Br. Curtis Almquist

Saint Stephen, Deacon and Martyr

Acts 6:8-7:2a, 51c-60

The first generation of Christians in Jerusalem was comprised of two groups of Jews: the native Palestinians, and those who were outliers, sometimes called “the Dispersion” because they had been born and raised while “dispersed” into other countries. Their native tongue was Greek, and so they were called “the Hellenists.” Rivalry existed between these two groups, and converts to Christ brought their respective history with them. The Greek-speaking members were convinced that their widows and the other poor were not getting a fair share of the community’s food and financial support. To resolve the problem, the apostles appointed seven of the Hellenists to administer the Church’s resources and to care for its poor. Among the appointees was young man named Stephen. He ministered as a deacon in the Church.[1]

Stephen is described in the Acts of the Apostles as “a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit.”[2] He was an administrator, he preached, and he exhibited a charismatic authority. His ministry was miraculous. It was also conflictual. He came into conflict with the Jews who shared his own Greek-speaking background. They accused him of blasphemy, and dragged him before the Council which enforced the law of Moses. Stephen denounced them. He was silenced by being stoned to death, and he is remembered as the first martyr of the Church.

Here’s the after-story. Stephen’s martyrdom caused an enormous fear among the Christian community in Jerusalem, and many fled from Jerusalem. For the first time, the Gospel of Jesus Christ began to spread worldwide. Good came out of this undeniably tragic circumstance, which is a redemption. The English word redemption comes from the Latin, redemptio, which is when something that has been spent, lost, used, broken, wasted, or seemingly dead comes back to life in a new way. Stephen’s shed blood proved to be a life stream for the young church.

Redemption was also evidenced in the life of a conspirator who was present and consenting to Stephen’s murder: a Pharisee named Saul. Saul was deeply affected by Stephen’s death. Saul converted to Christ, was given a new name – Paul – and became the most ardent missionary and most prolific author of the entire New Testament scriptures. We see evidence of redemption when Paul writes about the suffering he both caused and later personally experienced. Paul asks, rhetorically, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? . . . We are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.” His answer. Nothing, nothing, nothing will separate us from the love of God shown in Christ Jesus our Lord. [3]

Where does redemption figure into your own life story? In my own experience, many of the strongest formative influences in my life seemed deformative at the time. In earlier years, my sense of loss, fear, uncertainty, anguish, or anger was too consuming for me to see how many-an-insufferable circumstance could ever come to any good. And yet, looking backwards, I realize so many gifts have come from what only had seemed like debris, and I am so thankful.

And for you. Dust off your memory. You may discover in the discarded rubble of your past there are some precious gifts to be claimed from your earlier life. That would be redemption. I am not suggesting to smile on tragedy; however, I am saying that life’s cure is very slow, and that thankfulness is most appreciated and most appropriated when we turn around and look backwards on our life.

Blessed Paul, who learned from blessed Stephen, both of whom giving witness and encouragement to us about the gift of redemption.

[1] Saint Stephen’s history informed by S. J. Reynolds, For All the Saints: Prayers and Readings for Saints’ Days (Toronto, 1994), 228-29.

[2] Acts 6:8-7:2a, 51c-60.

[3] Saint Paul writes, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than victorious through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35-39).