The Way of the Dragon or the Way of the Lamb: Searching for Jesus’ Path of Power in a Church that Has Abandoned It

by Jamin Goggin

The image we get in this passage is not of the church triumphing, but of one who has been triumphed over. The image of triumph had a cultural correspondence for the Corinthians of Paul’s day. Triumphing was an allusion to the Roman processionals following a victory in war.6 As New Testament scholar Paul Barnett states, “The verb was not used to describe victorious troops but defeated prisoners who had been brought to Rome to be paraded as the spoils of war.”7 What the apostle Paul is telling us here is that in Christ God has triumphed over us, and in him we are now paraded before a watching world. We are caught in the victory parade of Christ, celebrating his defeat of the world, the flesh, and the devil. The image is not of our power, but God’s. We are viewed in a position of weakness. And yet, as the church embraces the role of Christ’s captive, we make Christ’s way known in the world.