By Ife J. Ibitayo
For Part 1 on “Missing the Presence”, click here. For Part 2 on “A Dying Baby, a Dead Baby, and a Living Hope”, click here. For Part 3 on “An Exiled World”, click here.
There was a mighty man of God in the New Testament known as Stephen. He was full of faith and the Holy Spirit, worked many great miracles, and rightly handled the Word of God before fierce opposition (Acts 6:8). He was one of the first leaders of the early church, and he was also its first martyr.
His enemies instigated a smear campaign against him, bringing him to trial on false charges. As he was giving a speech to an ad-hoc kangaroo court of Jewish people, they plugged their ears and stoned him to death (Acts 7). His death was the seed for the widespread persecution of the early church.
Turning Tragedy Into Grief
Acts 8:2 says, “Devout men buried Stephen and made great lamentation over him.” The Greek word translated “lamentation” here is kopeton: to literally beat one’s chest in grief. The Bible never shies away from sadness. We were never called to be Pollyannas, pretending as if “it’s all good” when it really isn’t. We should be willing to embrace grief.
A third of the Psalms—the great praise book of the Bible—are dedicated to lamentation. Even a whole book of the Bible, Lamentations, focuses on that topic specifically. We are to pour out our ragged, raw emotions to our heavenly Father.
Turning Grief Into Opportunity
These devout men and women were forced to flee from Jerusalem. Many fled to the surrounding region of Samaria for safety. But these refuges didn’t just uproot and replant, laying low until the heat died down. Acts 8:4 says, “Those who were scattered abroad went about preaching the word.”
C.S. Lewis is famous for having written, “[Pain] is [God’s] megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Many who read this quote focus on the power of pain to open our own ears to a message we need to hear, but it also magnifies the power of our message to others.
The Apostle Paul said, “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10 ESV). Part of his strength was his visceral testimony of God in the middle of his visceral suffering, just like these other early Christians.
Turning Opportunity Into Joy
Acts 8:8 states the result of the preaching of these early Christians: “So there was much joy in that city.” By embracing their mission in the midst of their pain, the early church “carried the death of Jesus in their bodies, so that His life might be revealed in others” (2 Corinthians 4:10). They rose from grief to joy and elevated a whole city with them!
Conclusion
The same Apostle Paul mentioned earlier was present at the stoning of Stephen. But he wasn’t a fierce denouncer of Stephen’s murderers; he zealously supported them! However, this marquee event was a stepping stone on his journey to salvation.
A few years later, Christ met Paul on the road to Damascus, where Paul was traveling to ravage the Christian church. Jesus asked him, “Why are you persecuting Me? It’s hard to kick against the goads” (Acts 26:14)? Something had happened to Paul that stripped from him his hatred of the Christian church, making his persecution insincere.
The death of this innocent man must have been one of the factors weighing on Paul’s mind when he turned to Jesus Christ. From this seed, this one martyr’s death, an incalculable bounty of life sprung up and continues to blossom till today.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”
(John 12:24 ESV)