“Well done, good and faithful servant.” Matthew 25:9
When I visited the modern coastal city of Izmir, Turkey, the hand-hewed rock surfaces of the buildings shimmered in the afternoon sun. Past the shore, the sun-splattered Aegean Sea stretched towards the horizon. Sounds of the city vibrated in the background–blaring horns, screeching brakes, the call to prayer from a mosque’s minaret. Around the floor of ancient Roman ruins a few marble pillars reached towards the sky. Other pillars lay like plastic pick-up-sticks, scattered haphazardly around the earthquake-prone historical site. It seemed an ideal place to contemplate the past. In truth, I recognized it only as a place of infamy. Why?
This place held the remains of the Roman Agora (public meeting place) of second-century Smyrna-the second church John mentions in The Book of Revelation. On a sad day in AD 166 several Christians from Philadelphia were unwilling participants in the featured sporting event at the Festival of Games. The crowd cheered as the hungry lions killed and devoured their victims.
Still not satisfied, the people demanded the life of Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna. The fact that Bishop Polycarp had been a student of the Apostle John couldn’t save him. And what was his crime? He had angered the Roman proconsul by refusing to pray to pagan gods, burn incense to Caesar, or curse Christ. The crowd considered him to be an unbeliever, an atheist.
The officials twice gave Bishop Polycarp a chance to recant, to revile Christ. His response both times? “For eighty-six years I have served him and he has done me no wrong. How then can I blaspheme my King who saved me? . . . I am a Christian.”
The spectators who gleefully watched Bishop Polycarp burn at the stake didn’t realize it, but their angry jeers revealed a truth that was a high tribute to him. For their taunts stated, “This is the teacher of Asia. This is the destroyer of our gods. This is the father of the Christians.”
Prayer:
God of Strength and Power, we pray that we, like Polycarp, may be faithful representatives of your Kingdom on earth, and strong in the face of any prejudice or condemnation we receive from our consumer culture. A culture that often laughs at or demeans our faithfulness to you. Amen.