The Festival of St. Stephen, Martyr
Posted on December 26, 2024 by under
Scripture: St. Matthew 23:34-39 (NKJV)
23:34 Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, 35 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! 38 See! Your house is left to you desolate; 39 for I say to you, you shall see Me no more till you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
Devotion
So quickly after Messiah’s birth we must see the blood of His saints! Yet, the world assures us that no one really hates us today; rather, we are said to have a persecution complex while being the real oppressors!
“Hatred,” as used in Scripture, includes all lowering of status—disregard, neglect, trivialization—which we usually receive, rather than the stones Stephen faced. The world is happy to have Jesus in the manger, if only they can keep Him there and not reckon Him as Lord. Their trivializing of Jesus is seen in their marginalizing and infantilizing of Christians. From it flows the idea that if we vote or govern in accord with godly convictions we would be tyrannizing them. Their doctrinaire godless view demands to reign, no matter how it subjugates us and robs us to accomplish what God opposes. Thus, they kill both Him and us in an unbloody fashion, attempting to stifle His reign over all, to make both His condemning Law and His saving atonement of none effect. The boldness that faith gives Stephen must be ours, as their hatred seeks to make Christ’s Word and work irrelevant today!
Collect: Grant, O Lord, that, in all our sufferings here upon earth for the testimony of Thy truth, we may steadfastly look up to heaven, and by faith behold the glory that shall be revealed; and, being filled with the Holy Ghost, may learn to love and bless our persecutors by the example of Thy first martyr, Saint Stephen, who prayed for his murderers to Thee, O Blessed Jesus, Who standest at the right hand of God to succor all those that suffer for Thee, our only Mediator and Advocate, Who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Collect for the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord
Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that the new Birth of Thine Only-Begotten Son in the flesh may set us free who are held in the old bondage under the yoke of sin; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
