How the Church Responds to the Making of a Martyr

Audio By Carbonatix

Whether it is the active doxxing and canceling of others, the celebrating, the sermons…one thing is clear. The whole world needs guidance on how to respond to tragedy. The world also needs guidance on how to define tragedy. We are struggling with that as well.

A tragedy is the addition of suffering, grief, or distress and the loss of happiness and harmony. Circumstances can compound the tragedy– an accident, natural disaster, crime, etc., but do not dictate whether or not we care. Nor should the subject of suffering.

For the Believer, responding rightly to suffering should be easy and unequivocal.

We value life. Period. We grieve sin. Period. We walk in wisdom and compassion. We do not celebrate the suffering of our enemies.

A husband, father, and son was killed. This is a tragedy. It happens every day in America whether we are aware or personally connected to it. The tragic nature of this loss of life was compounded by the public profile of the man and the very public nature of his death, targeted murder.

Charlie Kirk was assassinated in public, on air for the whole world to see. That is evil. This should not be divisive, regardless of whether or not you found Charlie Kirk divisive.

Do we grieve loss of life? Yes. Do we grieve sin? Yes.

I think of public figures that I hold little to no regard or respect for and I say without hesitation, should they be gunned down before the world and their family at the pinnacle of their pursuits…I would grieve for them and sympathize with their suffering family and friends. I can be tender towards another’s feelings, whether I feel what they feel or not. It’s a thing–that huge swaths of the nation are unfamiliar with. As we see the most obscene responses of callousness and cruelty, we see the devastating impact our culture of death has had on our hearts. We see in the black and white of text and tweets, the reels of our feels that we are not wise enough to not record and share–“I do not value you if I do not agree with you. If I do not agree with you.”

We are a nation of murderers.

According to Jesus. In Matthew 5:21-22, Jesus teaches that hating a person is equivalent to murder…contempt and wrath are just as worthy of condemnation. The world has shown contempt over the last week, contempt for the victim…contempt for those who rejoice in his victimization. Guilty, all.

How should the church respond?

With grief. With grace. With compassion. With courage. What we saw this week wasn’t just loss, it was murder. But it wasn’t just murder, it was a targeted public assassination. But it wasn’t just an assassination or even a political assassination. It was the making of a martyr. A martyr is a person who is killed for their religious beliefs. Make no mistake–Charlie Kirk wasn’t killed because he was a Trump supporter. He was killed because he defended and declared the truth of God’s Word on marriage, gender, creation, and family.

What the world calls “being hateful,” Charlie called acknowledging God has created us male and female as truth. What the world calls “transphobic” Charlie called clarifying to a lost generation that we cannot and should not defy God’s plans and unique purpose for our lives and our bodies. Charlie saw elevating want and self over God’s authority as idolatry. People may have hated him for his politics, but they killed him for his Biblical worldview. He’s a martyr.

The church should be able to acknowledge this.

No martyr before and none that is to come is perfect. That’s irrelevant. The defining feature is how they died and what they died for. In fact, as I think back on other martyrs, a secular world would have absolutely seen some of their deaths as political. Defying a king, violating an edict, being somewhere they should not have been, saying things they ought not have said. “But he’s political…” Aren’t they all? Was there an apostle who wasn’t run out of town by the secular culture or the religious? Apart from John, was there an apostle that wasn’t jailed by secular authority or killed by a governmental rule? When the Gospel confronts sin, it confronts politics. Hence, John the Baptist relieved of his head…over “politics.”

Find a new church if your church didn’t…

What a ridiculous thing to say.

If anyone tells you to leave a church, or go to a church, for any other reason than “Obedience to God’s calling,” disregard their future counsel. We are THE BODY of CHRIST. We do not lob off limbs arbitrarily over a carnal culture’s impulsive litmus test for compulsive speech. You know who does that? Carnal culture. “You have to confess your privilege!” You have to use pronouns! Or I won’t…you must…” The hell I will. God has given us everything for life and Godliness in Himself, His Son, His Spirit and His Word. I do not need to be found righteous by any other. I do not need to meet any other standard than His. Period.

Pray about it.

If your church routinely shrinks back OR routinely inflames…pray about it. Follow–or remain–as the Lord leads. But my word, any advice to leave a church that didn’t include prayer or GO TO THE PERSON WHO HAS OFFENDED YOU. Easy answer. NOPE. Why would I accept non-Biblical advice on how my church should be Biblical?

I’m not a pastor and I do not wish to be. But I am teaching a group of people AT church, IN the Bible. I couldn’t not acknowledge what we have witnessed recently. It wasn’t a political moment to avoid, it was a “pastoral” moment to address. Women came grieving. Women came tearful and fearful for their families, their grandchildren…the future. They saw. They knew. They witnessed. A child brought it up on Sunday. The youth were communicating about what they saw on social media.

What an opportunity for truth, encouragement, stability, and hope.

What an opportunity to remind that Jesus told us to expect suffering, to expect sin, but to also expect His grace to be sufficient in it. I spent weeks and months in study, so that on Day 1 we could start with CONTEXT. Who, what, why, when, where, and how? Historical. Literary. Biblical. Cultural. CONTEXT. What an opportunity to show others that the text is alive and active in real people, who lived real lives, in the real world. Just as we are today–in our context.

God was working then. God is working now. God used imperfect people then. God uses imperfect people now. God calls us share the Gospel then. God calls us to share the Gospel now. They hated it then. They hate it now. They hated the faithful then. They hate the faithful now.

Martyrs were made then. Martyrs are made now.

The Church was courageous then. The Church must be courageous now.

Christ cares for the suffering of others. Christ comforts in grief. Christ was aware of the context and culture His followers were living in, working in, and worshipping in.

Friends–HE KNEW THE COST OF FAITHFUL OBEDIENCE. And He paid it, while we were yet sinners. Now that, is context.