The death of Archbishop Thomas Becket
On the 29 December 1170, 855 years ago, Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral. Quite soon people started to visit his resting place in the cathedral and his tomb became a shrine, a place of pilgrimage. People journeyed from all over England, and others travelled from Europe and even from as far away as India. This act of pilgrimage carried on until the English Reformation brought about the destruction of his shrine in 1538.
A bit of background
In 1964 I watched Henry II of England journey from Normandy in France to England. He rode into Canterbury, ascended the steps into the cathedral and walked to the tomb of Thomas Becket. There he had a one sided conversation with the dead archbishop. Well he did in the 1964 film!
Historically Thomas Becket was made archbishop by Henry in 1162. Henry hoped Becket might help him politically. But Becket took his job as archbishop seriously, giving up worldly pursuits for a more holy life. Henry was not impressed. In a fit of anger the King is reported to have shouted “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest” or something similar. Four of his knights took him seriously, journeyed to Canterbury and after an argument with Becket, they assassinated him on the steps down into the cathedral crypt. You can still see the spot when you visit the cathedral.
Why travel to his tomb?
After his death people saw him as an upholder of the Christian faith and a champion of the role of the church in society. He remained, even in death, a powerful figure – it wasn’t clear in the film or in history, what King Henry’s pilgrimage set out to achieve!
Most pilgrims went to venerate Becket as a Christian martyr. Those journeying felt that being close to this “man of God” would bring healing and transformation to their lives. Many miracles were recorded by the Canterbury monks as time passed – that certainly encouraged others to put the trip on their Becket bucket list! Even after his death Becket’s holiness was seen as a way to God, even though the experience was second hand. Two hundred years after Becket’s death, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote “The Canterbury Tales”, a series of short stories that describe a rather worldly journey from London to Becket’s tomb at Canterbury. This, like so many others, was a pilgrimage, but a different pilgrimage to the one the Bible describes.
Biblical pilgrimage
The journey Jesus calls us to is not to find an intermediary to help us, but to seek God for ourselves. It is a call to deny ourselves and follow Him.
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?” (Luke 9:23-25).
To me those verses in Luke are a call to turn my back on worldliness and to resist Satan’s temptations on a daily basis. One of the most powerful and challenging verses I try to remember to live out is to “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). The seeking involves a journey.
The writer to the Hebrews talks about the men of faith in the Old Testament as “strangers and pilgrims”. The letter says: ’These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth’ (Hebrews 11.13).
As a disciple of Jesus, a Christian, I really don’t fit in this world anymore; Through Jesus I am now a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven, a member of God’s household and I am seeking to live in ”a city whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10). Deep down I know I am just passing through – a stranger and a pilgrim. My permanent home is not here on earth but in Heaven. I am declared holy by Jesus’ death on the Cross, but I am still on a journey which will take me even closer to my heavenly Father.
My journey
So I think of myself as a pilgrim on a journey towards God, following Jesus on His Way. He said “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14.6).
For a long time I saw myself hurrying down a path (the Way) after Jesus, who was somewhere in the distance. I was trying, but failing, to catch up. But now I see things differently; Galatians 2:20 reminds me that “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me”. How does that work? It works because the practical outworking of this “I in Christ and He in me‘ is by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within me. If I allow Him (the Holy Spirit) to be my Helper and my Guide daily I am choosing to “walk in the Spirit”. As I journey along the Way I travel with the authority of the Son of God (Matthew 28.18,19) and in the power of the Holy Spirit ( Acts1.8)
On this journey various things can and do happen to me. I might lose my way – I can be distracted (tempted) by Satan and by the fallen world as I journey through it.
I can choose to stop to help others who are either caught up by the thorns and briars of this world or who might have freshly discovered the Way but are still unsure of their path.
I can catch up with a fellow traveller who might be limping along, held back by the world. Or I might meet up with someone travelling faster than me who speaks into my life to bring fresh understanding, increased revelation – and maybe a new turn of speed and sense of direction.
Join me on the journey
I walk this path as a stranger and a pilgrim in a fallen world. I walk it not only in the Holy Spirit’s company, but with other pilgrims too. Sharing the journey perhaps only for a short season.
I encourage you to consider seeing your walk with Jesus in the same way and maybe even join me for some of the journey. I’m hoping our blog might be part of this process.
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All references are from the NKJV unless specified otherwise.
John Partis
bearing-kingdom-fruit.com
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