Saturday 26 December 2009

Background

It seems odd that only a day after celebrating the birth ofJesus we are asked to reflect on the violent death of SaintStephen, the first Christian martyr (someone who is killed fortheir faith).

However, the calling of those who follow Christ is to take up theircross and follow him. High moments of spiritual insight wereinseparable from events of cruel persecution in the life of theearly Christians. Following the birth of the Church at Pentecost,when the Holy Spirit descended upon the disciples (Acts 2), manypeople were converted and chose to follow Christ. The sheer volumeof numbers was a threat to the religious and political authoritieswho had assumed that killing Christ would be an end of the threatthat they had believed him to be. Fear often leads to persecutionand this proved to be the case.

Among the early Christians was Stephen "full of grace and power,[who] did great wonders and signs" (Acts 6:8). These activitiescaught the attention of religious leaders and Stephen was arrestedand brought before the high priest of the Sanhedrin (the JewishCouncil). Stephen then told the story of the history of salvationfor the Jewish people and described how the people now judging himhad failed to recognise the "Righteous One" (Jesus) and had himcondemned to death.

This infuriated the Council and they dragged Stephen outside thecity walls and stoned him to death. Stephen asked God to forgivethose who killed him. A man called Saul witnessed and approved ofStephen's murder; he was a person zealous with hatred for theChristians. Yet only a short time later he encountered Christ in avision on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-31) andwent on to be the most famous apostle and the founder of manychurches.

Joy and vision sit hand in hand with hardship and disaster in theseearly stories of Christian martyrdom. Yet it is the faithfulness ofthe witnesses that stands out above the horrors of physical painand cruelty. The word of God and story of Christ spread because ofthe courage of the martyrs, rather than the hardships they faced,and always, like Stephen, they had a living experience of the gloryof God woven into their experience.

To Ponder

What does it mean for you to 'take up your cross'to follow Christ?

In the context of a world where martyrdom ismixed up with news of suicide bombers, how do you understand theidea of giving up your life for what you believe in?

What times in your own experience has sufferinggone hand in hand with a deeper experience of God?