St. Stephen, Deacon & Martyr – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. Matthew 23:34-39

In Christ Jesus, through whom the lost are the found, the suffering are the blest, and the dead are the victors, dear fellow redeemed:

Jesus’ most pointed criticisms were not directed against the criminals in the community or the pagan Roman rulers. They were directed against the religious leaders of the Jews. This is because they had the Scriptures. They studied them. They should have known who Jesus was by what He did and what He said. But they rejected Him, just as their fathers had rejected God’s prophets before Him.

Stephen clearly identified this pattern of rejection by the people of Israel. He stood boldly before the Jewish council and said, “You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered” (Act. 7:51-52). And because he said that, they stoned Stephen to death.

Why of all the times in the year, are we talking about this on the day after Christmas? Christmas is a time of joy and peace, the time that we remember a sweet Baby lying in a manger and cradled in His mother’s arms. We have just sung “Silent Night” and “Joy to the World.” Why did we suddenly shift to such a troubling topic and such a horrific death?

You might be surprised to hear that the commemoration of St. Stephen has been observed on December 26 for a very long time, perhaps even as far back as the third or fourth century. It was paired with the celebration of the birth of Jesus on purpose. So what were the early church fathers trying to teach by pairing Christmas with the death of Stephen?

They wanted to teach what Christ’s coming into the world meant. It is a lesson that we need to learn and learn again. We don’t get a clear sense from the culture around us how we should view Christmas. Our culture says that “Christmas is about giving”; “Christmas is about family”; “Christmas is about everyone setting aside their differences and coming together”; “Christmas is about cookies and nice feelings and warm traditions.”

Those are all wonderful aspects of our Christmas celebration, but none of them gets to the heart of Christmas. Christmas is the entrance of the perfect God into the world of sinners. Christmas is God making good on His promise not to let the devil prevail over all mankind. Christmas is the incarnate Son of God stepping down into the devil’s dark kingdom and saying, “Here I Am. Take your best shot.”

It’s no surprise that the devil got worked up about this. Adam and Eve didn’t have to listen to him, but they did, so in his mind they were his now. Their kingdoms were his kingdoms; their world was his world. He wasn’t about to give them up without a fight. The fight is what we see playing out in the account of Stephen, and it is exactly what Jesus describes in today’s Gospel reading. Jesus said that the truth would be opposed in the future just as it had always been opposed in the past. Some who spoke the truth would be crucified, some would be flogged, and as we learn on this day, some of God’s faithful confessors would be stoned to death.

Why does Jesus let these things happen? If He has won the victory over the devil through His death and resurrection—and He has—, why do His people suffer like this? His people suffer because they are still in the world. They are not in heaven yet. Here there is trouble, pain, sickness, sorrow, injustice, death. Here the wicked are often rewarded while the good are punished.

What we experience here seems so different than what the angels proclaimed on the night of Jesus’ birth: “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord!” And then in a great chorus, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

Where Is the “Peace on Earth”? Where is the “goodwill toward men”? This is another place where we shouldn’t take our cue from the world. Many love the idea of peace, but they have in mind a different peace than the angels sang about. They want peace among all countries and peoples. They want to put an end to all war and cultivate a society in which all people live in a state of equal opportunity and mutual respect.

Those are all fine goals. But they don’t acknowledge the reality of our sinful condition. If people were basically good, world peace might be attainable. But we’re not. By nature, all of us are prideful and selfish. We don’t want to give way to anyone else. We’re all for peace, we say, but only if it happens on our terms.

The angels proclaimed a different peace. The peace they sang about was Peace wrapped up in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. The peace they sang about was not a vague ideal. It was a Person. Peace had come to earth because Christ had come to earth. He was Peace. Isaiah called Him the “Prince of Peace,” and said, “Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end” (9:6-7).

Jesus’ government is not an earthly government, and His peace is not an earthly peace. Jesus Himself said, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law” (Mat. 10:34-35). Those are hard words. We don’t want to be at odds with those who are closest to us. But if it comes down to sticking with family or sticking with Jesus, family can’t save you. Family can’t overcome the devil. Family can’t atone for your sins. Family can’t raise you back to life when you die.

Only Jesus can do those things. That is the peace He came to bring. He came to make peace between us sinners and the holy God. He Himself had to endure great violence in order to obtain this peace. He was mocked and beaten and flogged and crowned with thorns and nailed to a cross to die a painful death. Not peaceful at all. And yet by His sacrifice, peace was made on our behalf. God’s perfect justice was satisfied. Our debt of sin was paid. Eternal life in heaven was secured for us.

This is why God sent His Son to be conceived and born of a virgin. That little Baby came for no other purpose than to shed His blood for our salvation, to suffer our hell, to die a horrible death in our place. Stephen believed this wholeheartedly. The evangelist Luke described him as “a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit” and “full of grace and power” (Act. 6:5,8). By the working of God, he was able to do “great wonders and signs among the people” (v. 8).

And when some opposed him and tried to discredit him, “they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking” (v. 10). So they decided to tell lies about him, which led to his arrest and his trial before the council. When given the opportunity to defend himself, Stephen did not soft peddle the truth. Like John the Baptizer before him, he did not worry about the effect his words would have on those who heard. He commended himself, his body and soul, and all things into the hands of his merciful Lord.

As the stones reigned down upon him, he called out after the manner of his Savior, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,” and, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Act. 7:59,60). How could he have such peace at a time like that? How could he think so peacefully about his persecutors? It was because he knew “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding” (Phi. 4:7). And so do you.

There is a popular Christmas song that says, “Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me.” But you know that peace does not begin with you or with anyone else on earth. Peace came down from heaven to Bethlehem all those years ago. And that Peace, your incarnate Lord and Savior, still comes to you today.

You don’t find Him now in a manger. You find Him in His Word of Absolution, in Holy Baptism, and in His Sacred Supper. He is here for you wrapped up in words and water and bread and wine. He brings His peace to you, peace for your troubled conscience, peace for your anxious heart and mind. He is your calm in the storm. He is your shield in battle. He comforts you and strengthens you all through your life, so that like Stephen, you are ready to depart in peace.

Stephen was the first Christian to die for the name of Jesus after the founding of the New Testament Church at Pentecost. He willingly gave up peace in the world for peace with God. He was blessed in life, blessed in death, and is now blessed in life eternal. So it is for all who trust in Jesus Christ, the Prince and the Provider of Peace.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.

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(picture from “The Stoning of Stephen” by Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld, 1794-1872)