Napoleon. Napoleon. Napoleon.

Everywhere we looked today in Ajaccio, Corsica, we saw Napoleon. Regardless of what you think of Napoleon, in Ajaccio, Corsica, they embrace him with open arms. After all, it’s good for business.

I’m not sure where I stand on Napoleon. He put an end to the godless French Revolution, and that is a good thing. But he also made war all over Europe to satisfy his personal ambition, and that, as they say in Barcelona, is no bueno.

But in Corsica, they don’t bother with such questions.

Where Napoleon grew up

I started my day in Ajaccio at Napoleon’s home.

This is where he was born in 1769 and where he lived for nine years, until he left for school. Maybe I’m just weird, but places like this make the past feel present. I was standing where Napoleon stood, where he ate, where he slept.

Most people just take pictures; I contemplate—What happened here that shaped a man who could conquer most of Europe? 

I walked to the Ajaccio Cathedral, where Napoleon was baptized in 1771.

I paused at his statue in Piazza Foch. 

Napoleon tchotchkes filled the gift shops: hats, books, action figures, and even Christmas ornaments (one of which, admittedly, I purchased for The Wife). Here, they can’t get enough of Napoleon.

On Napoleon on Jesus

Napoleon was a brilliant military strategist and tactician who conquered most of Europe in a remarkably short time. Napoleon said, “I found the crown of France in the gutter, and I picked it up with the tip of my sword.” However, Napoleon’s empire only lasted about ten years.

Now contrast this with Jesus. Jesus had no armies, and His followers had no weapons. Yet Jesus’ kingdom endures.  Daniel prophesied regarding Jesus’ kingdom:

In the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever. — Daniel 2:44

Even Napoleon seemed to have noticed this contrast with his kingdom:

I die before my time and my body shall be given back to the earth and devoured by worms.  What an abysmal gulf between my deep miseries and the eternal kingdom of Christ.  I marvel that whereas the ambitious dreams of myself, Alexander and of Caesar should have vanished into thin air, a Judean peasant–Jesus–should be able to stretch his hands across the centuries and control the destinies of men and nations.

Napoleon

What we try to build for ourselves will quickly fade, but when we join the mission of God’s kingdom, we are building something that will last forever. 

In that sense, our citizenship in the kingdom of God makes us all “greater” than Napoleon—not just because we will inherit eternal life but because what we are building will outlast all earthly kingdoms. Each person we lead into the kingdom of God is one more citizen than remains in Napoleon’s.

Even if our birthplace is never turned into a museum, and no statue is ever erected in our home town, we can still attain greatness in the Kingdom, which is the only kind that matters.

Until tomorrow. GS