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by heesterbeek ineke

Location: Tinley Park, IL
Read Time: 4 minutes
Podcast: 32 minutes

I was caught recently by a podcast from Pastor Phil Pringle, founding pastor of Christian City Church, Oxford Falls, Sydney, Australia.  The discussion focused on the story concerning the woman caught in adultery – or the modern day Desperate Housewives.  The story wasn’t what grabbed me, but what he introduced were the historical facts concerning Christian martyrs.

Another random thought to chew on: have we allowed cheating to being ok and almost humorous?

During the first few hundreds years after Christ, there was heaps of persecution against Christians.  Many of them were publicly slaughtered at the Roman Collisseum and even burned on crosses for professing Christ.  Massive amounts of blood were spilled, skin burned, skulls crushed… simply because of their faith in someone other than Caesar.  Imagine watching the following films in sequence to get an idea of what kind of mutilation was taking place: 300, Braveheart, Gladiator, Rambo 1, 2, 3, and some bits of Goodfellas.  What we forget to mention is how many of these Christians decided to renounce Christ at the last moment before death.  I don’t think any one of us could possibly imagine the horrific images these people were seeing as followers of Christ.

Can you imagine these men and woman, who were being screamed at and beaten, all being told that all they had to do was renounce Christ and they could go home?  They could go home to their children, their husbands, wives, friends and family… all with a few simple words.  They needed only claim Caesar as God, and light a candle in worship; just like that – death would pass.  Well, this seemed so easy that many of the professed Christians renounced Christ. Many of them said the simple words, claimed Caesar as God and went home.  What they were not prepared for was the continued persecution – only this time – from those who said they loved them.

Many of these (almost) martyrs would head home, stricken with guilt and search to meet with their local church leaders. The pain, anguish and agony they must have felt from the pressures of life must have been soul shattering.  Once home and seeing their families – the mind torment they must have endured for forsaking Christ probably seemed unbearable.  What was worse was how many of them were persecuted by fellow followers of Christ for having renounced.  They had made a mistake and instead of grace, these people were doubly disgraced from those who they thought would love.

How do we treat the fallen?  How do we react to the broken and the weak in spirit?  Have a read at the text below.   I hope this is illumination for you, as it was for me.  Do we allow grace in our lives, and have we forgotten how much Christ loves us?

John 8:1-11: 1 Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, 2 but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. 3 As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd. 4 “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?” 6 They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. 7 They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” 8 Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust. 9 When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. 10 Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” 11 “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”

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