Too Many “Little Children” And Not Enough “Fathers” Among Recent Christian Martyrs?

Posted on March 9, 2015 by Pastor Foley

Logo 071414Sophia Jones offers moving tribute to the 21 Coptic Christians beheaded by ISIS, sharing about their everyday lives before martyrdom. The 21 are described as

laborers, gone for months on end, who sent home hard-earned money to feed entire families. They left their impoverished home in Egypt to work in Libya for a better future, despite the dangers.

Hani Abdel Messihah, 32, is “gentle and kind, always making a joke whenever he could.” Yousef Shoukry, 24, is “a  quiet young man with the heart of a child… All he wanted to do was find a job and start a family.” His faith gave him the confidence to go to Libya. “I have one God, he’s the same here and there,” he told his mother. Maged Suleiman Shahata, 40, was “born into poverty and so were his children. But the father of three was determined to change their futures.”

These are quality men of faith. And yet what is so remarkable about their martyrdom is that they were not church leaders whose martyrdom came as a result of a life of discipleship that increasingly put them perpendicular to the principalities and powers of the world; instead, they appear to have been individuals out looking for work, apprehended simply because of their Christian identity, yet who, after they were apprehended, lived up to that Christian identity in every possible way through their witness. They confessed and did not deny.

This has me looking at John’s typology of Christian maturity in 1 John 2, wherein John distinguishes between little children, young men, and fathers. Who were these 21?

I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you, children, because you know the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. (1 John 2:12-14, NASB).

There is of course no way to know for sure, but I might suggest that the 21 were “little children” who became “young men” in our family of faith in the final moments of their lives.Their extraordinary professions of faith remind us that the strength is all from God and not from us.

And yet in church history there is also a tradition that “fathers”–the top leaders of the Christian movement worldwide in their time–model uncompromising faithfulness for the rest of the family by living lives of discipleship that do place them perpendicular to the world and thus (and often voluntarily) lead steadily toward the cross.

Ignatius and Polycarp are perhaps paradigmatic in that regard. They willingly offered the sacrifice of martyrdom, and they wrote letters along the way to the young men and little children who did not want them to die and who questioned whether their sacrifice was the right thing for them to do.

The story of Jesus demonstrates the reason why in scripture the “fathers” precede the “young men” and the “little children” into martyrdom: Young men and little children sometimes have willing spirits but weak flesh when the time of sacrifice is at hand:

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” But he said to Him, “Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death!” And He said, “I say to you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me” (Luke 22:31-34, NASB).

In the scriptural order, fathers advance to martyrdom at the vanguard of the family, and they share why they are going on the way. This does not mean that only fathers are martyred, or that all fathers are martyred, or that young men or little children are spared martyrdom, or that their witness is less valuable or mature or important. But it does suggest that fathers are martyred, and that part of being a father is living a life of faith in full knowledge of where it will lead; not backing away from the cost; and even helping others to understand and accept what will happen, and why it is not a tragedy.

So let me turn the question to you and ask:

Who is the last “father” you can think of–the last global-level top Christian leader who steadily lived a life perpendicular to the world–who knew that he/she was advancing toward martyrdom, and who was dissuaded by young men and little children not to make the sacrifice, and who responded by helping them to think theologically and properly about why martyrdom is the logical outcome of faithful discipleship lived amidst the principalities and powers of the world? And do you think that there may be too many “little children” and not enough “fathers” among recent Christian marytrs?

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Coffee Hours and Comfortable Pews Are Creepy . . . Not Christian Martyrs

Posted on March 5, 2015 by tdillmuth

Logo 071414Post by Pastor Tim – I remember being exposed to Voice of the Martyrs at a young age – I didn’t really know much about it, but I remember feeling as if all the martyrdom stories were a little weird.  I guess I figured that the important Christian teaching would be taught on a regular basis in my church, and the stuff that Voice of the Martyrs talked about was more of a fringe thing, certainly not a core aspect of the Christian life.

I thought that it was certainly real, but not normal.  Not normal in my world, anyway – the world with the nice youth group, good home, comfortable pews, and a 15 minute homily every Sunday that was followed by a lively and joyful coffee hour.

I probably felt a little like Annie Turner who asked in her recent post, “Is anyone else as creeped out by martyrs as I am?”

It’s not that I’m against honoring those who have died being faithful witnesses, like the seven monks in the new French film, Of Gods and Men. After all, martyr comes from the Greek word martys meaning “witness.” I like witnessing to my own faith and try to do so with some regularity without causing people to either drool excessively or fall into comas.

But in the long run, I just don’t get the martyr thing, nor could I do it. It’s the whole idea of “What are we willing to give up for God?” that nags at me. I’d so much rather come down on the side of, What can we give out for God? How can we be more merciful, more compassionate, more understanding, more forgiving? Like that.

Thirty years later my viewpoint has changed a little bit . . . actually quite a bit.  I’ve realized that suffering and persecution are actually normal parts of the Christian life – and not just for Christians in places like the Middle East or North Korea.

The Scriptures confirm this in places like 1 Timothy 3:12, where we read that “all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”   Or when Jesus says in John 15:20, “if they persecuted me they will also persecute you.”

Not only do the Scriptures confirm this, but faithful Christians throughout the centuries do as well. Over 100 years ago, Henry Drummond, scientist and close personal friend of D.L. Moody captured this sentiment well when he said,

Every man who lives like Christ produces the same reaction upon the world. This is an inevitable consequence. What men said of Him, if we are true to Him, they will say of you and me. The servant is not above his master. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you.

So maybe coffee hours, church youth groups, and 15 minute homilies are really what’s weird and creepy.  Not Christians who are living out their faith in such a way that it attracts persecution.  Not Christians who are proclaiming the gospel despite the fact that they could be imprisoned.  Not Christians who are giving up their lives for the sake of being a witness for Christ.

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A Martyr Is Not A Victim But Also Not A Hero. Instead, The Martyr Is A _____________________

Posted on March 2, 2015 by Pastor Foley

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Marc at Bad Catholic wrote the kind of near-perfect blog post last week that I would have cut out and put on my refrigerator if we were still in the newspaper age and if our refrigerator here in Korea wasn’t the size of a postage stamp. Entitled The Difference Between a Martyr and a Victim, Marc wrote:

The martyr, then, is not the victim. The victim is referred to some enemy (a victim of a freak boating accident, of the measles, of terrorism) while the martyr is referred to some friend (a martyr for God, for country, for peace). The victim is referred to a moment in the past (she was a victim of gang violence) while the martyr is a martyr by virtue of a quality she has in the present moment, even after she is dead (she is a martyr). The victim is held up to direct our negative attention towards the cause of her victimhood (look at what evil has wrought!) while the martyr is held up to direct our positive attention towards the reason for her martyrdom (look at her incredible faith, her courage, her commitment, her love for God, etc.). The victim’s death works against her life, coming in the form of a homicide, a buffalo stampede, a car crash, all without any meaningful, harmonious relationship to the content of her existence. The martyr’s death, on the other hand, is in profound harmony with the content of her existence. It does not end her life, pulling down the curtain in the midst of Act II, so much as it crowns her life, a fruit and reasonable consequence of its direction and intention — she lived as a Christian and died for it.

The danger in regarding martyr as victim, continues Marc, is that “we do combat with our dead”:

Denigrated into victims, the slain becomes symbols of accusation against some evil, real or perceived. Thus objectified, they may be used as threats, weapons, and knockout punches — powerful pawns of the culture wars. The person, considered as a pure victim, becomes a completely negative phenomenon, a mere reference to an enemy power, an accusation in the flesh. The person, considered as a victim, becomes evidence of evil.

The 21 Coptic martyrs, then, become not patterns for our own Christian living but symbols of just how loathsome (and fearsome) ISIS is.

Make sure to read the rest of the article, as the distinction between martyr and victim is all but lost today. The only thing I would add to the article is that the distinction between martyr and hero is equally unclear today as well. That distinction is to be found in the meaning of the word martyr, which Marc rightly notes is “a witness, a pointing-towards, an icon and profound evidence of the immense value and the unspeakable worthiness of that for which she dies.” The martyr points away from self and toward Christ, particularly Christ’s salvific death on behalf of his enemies.

This is exactly why the intent of martyrdom is not, as Marc suggests, that we would say of the martyr, “look at her incredible faith, her courage, her commitment, her love for God, etc.” but rather of the Christ, “look at his faithfulness, which calls out to me to repent, believe, and proclaim with the centurion at the foot of the cross.”Surely this man was the Son of God!”

The martyr always dies pointing, in other words. And we are called to look not at the heart or the faith of the one pointing but rather to the One pointed at, namely, Christ:

“Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” (Stephen, in Acts 7:56)

When some of the 21 Coptic Christian martyrs whispered “Jesus” with their last breath, we are to say not “Look at what faith they had!” but rather “Look at what strength He has given them!”

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