The Over-Dramatized Death of Stephen

As a society, we love having a flare for the dramatic. The movies we watch are full of drama, shows like American Idol and the Bachelor keep many Americans on the edge of their seats, and our teenagers are inundated with the idea that romance, especially teenage romance (if that even really exists) is full of it. We have these overly-dramatic views, too, of scenes from the Bible. These "Alas! Woe is me!!!" Shakespearean scenes of death, torture, glory, etc. One of my favorite examples is Christ's death on the cross. 

The common view is of a sickly skinny guy with hair that was once long and flowing, but now matted, giving an Oscar-worthy farewell address. The truth is that Christ, even in death, spoke with authority and power. He bore the pain and took it, as well as the weight of sin, for hours and hours in the heat of the day. There is nothing that says he writhed and squirmed like so many images of the Catholic church portray. I believe that Christ showed another glimpse of His power in how He faced death... not like a weakling, but like someone who knew exactly for what He was dying.

This morning, it strikes me how similar the death of Stephen is. I knew that there was similarity, but what really struck me is the same way in which we tend to over-dramatize his martyrdom. Up until this morning, I'd always thought of Stephen in a nice, long robe just kind of giving a really good speech to a bunch of people who were going to hate him, regardless of what he said. In my mind, for whatever reason, he had almost a whiny appearance. Then there's this conclusion to his incredible speech: "You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you."

Those are not words to be uttered forth by a weak man. Stephen called the Israelites out on their home turf! After speaking of Moses and redemption and Christ, Stephen used the same words to denounce the Israelites. He called them out for being no different than their ancestors, so long before. These Israelites, who thought they had everything figured out and fit into a really solid religious mold, Stephen defied and told to bring it on. We often tend to wonder why the people got so upset with Stephen? Because he knew them and called them out.

For many of us, we tend to think that a lot of guys, in the Bible, went down without a fight. Stephen went down calling out the Israelites (even though he probably knew it was going to be the last thing he ever did on this earth, and it was) and praying for them. There are plenty areas in our lives where we need to call things out and, even if it means an end to us in that area, we go down calling it out and praying, praying, praying.