Stephen is recognized as the first Christian martyr due to this passage in Acts. He was one of the deacons chosen by the disciples to continue their work and to specifically care for the poor by distributing food and aid. Today’s reading from Acts doesn’t get to the backstory of why there were deacons or why Stephen was chosen, so let’s take a moment to get that settled.
As the number of disciples continued to grow, the Greek-speaking Christians complained about the Hebrew-speaking Christians, saying that their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. So the Twelve called together the community of the disciples and said, “It is not right for us to neglect the word of God to serve at table. Brothers, select from among you seven reputable men, filled with the Spirit and wisdom, whom we shall appoint to this task, whereas we shall devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” The proposal was acceptable to the whole community, so they chose Stephen, a man they considered very faithful and “filled with the Holy Spirit”. (this is all chronicled in Acts 6.)
He was a kind and popular man. He could speak well and took care of people with kindness and compassion. However, he often argued theologically with the Hellenistic Jews. Specifically, he aroused the opposition of the "Synagogue of the Freedmen", and "of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of them that were of Cilicia and Asia". Members of these synagogues had challenged Stephen's teachings, but Stephen had bested them in debate. Furious at this humiliation, they suborned false testimony that Stephen had preached blasphemy against Moses and God. They dragged him to appear before the Sanhedrin, the supreme legal court of Jewish elders, accusing him of preaching against the Temple and the Mosaic Law. (again, this is all in Acts 6).
Tbe clear, Hellenistic Judaism was a very specific sect of Judaism that was birthed in the aftermath of the conquering of Palestine by Alexander the Great. Essentially, it was an amalgamation of Palestinian Judaism and Greek beliefs and culture. During the Hellenistic period, priests were both the wealthiest class and the strongest political group among the Jews of Jerusalem. They were the religious authorities and the political elite. And they had very specific opinions about how things should be done.
So, a LOT of things had been going on leading up to this moment in Acts 7. And quite simply, Stephen made them angry. And, in response, Stephen was accused of blasphemy against Moses and God. Now, Stephen was a Jew as well, so he knew his way around the stories and traditions, and well, he lit into them with a speech that did not end particularly well for him.
I didn’t read you his entire speech, because he essentially recounts the entire history of Judaism back to the people who were accusing him of blasphemy. He talks about Abraham, Joseph, Moses, the Exodus, the golden calf, David, and Solomon. He tells hundreds of years of history and God’s role in that history. And then he really gets going.
He said: ” You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are forever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it.”
This was quite an accusation! Stephen called them out and directly accused them of murdering both John the Baptist and Jesus. But beyond that, he accused them of basically persecuting every single prophet they or their ancestors had ever encountered. He called them betrayers and murderers, AND he said they are not following the law.
Well, that went about as well for Stephen as it did for Jesus and John, and everyone else before them. They dragged Stephen out to the edge of town and stoned him to death.
Now the way Luke (who we assume is also the author of Acts) presents this story is intentional. We’re supposed to draw the connection between Stephen and Jesus. We are supposed to understand that the religious elites didn’t start or stop their actions with Jesus. They had persecuted prophets before Jesus, and they persecuted followers after Jesus. Telling the story this way establishes that Jesus, while special, was not unique in the way he was treated by those in charge. This was a systemic evil that predated Jesus and would continue with the murder of many more martyrs.
So why do we tell this story? It’s not even Stephen’s feast day. Stephen’s usual day of celebration is December 26th- you know the “On the Feast of Stephen” day from the old carol.
Well, I think it’s an important reminder, just five weeks past Easter that what happened to Jesus was not an isolated event. People were regularly murdered for standing up to the religious authorities, and that would make the development of Christianity quite dangerous. As the faith spread, so did the regular torture and killing of those trying to spread the word of Jesus. So Stephen, as the first of the martyrs, marks an important moment. He is the first one who proclaimed Jesus as the Christ to be killed for that belief, but he was not the last.
There have been folks martyred for their faith and belief systems within our own lifetimes. In Westminster Abbey there are statues honoring ten of them:
St Maximilian Kolbe from Poland
Manche Masemola from South Africa
Janani Luwum from Uganda
Grand Duchess Elizabeth from Russia
Dr Martin Luther King Jr, a civil rights leader who was assassinated
St Oscar Romero, Archbishop in El Salvador who was assassinated
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from Germany, killed by the Nazis in 1945
Esther John from Pakistan
Lucian Tapiedi from Papua New Guinea
Wang Zhiming, a pastor killed during the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
Again, these are only a few of those who have given up their lives for their beliefs. Being a martyr isn’t something that happens because a person is inconvenienced.
“In spite of our collective affluence and social privilege, too many American Christians are quick to throw the word persecution around to describe their experience. According to a 2016 study done by the Public Religion Research Institute and Brookings, almost 50% of Americans believe Christians are victims of discrimination. The number gets up to 77% when the question is limited to white evangelical Protestants while a substantially smaller 54% of Mainliners, 53% of white Catholics and Black Protestants, and 50% of Hispanic Catholics agree. This mentality seems to be increasingly prevalent in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the recent election, and subsequent political unrest. In response to a parallel decrease of the Church's social and political presence and the increase of secularism and pluralism, the American Church appears less interested in martyrdom than it is in maintaining a victim-complex” (Walker).
Jesus was a Victim, John was a Victim. Stephen was a victim. So were Bonhoeffer and King! But a Christian who is being asked to welcome someone who is different or share communion with someone they disagree with isn’t a victim, they are simply someone with a victim complex. Jesus, John, and Stephen- were all murdered because they worked to keep people from being victimized. Bonhoeffer, King, and Romero were murdered because they worked to keep people from being victimized. They are examples of what can happen when you put God and people first instead of rules and religion.
So of course Luke wants to give us this reminder. We’ve just gotten far enough away from Easter that we’re starting to hear stories about Jesus again in the scriptures. We’re starting to see the development of the church. We’re happy remembering the resurrection and we’re enjoying the beginning of spring. Everything post-resurrection wasn’t springtime, sunshine, and butterflies. It was work. It was martyrdom. It was pushing through difficulties to establish the importance of Jesus and to spread that belief to others. Stephen is a reminder of what that kind of devotion can cost a person.