"N" stands for Napoleon

“N” stands for Napoleon. The self-made man. From being the “little corporal” from Corsica, he rose to become a military genius, a leader whose men would gladly die for him, the emperor of France, the ruler of Europe and the creator of the Napoleonic Code. Both military genius and law giver.

Through action great men and women mold the events that surround us. When Napoleon spoke armies moved and his enemies trembled. Napoleon was a “doer”, a self-made man, a person of destiny. Napoleon “made it happen.”

Some of the pictures that I have posted show Napoleon enjoying the fruits of greatness. Dressed in lavish clothing and wearing the golden olive leaf crown much as a Roman general who had successfully vanquished the enemies of Rome. Napoleon was the emperor of a new Rome, a French empire.

In David’s great picture showing the Crowning of Napoleon, you will note that Napoleon has the crown in his own hands. His victories were not to be relegated to honors bestowed by the pope and the church, but victory was brought to him by the strength of his own right hand, and so he crowns himself. It is the picture of the Self-Made Man.

Time, however, stands still for no man or woman. Napoleon despite all of his success meets final defeat at the hands of the British. He is exiled first to the Island of Elba. He returns to Europe and is finally defeated and spends his final days on the Island of St. Helena.

Pushkin wrote of Napoleon”

“Ocean, your image was stamped upon him;
He was created by your spirit;
He is fathomless and potent like you,
Like you by naught to be tamed.”

But he was tamed. He was taken to the Island of St. Helena and there he died probably poisoned with arsenic in his food by the British. He was too dangerous to let live even on the small island of St. Helena.

One writer has pointed out that Napoleon was born on an island-Corsica, exiled to an island-Elba; died on an island-St. Helena and spent his life trying to conquer an island-Great Britain.

Our powers are limited. Even though expansive for a while, they are hemmed in and we find that we are an island unto ourselves.

The story is told of a great leader who learns that he is mortal by being carried to the seaside he learns that he can not command the waves to stop coming in. There are limits to our powers no matter how great they may seem for the moment.

And so at the end of Napoleon’s life he is a simple gardener on the Island of St. Helena in the hands of his enemies. He is pictured as looking out into the sea; perhaps thinking of the glories of the French empire; perhaps realizing that the waves do not obey his commands. He realizes that he who once ruled the world, does not even rule the small island on which he lives.

How different the life of Christ from the life of Napoleon. Christ showed leadership by washing the feet of his disciples. He knew that to live was also to die and to die was also to live. Christ had no place to set his head. “The foxes have their holes, and the birds their nests; but there is no place for the Son of Man to rest his head.” Although they offered to make him King, Jesus said his kingdom was not of this world. At the end of his life, he had his clothes gambled away and he was nailed to a cross. And people who are nailed to a cross know that their fate is no longer in their own hands. Christ was not the self-made man, but the God- made man.

The lessons are there for all of us. Each of us comes to the point, where we come to the end of ourselves. We get there voluntarily or involuntarily, but most of us get there. Age becomes the great leveler and death comes to all. What we have earned through our efforts we can not take with us. Our kingdoms that we have conquered vanish. Our children and loved ones go away. Finally we left at the end of our lives knowing we can take nothing with us and realizing we are lucky if we have a plot of ground in which to be buried. Our kingdom is a small one. Our beauty fades. Our possessions that we have worked so hard to earn go to the relatives or to auctions or to yard sales. We are left at the end of life lucky to control our own bodily functions, much less the world.

And this is the human delimma. Even the Stalins of the earth finally get evicted from their own tombs. The Hitlers end up on a bone box in some Russian archive or hidden away. The applause of the crowd is there no longer.

But for the Christian, there is hope. We begin with the premise that the world is not our home in the first place. We are citizens of a new and better world. We believe in a physical resurrection and life with Christ in a New Jerusalem. We start from the premise that we are not self-made men and women but we are God-made men and women. We have value because we were purchased with a price, the most rare blood of the perfect and sinless Lamb of God. We become members of the Family of God. Our relatives are Enoch, Moses and Elijah. Our elder Brother is Jesus Christ. He has shown the way and has gone to prepare a place for us with the Father. A place in which God is in control-- not ourselves.

We are the people of Grace. We know that it is not by our works that we are saved but by the works of Jesus Christ. We are the company of those who are led by the Holy Spirit of God. And He it is who will lead us through the desert of this life into a better land that is promised to us all.

We are the people of hope.

And so as we stand on our own personal Elbas and St. Helenas we look to the distance with eyes full of hope knowing that there is an eternal empire and that we are citizens of that empire no matter what our condition or where we happen to be. And what is more, we will be returning to that kingdom shortly.

HarleyDad