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Who Wants to be a Martyr?

As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. "Don't be alarmed," he said. "You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, `He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.'" (Mark 16:5-7)

It must have all been a big conspiracy. You know, just like alien abduction? Those sneaky disciples didn't really believe that Jesus rose from the dead. They just wanted to be famous and have followers, so they kept the lie alive. After all, given the choice between fame and fish, renown or rainbow trout, most people give into the lure of the spotlight and take the bait.

Believe it or not, that is a very widely held belief. Most people have no trouble accepting the idea that Christ lived on this earth and even died on a cross. However, when you begin throwing the word 'resurrection' around, your credibility gets thrown out the window.

There are many religions that teach a symbolic or 'spiritual' resurrection of Christ. That is that Christ never physically rose from the dead- His body is still in the grave. This belief is nothing new- in fact; it was around at the time of Paul. False teachers in the church were spreading the idea that faith in the resurrection of Christ really isn't all that important, thus the disciples had to be wrong.

So what do you think? Were the Apostles simply lying to be famous?

Let's look at how the Apostles died:

  • Matthew suffered martyrdom by being slain with a sword at the distant city of Ethiopia
  • John was put in a caldron of boiling oil, but escaped death in a miraculous manner, and was afterward branded and exiled to the remote island of Patmos
  • Peter was crucified at Rome with his head downward
  • James the Greater was beheaded at Jerusalem
  • James the Less was thrown from a lofty pinnacle of the temple, and beaten to death with a fuller's club
  • Bartholomew was flayed alive
  • Andrew was bound to a cross, from which he preached to his persecutors until he died
  • Thomas was run through the body with a lance at Coromandel in the East Indies
  • Jude was pierced with arrows until he died
  • Philip died a martyr's death; however, traditions conflict about the way he died
  • Simon the Zealot, was murdered by a mob in Persia
  • Matthias was first crushed with rocks and then beheaded

Some fame-eh? What a foolish notion to think that any human being would suffer so greatly for a known lie- much less twelve apostles!

Would you be willing to go through any of those fates to promote some dead guy who lied to you about being the Son of God and the only Savior of the world?

Thousands of people watched the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. They witnessed the sun get swallowed by a storm, felt the earth shake, and watched ghosts walk the street. Over five hundred people saw Jesus after He rose again. They went out as witnesses and within a few months thousands of people were believers in Christ. Many of them even died for their faith. Why would they do this for a fairy tale?

Answer: they wouldn't. Jesus is alive and well, and asks us to be as committed to sharing the gospel as were the disciples. Rest assured, you may face persecution- but your message is the truth of salvation. Proclaim it! Seize the day! For if we are unfaithful in sharing the gospel, then we make a mockery of the Apostles' suffering.

Questions:

  1. How would you have reacted if you were at the empty tomb?
  2. What do you think about how the Apostles died?
  3. How will the ways that they died affect the way you live?