All Are Martyrs

From After Easter by Scott Savage on Youversion

We all have experiences that mark us. It seems impossible to explain who we are, and how we move through the world, without mentioning those moments.

My story includes a rollover car accident as a child, a stalker who made our lives terrible as a teenager, and a high school teacher forgetting to send in a recommendation letter that led to me losing an $80,000 scholarship.

I am a witness to those events in my life. I believe you are a witness to the events which made you who you are today.

After His resurrection, Jesus spent 50 days on earth, appearing to over 500 people and authenticating His defeat of death. Before He ascended to heaven, He spoke a few final words to His disciples.

In Acts 1, Luke records Jesus announcing that the early disciples would be His witnesses. He told them they would head out from Jerusalem into Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

‭Acts 1:8 ESV‬

This passage did not mean much to me until I learned the Greek word for witness. The word “martyr” means “a witness.” When Jesus said goodbye to His disciples, He said, “You will be martyrs.”

In the ancient Roman Empire, around the late 60s AD, many followers of Jesus died for their faith. They died in the Colosseum at the hands of lions. The Romans crucified them outside cities. Doused in oil, they burned at the stake to provide light for lavish parties.

These martyrs died because they confessed Jesus as Lord, not Caesar. Followers of Jesus refused to deny the resurrection of Jesus, unwilling to speak something they knew to be untrue.

So they called them and charged them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”

‭Acts 4:18-20 ESV‬

For centuries, the word martyr has been used to describe someone who loses their life because of their faith or commitment to a cause. However, you do not have to die to become a martyr. As someone who has seen something that cannot be unseen, or experienced something which has marked you forever, you are a witness.

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

‭2 Corinthians 5:14-17 ESV‬

In truth, all of us are martyrs. We are witnesses to what we believe and what we value every day. In our jobs. With our family and friends. In our neighbourhoods. In our city. Regardless of what you believe about God, you were a martyr yesterday. You were a witness to what you believed and why it mattered.

What is your life a witness to? If you have experienced the power of the resurrection, does your life reflect it? Does the resurrection of Jesus change the way you treat people and live in the world?

We can shift Easter from being a one-day celebration on the calendar to the rightful place it has as the center point of our faith (which we’ll dive more deeply into tomorrow). We begin by aligning our words and actions with our belief in the resurrection. When we enter rooms, conversations, and relationships expecting God’s resurrection power to be at work in us and through us, people can feel that. We’re living as martyrs to the resurrection, not just on one Sunday in the spring but every day!

In tomorrow’s reading, we will dive deeper into how to build a resurrection mindset. We’ll see how taking Jesus seriously means living with greater hope and expectation.