Festival of St. Stephen
Matthew 23:34-39
I have always had a healthy respect for all branches of the military, and not to take anything away from the other divisions of our armed forces, but one branch particularly stands out in my mind: the Marine Corps. What is their slogan that you see on commercials: “The Few, the Proud, the Marines.” The Marines are an elite branch of fighters. They always seem to be the first into ground combat and the last ones to leave. Perhaps you recall not long ago, during the fighting for Fallujah, we sure heard a lot about the Marine forces. This small branch of the military sure has a great deal of honor and pride attached to it.
But how does one become a Marine? It’s not easy, is it? I saw on eBay that you can buy a replica Marine Sword for $30-$40, but just owning a sword doesn’t make you a Marine. You can’t take a 3-hour crash course and be certified as a Marine. There’s a very tough Boot Camp, that some are unable to complete. Then there is on-going training throughout their service career. I mean, have you ever seen an out-of-shape Marine? Finally, Marines seem to be put in the area of the world where the fighting is the fiercest. There’s nothing easy about being a Marine, and it was never designed to be an easy bit of service.
We are all members of an elite fighting unit: the Church of Jesus Christ. And just like being a Marine, as a Christian, we shouldn’t expect an easy go of it. So this morning, on the Festival of St. Stephen, we are going to consider the theme, “No One Said This Would be Easy.” I. It’s difficult being a follower of Christ. II. It’s even harder being God’s enemy.
Part I
You probably noticed something interesting right away about our text as far as whom Jesus is addressing. He’s not a general giving a speech to the forces under his command, instead he is speaking to the enemy, the Jewish leaders, who for the most part rejected him. And Christ tells the Jews exactly what his strategy is going to be, “Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers.” Christ tells his enemy all the different kinds of people he his going to send to them. It reminds of the passage in the epistles that speaks of the many different branches of service in the church, “it was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, some to be pastors and teachers.”
Unlike every other general, Christ sends out his units not to destroy his enemy, but to save them. All these groups of forces were deployed to turn the Jews from their sins. But it wasn’t an easy task for Christ’s soldiers, and it wasn’t meant to be. Jesus predicts how his units would be treated, “Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.”
Being a follower of Jesus wasn’t going to be easy, and a young man named Stephen knew that. As with many Bible characters, we don’t know as much about this man as we might like, but as we learn in Acts, Stephen had what we would call a more minor position in the Church. He wasn’t an apostle, like Peter or John; instead he took care of distributing food evenly to the widows of the church. That probably wasn’t the easiest job in the world, but Stephen also knew that being a Christian involved even more work. Stephen took seriously his duty to have a good knowledge of the Bible. As we see from his speech to the Sanhedrin, Stephen also realized that it was his job as an ordinary Christian to be able to articulate his beliefs, even in hostile situations. Stephen wasn’t looking to do just the easy tasks when he became a follower of Jesus Christ.
But so often, we want to do just the bare minimum for God. Our sinful natures want to make Christianity as easy and comfortable to us as possible. Perhaps willing to do the simple tasks, like distributing food, a part of us feels that the “hard work” and “difficult fighting” of being a Christian is best left to others. When we are talking to a fellow church member over coffee or something, and they display attitudes that are clearly selfish and not very Christian, the easy thing to do is to let it go, pretend like we didn’t hear it, or maybe tell someone else to deal with it. The hard thing is going and showing that person their sin, as Jesus asks us to do in Matthew 18. When the time for devotions at home rolls around, it’s so easy to convince ourselves that we are too busy that day to go through a Meditations with out family. The hard thing is to be willing to be late for something if it means that we take a few moments to study the Word. When someone you know is clearly hurting with a some great trouble in their life, the easy thing to do is to tell them, “I’m sorry about that, I’ll be there for you.” The hard thing is to really take the time and be there for them. To take time to talk to them about the Savior who has taken away their biggest problem of sin. That’s hard for us to do! These tasks are all hard because there is always a good chance that our words will have a negative effect, and we will be rejected and laughed at. No one said this would be easy. Being a Christian is all about hard and laborious work. Just ask Stephen. As he was on trial, he could have thought, "I know that if I tell them what I really believe about Jesus, these people are going to get all angry at me. Maybe I’ll even be in some danger; so I’ll take the easy way out and just clam up about Jesus." Perhaps you noticed the red on the altar and pulpit this morning. Colors in the church have meaning. Red is the color of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost: it reminds us of the fire that appeared of the heads of the disciples. But red is also the color of blood. It reminds us of those who lost their life for the Gospel. No one said this would be easy. Red reminds us that it’s difficult being a follower of Christ. We are asked to do dangerous work.
Part II
“Stephen” happens to be the name of my older brother, and as we are seeing this morning, he was the first Christian to be put to death. And of course, the person who I share a name with, “Peter,” also met a difficult end, according to tradition, Peter was crucified upside down in Rome. And I am wondering (and a little worried) if my parents had some premonition that Steve and I were given these names of martyrs, since after me there are no more martyr names in our family. I suppose you can ask them about that this morning after the service since they are here. But of course, being a follower of Jesus is difficult. There are still some places on earth where Christians give up their lives for their faith. But even being a martyr is much easier than being an enemy of God.
You see, other people aren’t ever the real enemy. The primary enemy is the devil. People under his control, that is, without faith in Jesus, are the real victims in this fight, not the martyrs. Stephen looks like the victim in this story, but he’s actually the winner, and the people stoning him are victims. How is that possible? In our text, Jesus makes an unusual comparison between himself and an animal. We are used to Jesus being the Lamb of God, but we don’t usually picture Jesus as a chicken. But that’s exactly the metaphor he uses here, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.” I’ve read that hens are particularly protective of their chicks. If one goes missing, the hen will change its voice and be mournful, scratch and call for the lost chick. When hens find food, the first part is for the young. Then hen fights for her chicks, it warns them with her calls, and then hen protects the chicks with her wings. How very well this describes what Christ does for us, his people! When one strays from him, Jesus assumes a sad voice, urging repentance. He searches out those whom have strayed away. Before he thought of his own comfort, he considered the welfare of those under him, and so he endured the cross because he know that would help his chicks. He provides for our faith regularly as we hear the Word and are nourished by the sacrament. He sends us regular warnings about dangers to our souls. And finally, when the devil wants to snatch us away, Jesus spreads his wings over us and protects us.
You think it’s hard being a Christian? It’s much more difficult being an enemy of Jesus. They enjoy none of these benefits. We see from our text that this isn’t what Jesus wants. “How often I have longed to gather your children together,” Jesus mourns.
We saw this pointed speech Stephen gave to the Jewish leaders. There was some finger pointing going on there, “You stiffnecked people! You always resist the Holy Spirit! You have received the law…but have not obeyed it.” It sounds a bit unloving, but this is Jesus, that hen, speaking through Stephen, urging repentance, urging them to come under his protective care, urging them to give up being under the devil. But as Jesus predicted, “But you were not willing.”
It must be hard living as an unchristian. It’s not supposed to be easy. Your life’s priorities are all messed up. You live first for yourself, then for those that make you happy. Then you don’t have time for your enemies, and certainly no time for God. And so you don’t have much idea of what’s going to happen after this life. So you pretty much just live for the here and now, without much purpose, and without any hope. We consider Stephen the martyr today and think it’s pretty hard being a Christian? It’s much tougher not being one.
Conclusion
As the stones are pelting Stephen, with his lifeblood draining out of him, this martyr offers up a prayer to God, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” At first this sounds like just a pious wish from a strong Christian, but a wish that in reality isn’t going to come true for these haters of God who are killing him. Because for those without Christ, God sadly does hold their sins against them. But it might surprise you that God did answer this prayer. God did not hold sins against at least one of those people who put Stephen to death. An enemy of God named Paul was there. And later on in his life, God worked faith into this enemy of Jesus. Later on, this man who we get to know as St. Paul called himself “a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man.” Don’t take this the wrong way, but it a way Paul is almost proud of his sinful past, because that is able to demonstrate God’s immeasurable grace. If Jesus was able to save Paul, Jesus could save anyone. Paul saw both extremes in his life. He learned first-hand how hard it was being a Christian. But he knew from experience that it had been much harder being God’s enemy. Stephen also knew that God’s way was much better. And by his grace, Jesus has taught you that as well. So when Christianity doesn’t seem easy anymore, when you feel like being a follower of Christ is too difficult, look up to the Lord, and let him keep you strong. Let him make you bold like he did for St. Stephen. Amen.
sdg
