principles of just war fell away in the name of this holy battle. Non-combatants and prisoners were tortured, raped, and their towns plundered. Jews and Christians often fell victim to the attacks by the “Christian soldiers” who sometimes cut open bodies in search of gold.
Perhaps the most awful fact about the crusades is that the name itself – “crusade” – refers to taking up the cross, after the example of Christ. What horrible blasphemy it was to use the cross as a weapon of hatred and murder.*
Now, if you were to read back through my three previous paragraphs, and you switched places between Christians and Muslims, I think you’d find an account that parallels today’s news. A holy war proclaimed by religious leaders, attacks against “infidels”, disregard for non-combatants, and promises of earthly and heavenly rewards for soldiers – it all sounds so familiar.
Here’s something else to notice: A large number of Muslims today (the majority, I think) cry out: “This isn’t Islam. My faith has been hijacked by people who know nothing about it, men who want only power. Jihad, holy war, properly refers to the war within, the war to overcome sin, not to this!”
Christians should be able to identify with this latter group. We correctly say that “crusade” or to take up one’s cross, properly refers to the process of denying self, lifting up Christ, and serving others. “The crusades weren’t Christianity,” we say. “They were a perversion of our faith, quests for riches and power.” We have tried to live down the crusades and forget them. Yet we cannot. They are part of our history. They illustrate the terrible sin we can commit when we allow our religion to draw us away from relationship with Christ. In my understanding, the crusades pointedly illustrate Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:21 – “Not everyone who says to me, `Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
Is it fair that Christians are sometimes known only for their wars, murders, and lust for power? No. But it is understandable, given our history.
And what about us? Maybe your view of Islam is so colored by war that you can’t imagine something like Islamic Relief. IR is a charity that works to relive suffering caused by natural and man-made disasters around the world, and focuses on things like water and sanitation, orphan sponsorship, and economic development – much like World Vision, the Christian relief group to whom we recently donated more than $27,000 for water wells. Many millions in Islam find more to identify with in Islamic Relief than they find in the current popular definition of jihad.
Please do not think for a moment that I am saying that all faiths are the same, or that Islam is as valid a way to God as Christ. Our Savior claimed that no one would come to the Father except through him (John 14:6). Jesus Christ is the ONLY begotten Son of God, God’s way of reaching out to us. All other religious systems represent our futile attempt to reach Him. Christ also expressed a profound desire for every willing person to be saved, for he came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10).
This is why the Communion Meal is so important, so special to us. At no other time in worship do we confront the sacrifice so pointedly of the one who gave himself for us. Our sins are crimson stains. History bleeds with the scarlet sin of people of all races, nations, and religions. So does the heart of every person. At the foot of the cross, the ground is level and we are equals all.
May we never miss this opportunity to lift up Christ, and only Christ, so he can draw all people to himself.
*My source for historical information: Church History in Plain Language, by Bruce L. Shelley. Word Publishing, 1982 pp. 205-06
This is a dated topic, but I write it now because yesterday someone gave me the poster you see here from the Rocky Balboa media push for churches. I’m grateful to the person who put it on my desk, and I plan to put it up. But the campaign itself, to promote Rocky Balboa to churches, seems odd.
Here are some of the major points of the book:
Shane Claiborne has 
Last week at the conference I attended at the mega-mega church Willow Creek, I took a stroll around their massive campus. At one point I found myself walking across the back of their “old” sanctuary, worship center, whatever they call it, a room that has been replaced in the past few years by a much larger space (pictured at right, from my phone camera).A woman behind me, evidently a Willow member, said to her friend: “Oh, I haven’t been back in here for a long time. The young people use it now.” Then she added: “I miss this room. It’s so much warmer and more intimate than the new one.”
