Easter 5a 2026, 3 May
Acts 7:55-60; Ps. 31: 1-5; 15-16; I Peter 2: 2-10
John 14:1-14; Jack Hardaway
REDEEMING THE BLOOD
“Good King Wenceslaus looked out on the Feast of Stephen, when the snow lay round about deep and crisp and even…”
One of the great Christmas carols starts off with that line, the Feast of Stephen, December 26th, the day of Stephen’s martyrdom, the first follower of Jesus to be executed.
Though some would say that the first to die for Jesus were the Holy Innocents, the young male children in Bethlehem killed by Herod after Jesus’ birth, December 28th. The Christmas Season begins with birth and death.
Today we hear of Stephen’s martyrdom.
His death follows the pattern of Jesus’ own trial and death.
Stephen’s death follows a lengthy and provocative sermon about how God’s presence in the world is always rejected and redeemed. And Stephen’s rejection follows that pattern.
The rejection and death of Jesus is redeemed with the resurrection.
And the rejection and death of Stephen is redeemed by the introduction of Saul who becomes Paul the Apostle, and Paul’s story of falling into Grace begins after the brutal baptism of Stephen’s blood being on his hands.
Rejection and redemption fill the scriptures for today.
Saul born from the blood of Stephen.
The psalm commending the last breath of life and Spirit to God to be redeemed.
First Peter has the rejected stone becoming the foundation of a new people.
And John’s Gospel has a house with many dwelling places for a people who had been cast out of their spiritual home. There was no room for them, now there is so much room for them.
Rejection turned into redemption.
The Church has discerned and prayed over the nature of sacrificial ministry in the story of faith and the stories of the saints for millennia.
Much like how we split hairs over the different kinds of murder: 1st degree, 2nd degree, manslaughter, execution, assassination, in terms of justice for the victim, so the faith has contemplated the nature of martyrdom in terms of redemption for the perpetrator.
At both the death of Jesus and Stephen they pleaded for forgiveness for their murderers.
This is the pattern marking God’s presence in the world.
When the early Church became acceptable and then the official religion of the empire the church had to decide what to do with those who betrayed their fellow believers to imperial persecution to be tortured and killed, when they wanted to return to the faith after the persecutions ended.
There was a group of saints considered living martyrs, who survived torture, they were called the Confessors. Their bodies were often twisted and scarred. Saint Nicholas was one of them. The Church chose a way of redemption and forgiveness for the betrayers, a process of confession and fasting and absolution. Saint Nicholas would have been part of the council that decided this, merry Christmas, welcome home to the prodigal.
This did not make everyone happy. For those who wanted the church to be pure and for there to be justice for the persecuted, they had to enter into their own journey of forgiveness.
In addition to the Confessors, there were blood martyrs, and in the Celtic Church in Ireland there were red martyrs, white martyrs and green martyr, each with a different kind of sacrificial life.
God is revealed in each of their stories. Their sacrifices set other people free, revealing the God who sets us free from the house of bondage.
Martyrdom was even actively sought after by some, even fanatically so, by being deliberately annoying and provocative in hopes of being publically called to account. There is still debate over the validity of this approach, they are known as the spontaneous martyrs.
Then there are those who die to protect and shield the innocent and the vulnerable out of love for Jesus. They gave the witness of self-sacrifice by standing before violent political and financial machines, exposing the beast of mammon, proclaiming the kingdom that calls us into making a better world.
The deep understanding and teaching of the saints is that martyrdom chooses us, not the other way around. St. Athanasius challenged every imperial and church authority in his day so much so that he had to go into exile 8 times to escape martyrdom, he had a long and fruitful ministry running for his life. In other words they have to catch you, and you need to be running hard.
The blood that we spill so carelessly and thoughtlessly is redeemed, that is the Gospel, making that blood even more precious still.
What does the death of the martyrs have to do with living my life today?
It brings a new and different vision of the world.
Our culture and our lives are divided by angry and shallow ideologies.
The response to exclusion is to exclude.
The response to ideology is more ideology.
Our lives have become enslaved by: “Who am I going to hate?” and, “Where do I shop and find distraction?” It is a shallow and fake world that we have sold ourselves to.
The blood of the martyrs shows us a world that is about something else.
Jesus is the redemption of all our deadly hatred and shallow distractions.
Jesus is the sacrament of reconciliation, Good Friday become Easter.
Saul becomes Paul.
The persecutor becomes the servant.
The sinner becomes the saint.
What was dead now lives.
There is plenteous redemption.
There is power in the blood.
That means our lives bear witness to that blood.
And that means that we are free to love deeply without hesitation or excuse, that freedom has been given to us. Be free indeed. Free to forgive. Free to be forgiven. Free to grow deep like a river.