Sacred Breeze Ministries - Cult of the Martyr

Hello everyone, thank you for joining me, my name is Dave Miller and I am director of Sacred Breeze Ministries. Many of you know that from time to time I am invited to preach at Christian churches.  When I do so, I tend to represent Jesus in human and historic terms as a way of allowing the Christian scripture to be relatable to everyone.

I’m offering an insight today, during the holy seasons of Easter, Passover, and Ramadan, in that Spirit.  I hope everyone finds this insight a blessing.

The Cult of the Martyr

The setting for today’s scripture is in a garden, as the sun sets, where Jesus and his Disciples gather after sharing a Passover meal. 

John 18: ⁷ Again he asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.”^[e] 8 Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he.^[f] So if you are looking for me, let these people go.” 

Much Christian theology has been written to explain the significance of the arrest and Crucifixion of Jesus known as the Christ.  Words like original sin, sacrifice, atonement, redemption, and salvation are often used as part of these explanations.

As part of these theological explanations, promises are often made.  Words like victory, healing, eternal life, and even prosperity and wealth are often used as part of these promises.  It is said that in the arrest, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of Jesus, sin is defeated, suffering is defeated, and death is defeated.  And yet, people still bring harm to one another; weather, accident, and disease still cause suffering; and people still die, whether due to old age or some other cause.  Even children continue to suffer and die. 

Recognizing these realities, apologists sometimes suggest that people, churches, communities, and nations are not faithful or pure enough.  In response, some people impose ascetic restrictions on self and community, attempting to control diet (fasting), sleep (vigilance), access to medicine, and contact with others (isolation) for example.  Taken as singular acts of faith within reasonable limits, these and other acts can help inspire faith, hope and community, but taken to an extreme can cause harm and even death. 

Others attempt to gain political power and impose controls outside of the religious community.  Historically, this has resulted in oppression, wars, and pogroms. 

Surely, the Jesus who spoke the words “love thy neighbor as thyself” and “I demand mercy and not sacrifice” would not condone harm to self or others, and certainly not as acts of faith. 

Turning to the scripture, let’s give ourselves a moment to imagine being with a group of friends who knowingly challenged the authority of the government and the majority religion for over a year.  Imagine being in a garden, after sunset, after sharing a meal together.  Imagine a group of police and soldiers, with weapons drawn, coming to arrest you.  Imagine your fear.  Imagine your heart pounding, your breathing becoming fast and shallow, your fists clenching.  Imagine the fight or flight instinct rising up within.

Unfortunately, that may not be as hard to imagine as one might think in the year 2025 in the United States, in an environment where innocent people are abducted without due process and taken to foreign prisons.  People experience these feelings every day in these United States. 

Now imagine the leader of your little group saying “leave them alone.  You came for me, take me.”  Imagine your feeling of relief when the soldiers and police turn their attention away from you.  Imagine your apprehension and guilt as they take him away.  Someone who has been a leader, a friend, and a brother.  Someone you have lived with, camped with, shared with, and loved.  You can even imagine that that someone was named Jesus.

Now imagine the disappointment in yourself after they take him away.  Your sense of helplessness, your shame.  You are safe.  He is not.  

You think back over your time together.  You remember when Jesus told a rich person that if he wanted to follow the group, he would need to sell all he had and give to the poor.  That rich person, realizing the cost and loss of security, and probably the impact on family and people who worked his land, turned away disappointed.

The disciples were amazed at Jesus’s request, and asked themselves who in the world would do such a thing?  Who would give up the security and happiness that wealth brings? 

Then you realize, prospect of giving up all material wealth pales in comparison to giving up one’s life.  One’s physical existence.  Who would do such a thing? 

For a group of young men, full of life and hope for the future, the request to give up one’s livelihood and life would have been impossible to answer.  But not for a mother or father, not for a parent.  For a parent, the answer would be easy, in fact in today’s world, that question is answered all the time.  In today’s America, families of modest wealth often go bankrupt to cover medical costs for an ill child or family member.  As for giving one’s life, I personally have a grandmother I never knew because she shielded her child with her body during a car accident. 

For people and families living in distress, in illness, and under threat, the concept of salvation is not a physical abstraction.  Salvation represents hope for a physical reality, here and now.  For the Disciples 2000 years ago in a garden near Jerusalem, salvation was not a theological abstraction.  Their physical lives were literally at risk that night, in that garden.  And Jesus literally gave his life on their behalf.  And they lived on to be a blessing to others. 

And Jesus’s act of self-sacrificing love inspired them.  It moved them.  The group of Disciples that carried on in Jerusalem kept nothing for themselves, but shared everything for the benefit of the ministry, continuing Jesus’s legacy of sharing what they had with others in need, and bringing healing and hope to the world.  And at the end of their lives, they continued the tradition of martyrdom, dieing at the hands of those in authority who felt threatened by their theology and their ministry. 

Early Christians in Rome did much the same.  They demonstrated Jesus’s love for the world by sheltering others who were persecuted by the government, visiting others in prison, sharing what they had with poor people, offering comfort and healing to the sick, and surrendering themselves in martyrdom as circumstances required.  And they considered martyrdom a blessing, something they were unworthy of. 

For those who think Christianity is about control and salvation from suffering and death, think again.  For those who think that, given enough faith, Christ will ride in on a white horse, destroy the enemies, and deliver wealth and security, think again.  Even for those who think faith is manifested through self-imposed suffering, think again.

Christianity was and is a cult of martyrdom.  A willingness to give one’s property, one’s livelihood, one’s security, one’s life for others.  And not just for one’s family, any decent human being would do that.  Christianity is a commitment to give one’s life for the world.  Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Pagans, and athiests.  Black, white, brown, American, Israeli, Palestinian, Ukrainian, and Russian.  Friend or enemy.  Homeless or rich.  All of God’s creation.  Even whales and spotted owls and endangered salamanders. 

Christianity is a commitment to stewardship, on behalf of God, on behalf of this planet, all living creatures, and all of humanity.  Stewardship up to and including giving one’s life.  In the example of Jesus. 

That’s a tall order.  One can’t help but ask, like the Disciples, who then will be saved?  Some people believe they would offer themselves in martyrdom, reflexively and with bravado, but in truth, until that moment, when one’s life and security is on the line, on one can answer.  Will faith win or will survival?  If I find myself between ICE agents and a young Hispanic person, will I go to prison on his behalf?  If I find myself between a shooter and a trans person, will I take the bullet for her?  If I find myself on a boat on a rough ocean between a ballistic harpoon and a whale, will I put myself between the whale and the harpoon?

And if I don’t, what then?  What if I take the path of the disciples, and let events unfold without my intervention, and let them take Jesus to El Salvador?  If I hold on to my 401K in anticipation of a comfortable retirement, or possibly elder or memory care, or to pass on to my heirs?  If I give some to my church, some to a homeless shelter, some to a food pantry, some to disaster relief, but hold on to my own security and the security of my family, what then? 

The disciples asked Jesus that same question after encountering the rich person.  They asked him “who then can be saved?”  And whether it was disciples encountering the rich person, or in the garden with Jesus and the police, or for a modern a family facing bankruptcy with a child in the hospital, the question of salvation as a matter of physical or eternal life was and is not entirely clear. 

Whether pressed by the physical or the eternal, in Mark 10: ²⁷ Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.” 

Later, the Apostle Paul echoed the sentiment in his second letter to the Christians in Corinth, saying “God’s Grace is sufficient.”  God’s Grace is sufficient. 

Jesus the Christ’s example is extreme.  But His calling is gentle.  Christ’s words are simple.  Love your neighbor.  Try to understand those you perceive as enemies.  Try to not judge others, they are going through their own stuff.  When things don’t work out, have some faith.  Yes, the world still has people who bring harm to others.  Yes, the world still includes suffering and death, even for some children.

But the world is also being constantly renewed.  Life also offers healing, and joy.  Consider the sparrow, the lilies of the field.  There is much to be grateful for. 

And there is hope for an existence beyond the suffering, loss, and beyond death of here and now.  The hope of resurrection.  This hope is not an excuse nor a demand for imposing suffering on self or others.  This hope sustains us as we encounter the world.  As we abide in the world.  As we follow the example of Jesus, offering what we can, when we can, to mitigate suffering, and bring healing and reconciliation.

Beloved Brothers and Sisters of all faiths and persuasions, this holy season of Easter, Passover, and Ramadan, let us remember with humility the physical sacrifice Jesus the human made that night, with the disciples.  Let us consider with humility the suffering and death that exists in this world, at the hands of humans and in the presence of more natural causes like disease and disaster.  And let us, in humility, be inspired to give of ourselves, as representatives of each our own faith and philosophy.  Let us be inspired to love our neighbors.  To bring healing and reconciliation where we can. 

Let us be grateful for those who have the faith and the wherewithall to give of themselves for the protection of others, and yes I’m including police and military who serve for the preservation of peace along with all the teachers, public servants, saints, and martyrs of all faiths who have ever lived.  And if and when we and others fall short of our expectations and hopes, let us be gracious, even as God is Gracious. 

Go out into the world in peace; have courage, hold on to what is good; return no one evil for evil, strengthen the fainthearted; support the weak and help the suffering; honor all people.  Love and serve the Lord, rejoicing in the Light of the Holy Spirit.  The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the Communion of the Holy Spirit be with us all, now and forever.  Alleluia and Amen. 

*** This Insight, with link to video, is available at https://sacredbreeze.org/cult-of-the-martyr/***

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