Every Sunday, millions of Christians around the world assemble to worship and recite ancient creeds which have served to unify the Church around a common confession. Part and parcel to this confession is the triumphal note that Jesus Christ "ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father." At the same time, as these venerable words resound in church halls to the glory of God, countless other Christians gather in fear, secretly worshiping while mourning over the loss of loved ones to persecution. According to Open Doors—a nondenominational organization that researches and reports persecution against Christians worldwide—13 Christians suffer martyrdom every day. That appalling figure comes out to about one death every two hours and 5,000 deaths every year. This of course does not account for other forms of persecution, including fines, imprisonment, torture, and even milder variants that believers experience in the West. While we find great sadness in this reality, we ought not to be surprised; Jesus himself warned his followers—both present and future—that they would stir Satan's hatred and thereby suffer persecution (John 15:20). The edifice of the Church is stained with the blood of martyrs, trickling upward from the very bloody Cornerstone himself.
The Martyrdom of Stephen
The first martyr of the Church was a deacon named Stephen, whom the apostles had appointed to distribute food to the poor. When challenged by the hostile Sanhedrin, Stephen stood his ground. Armed with the sword of the Spirit, he outdueled those learned but unscrupulous scholars, who resorted to treachery to put him on trial before the high priest. Rather than defend his honor, Stephen made one last effort to show forth Christ as the fulfilment of all Jewish hopes and toilings. He explained that those features which had for so long defined Old Testament religion (the Levitical priesthood, the Temple, and all of those sacrifices) were all provisional, meaning that God had instituted them for a time to point to a greater reality: the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Sadly, the callous hearts of the Jewish leaders would not yield to Stephen's preaching. Instead, they seethed and snarled at the man who so fervently hoped for their salvation (Acts 7:54). But while they brimmed with anger, Stephen was filled with the Spirit and looked up to behold what they—blinded by their sin—could not. His eyes widened as the Spirit unveiled before him the fullness of divine glory and in the midst of it all, the Son standing beside the Father. At this point, it might have been possible for Stephen to evade martyrdom. But he could not help but erupt in praise over what he was seeing. Alluding to Daniel's vision in Daniel 7, he cried out, "Look! I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56). The Jewish leaders in their pride were so insulted by Stephen's worship that they covered their ears and screamed. Bypassing Roman Law, they took matters into their own hands and moved to execute Stephen then and there.
Jesus Stood
Perhaps what is most fascinating about Stephen's vision is that he saw Jesus not sitting but standing at the Father's right hand. Jesus himself spoke to the Jewish leaders at his own trial that they would "see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of Heaven" (Matt. 26:64). The author of Hebrews likewise punctuated Christ's victory over sin by writing that "after making purification for sins, [Christ] sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high" (Heb. 1:3)—hence why Christians recite that line of the creed every Lord's Day. The act of sitting implies accomplishment; after we finish our work, we sit down. But in his final moments, Stephen saw Jesus standing. Why?
Luke did not explicitly explain why Jesus stood as Stephen underwent the heat of persecution, but we can infer three reasons:
1. Jesus stood as a witness on Stephen's behalf, testifying to his faith as well as the truth of his words before the high priest. In their rage, the Jewish leaders had falsely accused Stephen of blasphemy, employed false witnesses, and foregone a fair trial in order to kill him swiftly. Facing such blatant injustice while encircled by his accusers on every side, Stephen looked up and saw Christ standing for him—faithful to his words in Matthew 10:32: "Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven." So also Jesus advocates on our behalf—not only before the Father as our righteousness but also against the world as our defender.
2. Jesus stood out of indignation as Stephen's protective brother. Like a big brother who shoots up from his seat at the sight of his little brother getting beaned by a fastball, Jesus stood—his heart wrenched in zealous anger over what Stephen was enduring. No one could have better understood what Stephen felt at that moment, for Christ had suffered condemnation as an even more innocent victim. Not only then but at all times, Christ, to whom vengeance belongs, remains our faithful brother (Heb. 2:11), captain, and king who rises in righteous wrath when our enemies surround and torment us.
3. Jesus stood to encourage Stephen and usher him into heaven. In the words of Matthew Henry, Jesus rose from his place of victory at the right hand of the Father to "receive and crown [Stephen]." By standing and revealing himself to Stephen, Jesus showed forth the joy set before the helpless deacon (Heb. 12:2). Seeing that Christ was for him, it mattered not to Stephen who was against him. Perhaps the words of Simeon reproduced themselves in Stephen's mind as those stones pelted and shattered his skull: "Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all nations” (Luke 2:29). Likewise, all believers who enter death do not go alone, but are guided into victorious rest by those nail-pierced hands, which fell lifeless to irreversibly remove death's sting.
Through Death into Resurrection
As the first Christian to ever lose his life for Christ, Stephen is often referred to as the “Protomartyr.” But it is not the Protomartyr whom we follow on the path of suffering and death. As our forerunner, it is Christ who leads us—first into death and then through that interim state into resurrection (Heb. 6:20). All of us who lie down in death—whether it be by martyrdom, sickness, natural causes, or any other means—do not merely die for him; we die with him (Rom. 6:8). And united to him by the Spirit in such an invincible bond that transcends all space and time—such that we are already sitting with him now (Eph. 2:6)!—we will likewise rise with Christ unto everlasting life, joy, and wonder.
Footnotes
"13 Christians a Day Killed for Their Faith," Open Doors, 2024.
https://www.opendoorsus.org/en-US/stories/13-christians-killed-day-average/.
Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994), 2094.
Henry, Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible, 2094.
