Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

The newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness around the world

Christian Meditations – A Chris Hansen Column

February 17, 2008

You met Chris, now you can read more of his work:

Courage Of The Ancient Ones – Part 7

                    by

                     Chris Hansen

Author of:

“Secret of the Psalms,”

Amazingly accurate prophecies about Jesus written centuries in advance.

“Revelation Revisited,”

John is under arrest by the Roman empire.  While he is in exile, he gets the surprise of his life!  The glorified Jesus shows up!  John’s story is redramatized for today’s audience who may not be familiar with the Bible.

“Grandfather’s Journal.”

A touching illustrated book for children and adults.  A young boy who is terrified of death and bored with church reads his grandfather’s last journal entries.  The boy discovers the sweet hope that the resurrection of Jesus provides.  The boy learns to “Smile on the inside too.”

www.xlibris.com and local bookstores and 1-888-795-4274

This series of short stories looks back at some very courageous Christians.  These Christians were far more than mere footnotes in church history.  They were real people with incredible courage in the face of unspeakable brutality!  This kind of courage needs to be remembered and emulated.  This kind of brutality, though unspeakable, needs to be spoken.  They were and still are our brothers and our sisters in Christ.  They are a great cloud of witnesses who surround us and encourage us to finish our race.  May their great courage be ours too.  May God help us to be heroes too.  The world still needs heroes like them.  These stories are based on historical records left to us by Eusebius.  Where appropriate a certain amount of imagination is used.  Even so, the basic facts are definitely nonfiction!

Polycarp’s moment had come.  Fifty-thousand people quieted to a hush and strained to hear this elderly bishop of the Christian church confront the Roman official who was determined to break Polycarp, or kill him. 

  “Are you indeed Polycarp?”  “Yes,” he said resolutely.  The proconsul said quietly so the crowd could not hear, “Deny the charge!  Respect your years!  Swear by Caesar’s fortune!  Change your attitude.  Say, “Away with the godless!”  Polycarp had been wondering how he might speak to the crowd.  This gave him an idea!  “Away with the godless indeed!” he thought to himself.  The crowd actually thought that Christians were godless!  Polycarp looked up into heaven, and then gestured toward the crowd.  Then in a loud voice Polycarp seemed to be doing as the proconsul suggested!  Polycarp said, “Away with the godless!”  A great cheer went up from the crowd!  The proconsul was delighted!  He said triumphantly, “Swear, and I will set you free!  Desecrate Christ!”  A hush fell over the crowd once again.  Polycarp spoke up so everyone could hear:

“For eighty and six years I have been His servant, and He has never done me wrong!  How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?”  The crowd gasped.  The Proconsul shot back, “No!  Swear by Caesar’s fortune!”  Without hesitating Polycarp replied, “If you imagine that I will, “Swear by Caesar,” as you put it, pretending not to know who I am, I will tell you plainly.  I am a Christian!  If you wish to study the Christian doctrine, choose a day, and you shall hear it.”  The proconsul gestured toward the crowd and said, “Convince the people!”  The crowd murmured.  Polycarp turned away from the crowd and faced the proconsul saying, “With you!  I think it proper to discuss these things, for we have been taught to render as their due, to rulers and powers ordained by God, such honor as casts no stain on us.”  The proconsul was annoyed.  Polycarp gestured toward the crowd and said, “As to the people, I do not feel it my duty to make any defense!”  A roar of disapproval went up from the crowd.  Polycarp remembered the Master’s words of warning: “Do not cast your holy pearls before common swine!”  (Matthew 7:6.)  These people, he thought, would not believe me no matter what I might say.  Polycarp and the proconsul exchanged words like two warriors going back and forth in a brisk sword fight.  Just as Polycarp had finished saying, “as to the people, I do not feel it my duty to make any defense!” the proconsul shot back, “I have wild beasts!  I shall throw you to them if you do not change your attitude!”  The crowd roared their approval as the proconsul motioned toward waiting cages!  Polycarp hurled his words right back at the proconsul.  “Call them!  We cannot change our attitude if it means a change from better to worse!  But it is a splendid thing to change from cruelty to justice!”  Anger crossed the proconsul’s face.  Polycarp dared to accuse him of cruelty!  The crowd murmured as the exchange continued.  “If you make light of the beasts, I’ll have you destroyed by fire unless you change your attitude!”  Cruelty indeed! Thought the proconsul.  I’ll show him cruelty!  Turning to look directly at the proconsul, Polycarp sharply warned him in these words:  “The fire you threaten burns for a time, and it is soon extinguished.  There is a fire you know nothing about!  The fire of judgment to come, and of eternal punishment!  The fire reserved for the unGodly!  But why do you hesitate?  Do what you want!”  The crowd roared its approval!  How delicious!  This Christian was now threatening the proconsul with fire!  The proconsul leaped from his chair.  Now he yelled with uncontrolled rage and near hysteria!  “Polycarp has confessed that he is a Christian!  Polycarp has confessed that he is a Christian!” 

The roar of the crowd was nearly at a fever pitch now.  Different people began shouting first one thing, and then another, trying to convince the proconsul that Polycarp deserved death!  “This fellow is the teacher of Asia!”  “The father of the Christians!”  “The destroyer of our gods!”  “Who teaches numbers of our people not to sacrifice or even to worship!”  “Set a lion on Polycarp!”  A minor official touched the proconsul’s arm and said, “Sir, we can’t set the lions on him,.. You see, well, the beast sports have already been closed for the day.”  The minor official tried to explain himself as if he were completely flustered with a flurry of self-importance and with a voice full of irritating beaurocracy.  The proconsul motioned toward the cages and waved off the official.  The proconsul raised his voice and shouted to be heard.  “The beast sports have already been closed!”  The crowd hardly missed a beat and shouted back, “Burn him alive!  Burn him alive!”  Now Polycarp understood how his dreams would be fulfilled.  At first it seemed as though he might die in the mouth of a lion.  Now, Polycarp knew just what would happen next!  The crowd rushed from their seats in mass.  They raced out of the stadium.  Bewildered businessmen were surprised when crowds rushed into their establishments and simply grabbed all the wood they could find!  They raided bathhouses known to have large supplies of wood.  They raided workshops where metal was forged. 

As the crowd rushed pell-mell into and out of the stadium, Polycarp slowly began to remove his clothing.  With the stiffness of old age, he removed his outer garment.  Then, very slowly, he removed his belt.  Then, finally, he slowly removed his shoes!  His beloved congregation once tenderly waited on him, quite literally, hand and foot.  They would humbly remove his shoes, not merely because he was great, but because he was loved!  Now, there was no one to remove his shoes.  Quite stiffly, he removed them himself and laid them aside so that others might use them after his departure.  That is the way he was-always thinking of others. 

People rushed in bearing as much wood as they could carry.  Large and small pieces too were set in a large pile.  This would be a grand fire!  The soldiers pushed Polycarp toward a large upright piece of wood.  They fastened iron bonds around his ankles and his wrists.  They knew from experience that burning victims would involuntarily leap out of the flames!  The iron bonds made sure to hold him fast!  Then, as if to fasten him even more securely, and to add to his torture, the commanding officer ordered, “Nail him!”  Polycarp protested this treatment and said, “Leave me as I am!  He who enables me to endure the fire will enable me, even if you don’t secure me with nails, to remain on the pier without shrinking!”  The soldiers glanced at the proconsul who motioned them to let Polycarp be granted this last rather odd request.  The proconsul said quizzically, “The fetters should be enough to secure an old man.  Besides that, let’s see if this Christ really does enable him to stand still in the flames!”                

    There he stood with iron bands around him to secure him.  With his hands meekly bound behind him, he looked just like a noble ram offered to God!  The smallest pieces of wood were ignited.  It would take several minutes for the fire to take hold.  This would give the blessed saint time to say one last prayer:

“Oh Father of thy beloved and blessed Son Jesus Christ, through whom we have come to know thee, the God of angels and powers and all creation, and of the whole family of the righteous, who live in thy presence, I bless thee for counting me worthy of this day, and hour, that in the number of the martyrs, I may partake of Christ’s cup to the resurrection of eternal life of both body and soul in the imperishability which is the gift of the Holy Spirit.”  The flames began to take hold now!  Polycarp kept praying, his voice rising in intensity with the flames!  “Among them, may I be received into thy presence today, a rich and acceptable sacrifice;” The flames grew even higher now!  Polycarp’s voice was now a shout of pain and triumph!  “As thou hast prepared beforehand, foreshadowing it, and fulfilling it.”  The flames began to roar!  The crowd began to roar too!  Polycarp’s prayer was choked by smoke.  He screamed hoarsely above the flames and smoke!  “Thou God of truth!  That cannot lie!  Therefore, for every cause, I praise thee,” The flames leaped to life!  It was harder to hear him pray now!  “I bless thee, I glorify thee, through the eternal high priest, Jesus Christ, thy beloved Son,” then with his last strength, he finished his prayer!  “Through whom and with whom in the Holy Spirit glory be to thee both now and in the ages to come!  Amen!”  His last words were barely heard above the roar of the crowd and the flames!  As he finished his prayer, the fire burst into a large all encompassing mass of flame!  Some said it looked like a vaulted room or a cathedral!  Others said it looked more like the sails of a great ship filled with wind!  The fire became a great cathedral to glorify God!  The shape of the sails suggested that Polycarp had embarked on his last great journey.  As he burned, he took on a golden brown color.  He didn’t look at all like black burning flesh.  He looked much more like gold or silver in the fire.  As his voice grew quiet, there was a strange smell all around him.  It was not at all like burning flesh-no, it was more like frankincense!

A sympathetic voice from the crowd shouted, “Somebody, finish him off with the sword!”  Even the angry proconsul looked sympathetic!  Polycarp was surely bound for death.  What purpose would prolonging his agony serve?  He motioned toward a soldier.  The soldier took a sword and plunged it into the shriveling body of the saint.  Suddenly, a gush of blood escaped the dying saint.  The gush of blood doused the flames with steam and sizzle!  Polycarp’s followers could stand it no longer.  They rushed forward and began begging for his mutilated body.  The proconsul motioned with his hands as if to stop them.  The soldiers drew their swords.  The proconsul shouted, “No! Lest they should begin to worship this wretch, and abandon this reckless worship of the crucified one!”  What an absurd thought!  The crucified one was the whole reason for Polycarp’s willingness to die!  This same resurrected one gave Polycarp the confidence to know that, even out of ashes, God could and would raise Polycarp to life-and more than life; glorified life!  The Romans, the Greeks, and the Jews simply did not understand that the blood of the martyrs was the very seed of God’s holy church.  They simply could not imagine that these humble seeds would sprout and become as glorious as the resurrected Jesus!  As a lowly seed becomes a stately tree, or a beautiful flower, so too a saint who dies in the Lord becomes a prince or a princess in the kingdom of Christ!

Then, different people shouted first one thing then another.  Jews and Greeks too shouted, “Burn his body!  Burn his body!”  Others, apparently Christians shouted, “Give him a decent burial!”  The proconsul tried to please the majority.  He knew that Jews hated Christians.  He knew that those who worshipped the gods hated Polycarp and the other Christians.  He said to the centurion in command of the soldiers, “Burn the body!  Leave nothing for these Christians to worship!  Let us see if this Christ of theirs can resurrect ashes to life again!”  The soldiers threw even more wood on the pier.  They set the whole pier aflame until it was a blazing inferno.  They threw the body of Polycarp into the flames and stood guard until it had completely disappeared into smoke and ashes, and a small pile of bones, which would not burn.  Finally, the saints were permitted to tenderly pick up what was left of Polycarp.  They treated each fragment as if it were part of a collection of precious jewels!  They knew that Polycarp would one day return to them-but in the meantime, they wanted just a little something to remember him by!

Now we come to the epilogue of our story.  It is a sad thing to note that the death of Polycarp did nothing to calm the rage of the mob.  No matter how many saints were tortured and killed, the anger of the crowds was never satisfied!  The bravery of the saints only infuriated the crowds all the more! 

Polycarp was the twelfth martyr recorded at Smyrna.  There were many more!

We have recorded for us the story of Blandina!  We know almost nothing about her background.  Had she not been martyred so brutally, she would have slipped into obscurity.  She was whipped until her flesh was raw!  Then she was mauled by beasts!  Still she lived!  Her raw flesh was laid on a hot griddle!  Still she would not deny her Christ.  Her tortures drove her instead to commune with Him.  Finally, she was dropped into a basket and thrown to an enraged bull.  The bull tossed her into the air over and over again.  By this time, she hardly seemed even to notice the brutality.  She knew that her hope rested securely in the resurrected Christ.  She too would rise, no matter what the beasts and the whips and the hot griddles might do to her weak body.

In Alexandria we have recorded for us the story of Metras, a saint advanced in years.  He too would have slipped into obscurity.  However, his heroic death has lifted him higher than he ever would have imagined.

“Blaspheme your Christ!” they demanded.  Without hesitation, Metras said, “No!”  With no further threats, the mob savagely beat the old man until he was a mass of bruises.  Still their anger was not satisfied!  They drove sharp reeds into his face.  Metras cried out with great pain, but still he would not blaspheme is Christ!  With even greater cruelty, they drove sharp reeds slowly into the man’s eyes!  The next face Metras would ever see would be the face of his beloved Jesus.  Still the anger of the crowd was unsatisfied.  So they dragged the old man through the city scraping him raw.  When they reached the suburbs, Metras was nearly dead.  The mob savagely pelted him with stones until his bones and body were mangled beyond recognition.  Metras lay quite still now.  His very next steps would be to run into the arms of his beloved Christ!  The mob could do no more to him now.  Metras was gone from this world.

Quinta, as her name implies was a female slave, numbered five.  They dragged her to an idolater’s temple.  “Worship!” they demanded.  Resolutely, she turned her back and faced away from the idle!  She said not a word, but everyone knew what she said by her silence!  The mob seized her and bound her with ropes so tightly that they began to dig deep into her flesh.  They dragged her and dragged her a long distance until she was scraped raw.  Her silence screamed her defiance!  No!  She would never worship this false god!  They clubbed her over and over again until her bones were broken.  Then, when their anger was still unsatisfied, they pelted her broken frail and elderly body with stones.  She too fell asleep in Jesus and rested in His arms!  Then the crowds raided and plundered the homes of every Christian they could find.  Quinta no longer cared!  What did she have to lose now?  They could have what few things she had!  The mob gathered the valuables they could find for themselves.  The cheaper items were gathered into a large bonfire!  The smoke of the flames rose higher and higher toward heaven as if to defy the very face of God himself! 

There are more stories to tell-many more!  Were they to be recounted, they would be told by the millions!  Peter told us, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.  But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed.”  (1 Peter 4:12-13.)  These courageous saints were truly overjoyed as they suffered for Him.

Hebrew Christians were reminded that, “Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection.  Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison.  They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword.  They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated-the world was not worthy of them!  They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.  Yet none of them received what had been promised.  God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect!”  (Hebrews 11:36-40.)    The world promised them everything, and gave them nothing!  But God, though he delayed his promise, and at first seemed to give them nothing, gave them everything!

Jesus warns us that terrible days are coming at the close of the ages at some future time.  “There will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now-and never to be equaled again!  If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect, those days will be shortened.”  (Matthew 24:21-23.) One day the world as we know it will be headed for self-destruction, which cannot be stopped.  In their fury the people of this world will hate us!  In those days to come, how desperately the lost ones, and our brothers and sisters in Christ too, will need our courage!

Just before His holy death, Jesus also told us, “For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is try!”  (Luke 23:31.)  During the days of the antichrist, just before our glorious rescue, the tree will indeed become very, very dry!!!