St Stephen

ST. STEPHEN - CREATIVE SUFFERING

Who was Stephen?

According to St. Luke, in the Acts of the Apostles, the early Jerusalem Christians decided to appoint seven servants or "deacons" to assist with the work of the church and to lighten the load of the apostles.

Apparently, the daily distributions to widows were not functioning properly and it seems that the Greek-speaking community felt neglected.

Seven members were therefore chosen to help. The first of these was St. Stephen.

He, together with the other six, were brought before the Apostles, who offered prayer for them before laying their hands upon them, to authorise them for this work.

It would seem that it was initially Stephen's actions, rather than his words, that brought him into immediate controversy with the Jewish authorities. Quite what was the cause is unknown.

However, he was brought before the High Priest before whom he made a great speech in his defence.

This speech, recorded in Acts, was pretty hard-hitting to those who refused to recognise Jesus, namely, the Jewish authorities.

As a result of his actions and words, he was taken out and stoned to death. At the moment of his death, he was filled with the Spirit, and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at his right hand. He commended himself to Jesus echoing the same words as Jesus.

There is no doubt that the evangelist put the spotlight upon the manner of Stephen's death, and intended his readers to do likewise.

There are first many parallels between the death of Jesus and the death of Stephen.

Both are innocent. Both commended themselves to God in trust at the end. Both pray for those who were killing them. And both die outside the city.

But care is also taken to draw contrasts between the two.

Stephen is not crucified but rather dies as the result of stoning.

Stephen points to Jesus throughout, both in his speech and in his prayers.

Whereas Jesus dies surrounded by a small band of sympathisers - one thinks of his mother Mary, the beloved disciple, the penitent thief and the Roman Centurion, Stephen dies surrounded by his accusers.

He is indeed, the First Christian Martyr.

Hopefully, you and I are unlikely to face a martyr's death, though we do well to recall that there have been more Christian martyrs in the twentieth century than in any other century of Christian history.

Whilst we may not be called upon to die for our faith, many of us are called upon to face adversity in this life.

It is how we deal with undeserved adversity in this life that helps determine our eternal character.

We can reject it and say 'why me?', and allow ourselves to become bitter and twisted as we fight and try to resist it or we can accept it graciously and say 'why not me?' and use it creatively as a means of drawing closer to God, as we come to lean upon Him, rather than upon our own strength and ability.

Being prepared to forgive those who have hurt us is possibly one of the biggest tests of our Christian character.

The late Bishop Leonard Wilson of Birmingham found this so, as he laid on his back, looking at the faces of those torturing him in jail during the Second World War.

And yet the acceptance of affliction can be the means of enabling others also to draw closer to God. Our quiet confidence of the love of God, even in the midst of personal suffering, can be the way of challenging those around to think about the source of our strength,

The results may sometimes be immediate. I think of a surgeon who became a Roman Catholic during the Second world War, when he noticed the calm and peace in those of that particular tradition for whom he cared upon the battlefield.

Bishop Wilson had to wait many more years before he eventually confessed to one of his former Japanese torturers.

And what of that young man, at whose feet, those witnesses of the stoning of Stephen placed their cloaks?

Did you notice his name?

It was Saul.

I have often wondered whether this was the beginning of the slow and gradual conversion of Saul, rather than the dramatic moment upon the Damascus Road, whereby he became Paul.

It was an early church Father who once said, “The blood of the martyrs are the seeds of the church". This certainly was the case as regards the martyrdom of Stephen when one considers the subsequent impact his death had upon St. Paul and his missionary activity in the early church.

Even our manner of death can be a means of bringing others closer to God. Adversity can indeed be used creatively to be a source of new life to others.

So we thank God for Stephen. Deacon and First Martyr, and pray that we too may allow adversity in our life to become the means of pointing others towards Jesus, as did the death of Stephen.