Revolution

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. (2 Corinthians 4:7-12 ESV). Very few people will recognize today as a significant day in the fight for independence between Texas and Mexico. However, it is the beginning of the revolution that ultimately led to the establishment of Texas as an independent nation. There were already growing tensions between Mexico and the people living in what would become Texas; and, in 1835, violence erupted when Mexican soldiers attempt to disarm the people of Gonzales, ultimately sparking the Texan war for independence. Texas, or Tejas as the Mexicans called it, had technically been a part of the Spanish empire since the 17th century. However, even as late as the 1820s, there were only about 3,000 Spanish-Mexican settlers in Texas, and Mexico City’s hold on the territory was tenuous at best. After winning its own independence from Spain in 1821, Mexico welcomed large numbers of Anglo-American immigrants into Texas in the hopes they would become loyal Mexican citizens and keep the territory from falling into the hands of the United States. During the next decade men like Stephen F. Austin brought more than 25,000 people to Texas, most of them Americans. But while these emigrants legally became Mexican citizens, they continued to speak English, formed their own schools, and had closer trading ties to the United States than to Mexico. In 1835, the president of Mexico, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, overthrew the constitution and appointed himself dictator. Recognizing that the “American” Texans were likely to use his rise to power as an excuse to secede, Santa Anna ordered the Mexican military to begin disarming the Texans whenever possible. This proved more difficult than expected, and on October 2, 1835, Mexican soldiers attempting to take a small cannon from the village of Gonzales encountered stiff resistance from a hastily assembled militia of Texans. After a brief fight, the Mexicans retreated and the Texans kept their cannon. The determined Texans would continue to battle Santa Ana and his army for another year and a half before winning their independence and establishing the Republic of Texas. In our reading today we see the apostle remind his readers that they continued to suffer for the cause of their freedom from sin and death. They understood the incredible freedom that Christ had provided through his work of grace. They could not contain this message, hiding it secretly. It was a treasure to be shared with the world, even in the face of great persecution. That “revolution” ultimately brought freedom to every corner of the world so that today Christianity is represented in virtually every nation of the earth. It must have seemed a prudent thing to disarm those early missionaries through that persecution, when, in fact, it merely drove them more to preach the gospel. I wonder if we have that kind of passion for maintaining our hard won freedom in Christ. We should.