• "They Will Also Persecute You"
• Sermon for St. Stephen's Day
• December 26, 2004
• The Reverend Stephen C. Scarlett

There are three feast days that follow immediately after Christmas: St. Stephen's Day, St. John's Day and the Holy Innocents (December 26, 27, 28, respectively). They are especially connected to Christmas in that their lessons in the Prayer Book are listed immediately after the lessons for Christmas and not in the section where the other saints' days are listed.

St. John the Evangelist is linked to Christmas by his unique insight into the Incarnation. John 1:1 is both the Christmas Day gospel and the most profound New Testament passage on the mystery of God made man.

The Holy Innocents are the male children two years old and under that were slaughtered by Herod because he wanted to stamp out the recently born Messiah. St. Stephen is the church's first martyr (Acts 7:55f). These Christmas season martyrs remind us that Jesus was opposed from the very beginning of his life and that he was born to die for us.

Christmas is only the beginning of the story. Christmas provides the necessary raw material for the Good Friday sacrifice. Christmas teaches us that Jesus is fully God and fully man. He has always been God. As John tells us, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." On Christmas, the Son of God "was made very man of the substance of the Virgin Mary his mother" (BCP 77).

Because Jesus was (and is) truly human, he was able to die a genuinely human death for us. Because Jesus was (and is) truly God, death could not hold him. In dying he overcame death and opened up for us the way to eternal life.

St. Stephen and Holy Innocents remind us that the world that opposed and crucified the Son of God will also oppose those associated with him. As Jesus said,

"If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you" (John 15:18-20 NKJV).

There are significant parallels between the martyrdom of Stephen (Acts 7:54-60) and the Cross. Stephen was attacked by the same people that handed Jesus over to death. Stephen asked Jesus to "receive my spirit" (Acts 7:59 REB) just as Jesus had prayed, "Father into thy hands I commend my spirit" (Luke 23:46 KJV). Like Jesus, Stephen prayed for his executioners (Luke 23:34, Acts 7:60).

Stephen was killed for saying the same thing Jesus said to provoke his crucifixion. When asked if he were the Christ, Jesus said, "From now on, the Son of man will be seated at the right hand of Almighty God" (Luke 22:69 REB). Stephen said, "I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God" (Acts 7:56 REB).

The title, "Son of man," refers to the being described in the seventh chapter of Daniel. Daniel, in a vision he was given some 600 years before Jesus was born, saw "one like a son of man" who came on the clouds to God and received a universal and everlasting kingdom (Daniel 7:13). Jesus, being judged by the Jewish leadership, claimed that he was the being in Daniel. He would soon turn the tables and be their judge. Stephen saw the Daniel prophecy fulfilled.

An interesting distinction is that Jesus described himself as "sitting" at the right hand of God while Stephen saw him "standing." Jesus got up from his throne to take note of and succor the Church's first martyr. Stephen died knowing that the Judge of the world had already judged in his favor.

St. Stephen's Day, the day after Christmas, reminds us that the cross is always at the center of the Christian message-even as we celebrate the joy of birth. Even Mary, in the midst of the joy of childbirth, was told by Simeon that, "a sword shall pierce through your own soul also" (Luke 2:35).

The cross does not detract from Christmas joy. It brings the promise of Christmas to fruition. Jesus came to give us more than a warm seasonal feeling. He came to solve the problem of sin and death. As Hebrews says, Jesus partook of the same nature, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage (Hebrews 2:14-15).

St. Stephen teaches us to live in the light of this victory; to be filled with the Holy Spirit; to keep our eyes on Jesus, the Savior and Judge, who is at the right hand of God; to face trial, opposition and, even death, with confidence and joy; to pray for our enemies.

And, as Jesus said, "In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" (16:33).