Heraclitus Started the Fire, Maybe…
Heraclitus was an ancient Greek philosopher who lived and worked five hundred years before Jesus. He was influential on other Greek philosophers who came after, such as Plato, who had a major influence on the history of philosophy. And yet, most of us have probably never heard of Heraclitus. Or, perhaps we have heard, but like many ancient famous people, his name has been detached from the wisdom he imparted on the world. If you have heard the expression, “The only thing constant is change,” or any related expression, you have heard the influence of Heraclitus.
Heraclitus believed the world was in a constant state of flux. He even claimed that everything was ultimately made of fire. Perhaps he meant this as a metaphor, or maybe he is the culprit Billy Joel was talking about. Fire is constantly dancing and moving. It lacks the adamant firmness of stone. Unlike water and air, it can not only move freely but it can also grow suddenly or disappear with a quick covering. Fire is reckless and unpredictable. And this is true of the world we live in. Every day is something entirely different. If you think nothing has changed in your own personal life from one day to another, you aren’t looking hard enough. Our brains and bodies are changing a little every day. The things we say and do affect how people feel about us. Little changes in our local circumstances ensure that each day is a completely new adventure.
Furthermore, the world is constantly changing. Not only is the weather different day to day, but the cycle of the seasons makes every single day now significantly different from another day three months from now, not only in the weather but in how we experience it. Furthermore, small changes in climate over a long period of time mean that even seasons from year to year vary. Governments turn over with new leadership every few years. Social views on certain topics change. Businesses come and go, with the mainstays of one year being completely forgotten ten years later, while other businesses completely change their models. At one point, Netflix mailed movies to people. Now, that concept is nearly unbelievable.
It looks like Heraclitus is correct. The notion that the world is in a constant state of change seems to be proven by experience. If that is the case, what do we do with the permanence and unchanging quality of Jesus expressed in Hebrews 13:8? “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.”
On the one hand, there may be an easy theological answer that we can all agree with. Though the world may always be changing, Christ is constant. We may be distraught by the unpredictable chaos of the world, but we can keep coming back to Christ, who always forgives our sins and restores us. Christ is always loving and provides healing. Christ is constantly calling us to the mission. The world changes. Christ does not.
This is a nice, traditional way of looking at this verse. However, there is a danger to this interpretation. Someone firmly devoted to tradition, perhaps more devoted to history than to Christ, may start to equate the unchanging nature of Christ with the continuity of tradition through history. This verse has been used to oppose change, even when those changes are improvements to society. If Jesus doesn’t change, why should we try to change the world? As followers of Jesus, we should maintain the interpretations of Jesus that our ancestors held. If they thought Jesus allowed slavery, why should we condemn it? If they thought Jesus would have excluded certain people for certain sins, we ought to continue excluding such people. The problem here is that people equate Christ with the interpretations of Christ, and that is dangerous by itself, but there is another way to move away from unchanging traditionalism while embracing Hebrews 13:8.
What if we took Heraclitus even more seriously? This may sound crazy, but what if we took these two sayings together as part of the same logical syllogism? First, the only thing constant is change. Second, Christ is unchanging (read “constant”). If both of these are true, and we take the word “only” literally, then I can think of only one possible conclusion. Christ is change.
At first, this may seem sacrilegious, but it need not be. This isn’t saying that Christ is changing, but rather that Christ is the force of change in the world, or at least that Christ is part of the way the world changes. Perhaps Christ is change, but not all change is Christ. And when we consider what Christ does in our lives, the idea that Christ is a source of change doesn’t seem so bad. As sinners, we rely on the hope that Christ changes us. The world is a battleground between God and the powers of evil that would halt the advance of the kingdom. We are embroiled in a cosmic conflict, but we don’t want to stay here forever. Winning the conflict requires the world changing. And that doesn’t simply mean that we need the weather to change from day to day. We need the systems and structures that keep people from God to be changed. All the powers of this world that force people into poverty, cause people to hate and discriminate against others, and lure people into the trap of exchanging the beauty of God’s creation for the temporary thrills of man made comforts and pleasures, need to be thrown off. We cannot abide with things that pollute, corrupt, and destroy the world and the hearts of our fellow humans.
Maybe progress isn’t so much against the constancy of Christ as it is caused by the constancy of Christ. For Christ to remain constant would be for Christ to continue actively drawing the world toward God’s vision of the eternal kingdom. For Christ to change would be for Christ to unpredictably stop working for something different. In a world in which suffering is so prevalent, we can’t hope for things not to change. Change is an important part of our faith and our mission. The ministry of the Church should be having a profound effect on the world, not statically obeying the tyranny of the status quo. We are not bound by the shackles of traditionalism. Christ is constantly changing the world, and we are faithfully along for the journey.
