Greater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 610. Stephen's Death

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Greater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 610. Stephen's Death

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Stephen's Death

1. The scene of Stephen's murder is sometimes located in the Valley of Jehoshaphat, near the brook Kedron, under the shadow of Olivet, and over against the Garden of Gethsemane. To that spot the gate of Jerusalem called the Gate of St. Stephen now leads. Another tradition assigns the open country north-east of Jerusalem, on the road to Damascus and Samaria, as the place consecrated by the first death suffered for Jesus Christ. It is, however, according to the usual practice of Holy Scripture to leave this question undecided, or rather completely disregarded and overlooked. The Scriptures were not written to celebrate men or places, things temporary and transient in themselves, and without any bearing on the spiritual life. They were written for the purpose of setting forth the example of devotion, of love, and of sanctity presented by their heroes, and therefore they shroud all such scenes as that of Stephen's martyrdom in thickest darkness.

Stephen was hurried by the mob to some spot outside the Holy City, and then they proceeded in regular judicial style so far as their fury would allow them. The place, the mode of death, the first stone thrown by the witnesses, were all in exact accordance with ancient precedent and express Mosaic statute. By such formalities they sought to represent their bloody work as a solemn vengeance of national law upon a blasphemer of Jehovah.

Lightfoot describes how a crier preceded a doomed man, proclaiming his crime, till the place of execution was reached; where, after he was stripped of his clothes, the two witnesses threw him violently down from a height of twelve feet, flinging upon him two large stones. If death did not at once ensue, the whole multitude lent their assistance.

We usually picture to ourselves St. Stephen as perishing beneath a deadly hail of missiles, rained upon him by an infuriated mob, before whom he is flying, just as men are still maimed or killed in street riots; and we wonder, therefore, when or where St. Stephen could have found time to kneel down and commend his spirit to Christ, or to pray his last prayer of Divine charity and forgiveness under such circumstances as those we have imagined. The Jews, however, no matter how passionate and enraged, would have feared to incur the guilt of murder had they acted in this rough-and-ready method. The witnesses must first strike their blows, and thus take upon themselves the responsibility for the blood about to be shed if it should turn out innocent. The culprits, too, were urged to confess their sin to God before they died. Stephen may have taken advantage of this well-known form to kneel down and offer up his parting prayers, which, displaying his steadfast faith in Jesus, only stirred up afresh the wrath of his adversaries, who thereupon proceeded to the last extremities.^{1 [Note: G. T. Stokes, The Acts of the Apostles, i. 334.]

2. Stephen's death was his last act of imitation of his Lord. The account of it is obviously modelled on that of Jesus. The two sayings on his lips are two recorded in St. Luke's Gospel, and the fact has been made an argument against the historical value of the narrative. But why should not the martyr have sought to die like his Lord, as well as the writer to make him die so? Possibly the place of the crucifixion was the place of the martyrdom, and, if so, the remembrance of the other sufferer would fill the dying man's heart. And if the resemblance of Stephen's words to our Lord's on the cross is noticeable, the differences also are worth observing. Christ prayed to God; Stephen, to Jesus. Christ said “I commit”; Stephen said “Take.” The Lord died because He willed, and voluntarily, by a true act of will and power, gave His life into the Father's hands. That absolute voluntariness of His death is essential to its value as the sacrifice for the world's sin, and must never be obscured. But the servant says “receive,” or “take,” as knowing that his Lord has the keys of death, and as asking to be released. That martyr death was a Christ-copying act of forgiving love. Jesus, in His dying prayer for His murderers, said, “They know not what they do”; Stephen is silent as to the degree of knowledge and criminality, for it was not his to read hearts. Christ could infallibly determine degrees of guilt; His servant does not try, but he has learned forgiving charity from Jesus, and, first of many thousands, has spent his last breath in prayer for his murderers.

When Dr. Joseph Parker was quite a young lad, he was accustomed to hold arguments with infidels outside the great iron works on Tyneside. One day an infidel challenged him upon this great passage, and said, “What did God do for Stephen?” insinuating that if there had been a God, He would have interposed to rescue him from the hands of his foes. Dr. Parker always said he believed that it was given to him in the same hour what he should say, and he answered, “What did God do for him? He gave him the power to pray for the forgiveness of those who stoned him.” It was a great answer.^{1 [Note: F. B. Meyer.]

3. “When he had said this, he fell asleep.” We need quiet ere we can sleep. This man at one moment had his ears stunned with the fierce yells of the cruel mob, and his body tortured with the sharp, rough stones, and the next moment, how far he was from it all! What a calm ensued on the wild fury! “He fell asleep,” and they might do what they liked with the corpse; Stephen was at rest.

The Christian sleep of death does not seal the spirit in torpor. Seen from this side, death is sleep; seen from the other side death is awaking-waking to an intenser life than was ever experienced before; to a keenness of vitality compared with which the highest consciousness of existence and effort that we have ever known is but as the stirrings of a sleeper. “The drowsy pipe of half-awakened birds” does not contrast more with the full-throated notes with which they welcome the sun than does life here at its fullest and keenest with life yonder, with which, when we awake in Christ's likeness, we shall be satisfied.^{1 [Note: A. Maclaren, Last Sheaves, 249.]

4. This is the only narrative with any fulness of detail of any death in the New Testament, save one. There is scarcely a hint as to how any of the Twelve passed away except the traitor. It is not recorded with what death Peter at last glorified God. We read in a sentence of one of the two to whom Christ had promised that they should drink of His cup, and be baptized with His baptism-“Herod killed James, the brother of John, with the sword.” On the career of one who fills a larger space in the history of the Church than any other of them the curtain falls before the final sentence is pronounced and shuts out from our view the procession to the headsman's block on the Ostian Road. In the solitary instance of Stephen is there anything approaching to a description of a dying scene. Is it wrong to infer from this that in the New Testament greater importance is attached to the manner of a man's life than to the manner of a man's death; that in his conquering temptation in living, even more than in his triumphing over fear in dying, is the power of the grace of Christ displayed?}}}For now “the former things have passed away,”

And man, forgetting that which lies behind,

And ever pressing forward, seeks to find

The prize of his high calling. Send a ray

From art's bright sun to fortify the day,

And blaze the trail to every mortal mind.

The new religion lies in being kind;

Faith stands and works, where once it knelt to pray;

Faith counts its gain, where once it reckoned loss;

Ascending paths its patient feet have trod;

Man looks within, and finds salvation there.

Release the suffering Saviour from the Cross,

And give the waiting world its Radiant God.^{1 [Note: E. W. Wilcox, Poems of Experience, 54.]}5. “And devout men buried Stephen, and made great lamentation over him.” They were not disciples, but probably Hellenistic Jews, perhaps from the synagogue whose members had disputed with Stephen and had dragged him to the Council. His words or death may have touched them, as many a time the martyr's fire has lighted others to the martyr's faith. Stephen was like Jesus in his burial by non-disciples, as he had been in his death.

Foremost and nearest to His throne

By perfect robes of triumph known,

And likest Him in look and tone,

The holy Stephen kneels,

With steadfast gaze, as when the sky

Flew open to his fainting eye,

Which, like a fading lamp, flash'd high,

Seeing what death conceals.

Well might you guess what vision bright,

Was present to his raptured sight,

Even as reflected streams of light

Their solar source betray-

The glory which our God surrounds,

The Son of Man, th' atoning wounds-

He sees them all; and earth's dull bounds

Are melting fast away.

He sees them all-no other view

Could stamp the Saviour's likeness true.

Or with His love so deep embrue

Man's sullen heart and gross-

“Jesu, do Thou my soul receive:

Jesu, do Thou my foes forgive:”

He who would learn that prayer, must live

Under the holy Cross.

He, though he seem on earth to move,

Must glide in air like gentle dove,

From yon unclouded depths above

Must draw his purer breath;

Till men behold his angel face

All radiant with celestial grace,

Martyr all o'er, and meet to trace

The lines of Jesus' death.^{1 [Note: J. Keble, The Christian Year (St. Stephen's Day).]}